Something Bush and I agree on

[mburbank]

"I don't think you can win it."

That's what he said about the war on terror. And I totally agree, since terror is a technique and not a state or single defined group.

That's my problem with W and the whole idea that our relationship with terror is a war.

W has made the argument that a president needs and deserves extraordinary, even extraconstitutional powers during war time and then announced we are in a war that can't be won.

No unless he's suggesting we surrender, that means we are at war from now on. He's defined our country as permanently at war, and our commander in chief as being deserving of permanent war time powers. That's the welcome matt at the door of fascism, and it's very reason he's called this a war from the go.

[Burger Lord]

read 1984, and compare it to modern events

[McMock]

Bush is a vain moron. I hate him. He's the most stuck up guy in the world. He's like the stupid kid in your neighbourhood who thinks he's really a ninja at heart. Only, he's the kind of moron who thinks he's fit to be a president. AND THEN FUCKING TURNS INTO ONE AND SHITS ON THE WORLD!

Fucking media hype makes all this possible. Hurray for the advertisement age. When you can use media hype to make every product look like a fucking ten course meal, why bother serving anything other than fresh dogshit?

HURRAY FOR DOGSHIT PRESIDENTS!

[McClain]

I'm willing to bet that you don't know too much about our American president, but that you ridicule him because it's opportune. Most presidents, despite their integrity and qualifications, will merely be a puppet for special interest groups.
I'm sure that post or pre-presidency, if you were afforded the chance to speak with W, you'd probably be quite impressed with him as a person.

[AChimp]

People who claim to hate Bush are just as bad as the ones who support him blindly and think he shits a golden egg each day. He hasn't done anything to really warrant being hated. :/

From a non-American point of view, though, he's the worst president in decades, and the world would be better off without him in a second term. I mean, if you're going to turn the U.S. into a police state ruled by fear, fine... but you don't have to piss everyone off while doing it.

[ArrowX]

I think hes hilarious. He has to take a doctor and 2 secret service agents with him when he rides his bike

[mburbank]

Uh-oh! W and agreed less than 24 hours and he's already flip flopped on the terror war winability issue.

from Reuters

" In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Bush said, "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win.

That statement differed from Bush's earlier comment, aired Monday in a pre-taped television interview, that "I don't think you can win" the war on terror. That had Democrats running for the cameras to criticize Bush for being defeatist and flip-flopping from previous predictions of victory.

[Perndog]

Originally Posted by Burger Lord

read 1984, and compare it to modern events

Wow, I've never heard that one.

You are really deep.

[ziggytrix]

Originally Posted by AChimp

People who claim to hate Bush are just as bad as the ones who support him blindly and think he shits a golden egg each day. He hasn't done anything to really warrant being hated. :/

I think he's despicable. Is that just as bad?

[punkgrrrlie10]

Well we need a war-it's good for the economy...after we won the war on drugs....oh wait..

nevermind.

[kellychaos]

The Romans used the discipline of military formations to win. Later Ghengis Khan was among the first warriors to use calvary. Later still the English used long bows to defeat the French. Behind every major shift of power, there is a basic social/scientific revolution, of sorts, that determines who the next in power will be. I believe that technology is the modern equivalent to the crossbow. Ideals bind these terrorists more than any sense of nationalism ... meaning that they can come from anywhere at any time. That's frightening enough. Add to that the fact that, as the U.S.S.R. was going broke and couldn't pay it's own military, it became a virtual black flea market of advanced weaponry for some very unscrupulous people. Combine that with the fact that modern communication, transportation, ect allow terror to happen with fewer people and resources than you have the fact that any idiot with enough money can basically buy power and use it at a whim. I can't exactly form my whole thought coherently but you get the jist.

[Miss Modular]

Bush is a flip-flopper!

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...sh_3&printer=1

By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - President Bush (news - web sites) said repeatedly on Tuesday that the United States will win its war against terrorism, trying to contain political damage from the doubt he expressed a day earlier.

"We may never sit down at a peace table, but make no mistake about it, we are winning and we will win," Bush told 6,500 veterans at an American Legion convention.

"We will win by staying on the offensive, we will win by spreading liberty," Bush told the veterans.

The president was trying to douse the criticism he touched off Monday when NBC aired an interview in which he was asked if the United States could win the war on terror and he answered, "I don't think you can win it."

He added, in the interview, "I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."

Democrats hit hard at Bush's comment for a second day.

"The president has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites).

"George Bush (news - web sites) might be able to read a speech saying we can win the war on terror, but as we saw (Monday), he's clearly got real doubts about his ability to do so, and with good reason."

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., campaigning through Tennessee at Bush's side, saw no problem.

"What he meant was, we're never going to have a peace signing on the Missouri, we're never going to have a signing at Panmunjom," McCain said.

McCain was referring to the battleship where the Japanese signed surrender papers that ended World War II, and the "truce village" where adversaries met to sign the armistice that halted the Korean War.

Bush himself said in a radio interview with talk show host Rush Limbaugh, "I probably needed to be more articulate."

The anti-terrorism campaign dominated Bush's travels through Tennessee, Iowa and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, just as they dominated the Republican National Convention where he will accept the party's nomination for a second term in New York City Thursday night.

Bush planned to visit firefighters and supporters in New York Wednesday night.

On the campaign trail, Bush defended his decision to make the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the centerpiece of his re-election effort.

"Sept. 11 is a defining moment in our history, and it's certainly a defining moment in my presidency, and the question is whether or not we learned the lessons," Bush told Limbaugh.

The president added a new warning: "One of the most dangerous parts of this new war is that if the enemy were ever to acquire the capacity to use a weapon of mass destruction it would make Sept. 11 — it would pale in comparison."

Bush's speech to the American Legion came in his 10th trip to Tennessee and marked his latest attempt to court the millions of U.S. veterans.

Democrat Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, has emphasized his military service in the Vietnam War, and he was to speak to the Legionnaires on Wednesday.

Several veterans said in interviews here that they favored Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam years.

"Right now I believe the captain of the ship is guiding us and I don't feel we should change captains in the middle of a war," said Delfo Barabani, an American Legion member from Chicopee, Mass. Barabani said he believed Kerry had gone to Vietnam to lay the groundwork for his future political career.

The president told the veterans what many of them most wanted to hear: that he supports a constitutional amendment "to protect the flag from desecration." The group listed the issue at the top of its legislative priorities.

"Our fighting men and women are serving America under a proud flag, and that flag should be cherished and protected," Bush said, drawing his longest, loudest ovation.

From Tennessee, Bush flew to Alleman, Iowa — his 15th trip to the state he lost in 2000 — to attend the 2004 Farm Progress Show.

Then he was off to Pennsylvania, another state he lost four years ago, for the 33rd time of his presidency — for a late-night "family-style picnic." While there, Bush was making his first "appearance" at the New York convention. Using a videoconference device, he was introducing wife Laura for her speech to the delegates.

[Helm]

special interest groups

You're talking about "lobbies", right? Pressure groups?

[The_Rorschach]

In context, he said a war on terror could not be won, however the actions of terrorists could be restricted and his aim to keep them from operating upon American soil. A rather lucid, and responsible statement.

Its not a flip flop, per se, simply an instance in which our President once again failed to be represented fairly do his own inability to clearly state his position. He does not presume to end terrorist actions all over the globe - in fact he even specifies in the article above 'parts of the world' -, only in the safekeeping of American lives, properties and interests.

Come on. Pot shots are easy, ya'll can do better

[mew barios]

bush likes little boys

[Zhukov]

Originally Posted by kellychaos

Add to that the fact that, as the U.S.S.R. was going broke and couldn't pay it's own military,

The USSR didn't go broke.

any idiot with enough money can basically buy power and use it at a whim.

Hasn't that always been the case?


And when did "Flip-flop" become a word? It's shit.

[mburbank]

"A rather lucid, and responsible statement. "

Both of those and revealing as well. I don't fault him at all, it's the truth of the matter and everyone knows it, and I feel the Democrats angle of attack is absurd.

MY point of attack, not potshot at all, is that by defining this unwinable (in any traditional sense of the word) situation as a war and assuming war powers, he is actually asking for a vast, permanent increase in presidential power without ever saying it. THAT is dishonest, disengenous, dangerous, and since I'm sure they don't intend that kind of far reaching power for any democrat who ever gets elected, it's not anything more than a raw power grab. He is steadily undermining the system of checks and balances that are what keep the American Experiment from failing.

[Father §p@z]

Originally Posted by William Shakespeare

His will is not his own!

That's right Bill, it's Dick Cheney's

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by Burger Lord

read 1984, and compare it to modern events

[The_Rorschach]

This experiment is already over. It ended much as Athens did before it. All we need now is a dictator to assume control and America as she was concieved will be well and truly buried friend.

Not that I in any way giving up, but I think the war to conduct purity control over the political climate ended before most people realized there was a threat.

[kellychaos]

Actually, Sparta was the first know democracy and probably closer to the United States' format than Athens.