SOTU

[Michael Tee]

<<Looking forward to the thousand fold 9-11 an the thousandfold wrath of the US responding after that.>>

Well, there's a constructive approach to the problem.  The never-ending cycle of violence and revenge.  Actually, the thousandfold wrath of the mighty U.S. doesn't seem able to subdue either Afghanistan or Iraq but it does promise to bring the U.S. to its knees economically.  The one good thing is that the dollar is now trading around the loony's level, which helps a lot when we visit the U.S. 

<<President Hillary will be compelled to do at least as well as her predicessor. >>

OTOH, she might pleasantly surprise me and actually avert some of the wrath by pulling out the fascist aggressors before those thugs can do any more damage.

[The_Professor]

I do wonder if it was a mistake to go in to a major country, when Afghanistan based Taliban/Al Queda terroritsts were the true culprit back in Sept. 2001.

The lightbulbs have slowly been coming on all across America...

I have to say that he probably had no idea what he was getting into back then...and THAT bothers me, Sirs.

He didn't...it should.

It bothers me at this time--4 year later,  but what can we do about it all.....it's too late.
Now, we must slow the tank down? Get out of town?
what?
YOu know they hold educators to a standard......we are to provide children strategies to grasp concepts, idea and knowledge.  Where were the "best practices"  strategies for entering into this war? They failed miserably on that front, imo. Bush's cohorts did not have the first idea of how to fight a war in the middle east. They fail.

If Bush were help accountable for such lack of provisions....he would be left behind and booted without pay.

I supported the effort to fight back a few years ago. I supported the effort to rid the middle east of tyrants who kill women and children. I supported the change in the way we take care of our own nation in terms of security......but the war in Iraq seems to only have deeped wounds. Osama is still on the loose. Yes, we have had the luck to counter the terrorism in this country, unllike Spain, England and other places around the world since 9-11....but I fear that soldiers have died for a dream that Bush/Cheney held dear to their hearts---the fight.

I support the ideas that bring peace in the world. I support war in the case of fighting back, but where are we headed now?

Deep dept. That's what scares me the most. The cost of all of this has to be outrageous.

We need to reorganize in this nation of ours on many levels.

BT, you say have patience, but in all honesty, patience doesn't pay the bills, unless you have a great idea how we can get out of such a war dept.

"Bush's cohorts did not have the first idea of how to fight a war in the middle east. They fail. "

Actually, this is incorrect. We won the military take-over, namkely we kicked their butt on the field, militarily, in the opening ays of tjhe conflict It has been everything after that, namely trying to govern the country, that has apparently failed miserably...sigh.

[The_Professor]

Cost of Iraq war = 4 % of gdp

Total defense spending in 2006 will probably be around 4 percent of gross national product, notes Mr. Cordesman. The average since 1992 for this measure has been 3.6 percent.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0519/p01s03-usmi.html



Cost of wwii = 38 % of gdp
http://www.antiwar.com/henderson/?articleid=8727

How much is Amtrak and PBS? Yet we always hear bitching to cut funding for those. 

Yep, too bad we still are funding those insurgency entities. Amtrak still loses money. Needs to be shut down like any, Heave forbid, BUSINESS, if it can't atleast break enoguh. The time for passenger trains has passed...please, let it die....

And if PBS cannot survive as a BUSINESS either, fuggedaboutit.

[The_Professor]

We just watched thousands of our citizens die nearly instantaneously when the planes hit, and when the towers came down.

I wanted to reply to this, as well.
I realize that we watched so many people die at the hand of an evil set of terrorizing bastards.....but my point wasn't that we shouldn't have gone to war...my question was about Iraq specifically.

Did Saddam claim responsibility for 9-11?

I realize this horse has been beaten to death . . . . .

To folks like Sirs, that particular equine metaphor has no meaning whatsoever.

Perhaps you saw the excellent movie "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada?"

A closer metaphor, I can tell you. `

yep, we all watch movies whose titles we cannot even pronounce...geeeesh!

[Michael Tee]

Mel. Key. Ah. Dess

Ess-trah-duh.

[fatman]

Actually Prof, I'd recommend that movie.  It has Tommy Lee Jones and has a very Cormac McCarthyesque feel to it.

[The_Professor]

Aw, I was just harassing him for fun! 

Hey, if someone can watch a movie while at the same time driving an 18-wheeler down an interstate, I admire him/her! I KNEW there was some reason they came out with those portable DVD players!

    

[BT]

Actually Prof, I'd recommend that movie.  It has Tommy Lee Jones and has a very Cormac McCarthyesque feel to it.

I agree. Tommy Lee Jones directed it, i believe.

[Plane]

<<Looking forward to the thousand fold 9-11 an the thousandfold wrath of the US responding after that.>>

Well, there's a constructive approach to the problem.  The never-ending cycle of violence and revenge.  Actually, the thousandfold wrath of the mighty U.S. doesn't seem able to subdue either Afghanistan or Iraq but it does promise to bring the U.S. to its knees economically.  The one good thing is that the dollar is now trading around the loony's level, which helps a lot when we visit the U.S. 

<<President Hillary will be compelled to do at least as well as her predicessor. >>

OTOH, she might pleasantly surprise me and actually avert some of the wrath by pulling out the fascist aggressors before those thugs can do any more damage.

Keep track of where we are.
The promised attacks on us haven't happened yet because why ? Does the Al Queda lack for motivation?

Hillary could withdraw , This seems likely enough , Then we would get the renewed attack and Hillary would be compelled to out do her predecessor in vengeance.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Withdrawing from Iraq would not have any effect on Al Qaeda attacks in the US. The 9-11 attacks could have been easily avoided if only the CIA and FBI had had more imaginative people with even a small number of people who understood the Arab world.

[sirs]

Withdrawing from Iraq would not have any effect on Al Qaeda attacks in the US. The 9-11 attacks could have been easily avoided if only the CIA and FBI had had more imaginative people with even a small number of people who understood the Arab world.

Too bad the prior administration did so much to strip the communication between the 2, and rendering much of their tactics inappropriate and not to be used.  Otherwise, it's very plausible it could have been prevented.  Thanks, Bill     

[Xavier_Onassis]

The CIA and FBI were not separated by Clinton, but by the Church Committee way back in the 1970's, due to abuse by the Nixon administration. so it's not thanks Bill, it's thanks Trickydicky 

[Cynthia]

Bush's cohorts did not have the first idea of how to fight a war in the middle east. They fail. "


In the long term, I still believe they had not the best plan.

[hnumpah]

Too bad the prior administration did so much to strip the communication between the 2, and rendering much of their tactics inappropriate and not to be used.  Otherwise, it's very plausible it could have been prevented.  Thanks, Bill     

The FBI and the CIA have always had different charters. The FBI is charged with investigating federal crimes in the US and it's territories, and the CIA is charged with performing their operations outside the US and is was not allowed to operate in the US at all, according to their charter. One of the reasons for keeping them from sharing information was to prevent the CIA from getting FBI information on domestic investigations that were not in their charter. This rule was pretty much followed until J. Edgar died, because he hated the CIA and thought the FBI should be the only agency to handle domestic and foreign spying. After his death, this rule was ignored more and more often, until, as XO pointed out, the Church committee got involved.

[_JS]

Guys, quit confusing Sirs with facts. He wants to blame Clinton for everything and then charge all of you with Blame Bush Syndrome, or some such nonsense when you say anything negative about the past seven years.

Didn't you know that the economy is rosy and the massive hordes of evil terrorists trying to destroy our freedoms are being held at bay!