It snowed today, beautiful big flakes. When I walked out to get the mail, I tried to catch some on my tongue like when I was a child. It didn't stick as it would fall heavily for a bit and then turn to rain. It was a good day for having a fire in the fireplace which I did, for lighting candles, which I also did, but not a good day to listen to President Bush give a speech on what comes next in Iraq but that I also did because I felt I should.I never felt we should have gone into Iraq. I don't trust Bush. I feel that interfering with another country's government is not the business of our country, but it's how it's going to be as nobody can stop him-- unless the military said no and he removed the general who disagreed. So it's going to happen and I did listen to his plan and saw that it had some hopes in it. If the Iraqi military will really step up to bat, if the Iraqi people will support an increase in violence for a future that is brighter, if we really do provide jobs and encourage work programs, if we don't let our corporations take 75% of the Iraqi oil wealth for the next 30 years. If this really was about us helping them and not hoping to profit, maybe...
Until the end of his speech, I was with him-- okay, there was no trust-- but thinking well what else can we do and then he got sanctimonious with the talk of we owe them liberty and that it's because of the author of liberty. Does Bush truly understand his Bible and know that slavery was okay in Israel for a long time? Does he know that liberty is no part of the Christian program either? It's do it that way or go to hell. I was frustrated to hear him espouse what is clearly designed to appeal to emotions instead of real programs but given it's Bush, what real hope was that it would be otherwise?
I hope this works. I truly do because to hope otherwise would be insane, but I am afraid that even if for a temporary time it can stop the violence, as soon as we pull back, it will again escalate. Still I do hope for the sake of all those who will be paying a higher price for this than salvaging a reputation.
The photograph from late this afternoon is attempting to capture some photos of snow as it fell. The flash highlighted the flakes. It was too dark, but on the other hand, maybe that snowy scene does depict what we are seeing as we try to peer into the distance, hoping for the best, but unable to be sure of what's out there.
15 comments:
Ah, two minds with similar thoughts, Rain. I posted my post and then went to read you--voila. Well thought out and written. And neither of us called names or became partisan, although I suppose there will be those readers who think we are.
I can't even listen to him anymore. "I hope" along with you - but don't have much faith left in this.
One would like to believe that there is something to be salvaged from this. One needs to believe that we haven't destroyed so many and so much to no purpose.
We'll see.
I think this is our last hope for anything meaningful out of this mess. If the troop surge does not get any results then it is time to pull back to the perimeter of the country and let them go at each other.
On another topic. Do you have any comment on the price of oil dropping to $51 a barrel today. I thought the only reason the price was going down was because all of W's cronies were manipulating the price to lower it before the election to help the republicans. Maybe someone needs to tell them the election was over 2 months ago. Maybe John Kerry needs to hold some hearings to find out how the price could have dropped over $25 in such a short time frame. Its those evil oil companies I tell you. So much for all the alternative energy talk. When the price was in the high $70s one of the big alternaive compaines said they could still earn a profit even if oil dropped to as low as $54. I guess we will all go back to driving SUVs again and park those Prius's
Oh another thing. What happened to all the Dems in Congress that said we need more troops in Iraq. Now that Bush is sending more troops they are saying they are going to block the funding for them. The politicians in this country are just sickening. "I voted for the war before I voted against it, I support the troops but not the war, I dont support funding for the troops." Which one is it, make up your mind and take a stand.
If we pull out of Iraq now we will be back, it maybe 5 or 10 or 15 years but we will be back and we will go with 600,000 soldiers and will cost a lot more than it did this time in money and lives. Maybe it will take a Dem president to do it. They seem to get a pass when they start or escalate a war.
How could we someday be required to send over half a million troops into Iraq? Possibly if we want to occupy it to get the oil and protect the big oil companies who need us to pay for their profits because we aren't willing to develop alternatives to that oil. Could we have to invade a sovereign nation because the people there vote in a free election and it's a Khomeni type who they elect who then hates us and that's reason enough to invade them? That might end up being all across the Middle East after this president has done what he has. Are you finally eager for more taxes to pay for it or do you want to push the payment onto your grandchildren as it's currently being paid for in our children's blood? I find it mind boggling that you would not understand how more troops earlier might have been helpful but now it's too late. I like you as a person, but you have to be getting your ideas on this from talk radio because it makes no logical sense to me at all!
Boy I kind of went on a rant there didnt I. Yes I know that more troops were required earlier. Bush 41 knew that and that is why he sent 500,000+ in Gulf 91. He knew overwhelming fire power was the answer and did not want a repeat of Vietnam. W talked about shock and awe but then when the Iraqi military folded so easily he tried to do war lite to try and keep the Iraqi casulties down and not get crucified by the media. It turns out that many mistakes were made during the prosecution of the war and now we have a huge mess that there does not seem to be a good solution for. But to say that more troops was a good idea 8 months ago but now it is too late does not make any sense. Things have not changed that much since summer time.
Absolutely gorgeous, Rain. I've looked at the photos over and over. It is snowing in our mountains, too, but not raining here yet.
I don't know which politicians said that. Perhaps you should put some direct quotes in here with where you got it for context. John McCain called for more than 30,000 additional.
I can see why some might say they needed more military period given how tight the men are stretched with going back even 3 or 4 times. Does that make sense to anybody but someone like Bush who is trying to protect his reputation?
Did you see his tears at that function to honor the guy who sacrificied his life for his comrades (if you didn't trust Bush, you'd think it was really just another photo-op, but since you do, you don't think that about him that he'd be so low but one of the guys on TV who had been given such a medal-- alive-- he thought it)? That photo has been on Drudge like the Humanitarian in Chief. If that had been Clinton you all would have been saying how phony it was.
This whole thing right now is do you trust Bush or not? You do and therefore the fact that he put an airforce guy in charge of the military in Iraq doesn't worry you. The fact that he's put a carrier into the gulf there doesn't worry you because you probably are thrilled he's aiming to attack Iran (of course, you won't want much higher taxes to cover any of that). You will trust him again when he says there are secret reasons for this. You will trust he will manage this war better than the last.
It's okay with you that he doesn't believe he needs the okay of the Congress or the rest of us to enlarge this war to include two new countries. You feel that way because you must trust him. Me, I don't trust the man one tiny little bit! And I'm sick at what he's done to this country in some kind of misbegotten sense he's George Washington... I wonder why he didn't get the message from all those biographies he reads on Washington that Washington was a real warrior-- not a phony wantabe hero, who wants to be it without ever doing anything brave first.
I hear some say Bush has power and we are just jealous of that. Well, Bush has power because of first who his father was and what his office is-- which is the military might of this country thanks to the misbegotten stupids in Congress who voted to give him that blank check-- at least in his mind it has been that. But despite all that power arrayed with him, he personally does not have it. He is a weak man, a man who is purposely ignorant of what he does, who operates from a gut instinct, who believes in God talking directly to him and making sure everything he does is blessed. He has as much of a messiah coming again soon theology as the nut in charge of Iran and that's scary right now!
Wow, take some deep breaths and look at the snow for a while :-). Ok I was kind of crabby when I was ranting yesterday. Do you really believe that Bush is as dangerous of a religious nut as the guy in Iran? And Bush doesnt need to do things just to protect his reputation he is term limited out and is not going to be re-elected. Sure he would like to have a good approval rating, who wouldnt, but I think he is doing what he thinks is the right thing in the long term for world security. We cannot just bend over and keep taking it from these tin horn dictators. It will just keep escalating until there are 1 or 2 million Americans killed in an attack. Look at Bin Laden, everyone knew he was a bad guy and everyone knew the Taliban were bad guys and doing all kinds of terrible things in Afghanistan, but nobody would step up and do anything about it. And the attacks kept up and kept getting bigger until we finally got a president that said enough, it is time to kick some ass.
I have not seen the photo op with W so I dont have an opinion as to whether it looked real or fake. He is a politician so odds are that it could have been fake, but when he was at ground zero with the firefighters I beleive that was real and I believe most of his concern for soldiers is real. Fake was when Clinton was walking out of Ron Browns funeral laughing and he saw the camera and in 3 seconds he started crying. I have seen that video. Or when Clinton was on the beach for the D-day commemoration and just happened upon the only rocks for 500 yards on the beach and formed them into a cross for the cameras to see. Now Oklahoma City I believe that might have been real emotion from Clinton.
Tiptoeing quietly back into my blogwalk....
;)
You trust Bush. I do not. We could discuss this all day but it'd come back to that. Everything you said goes back to thinking his purposes are noble, that if he's made mistakes they are honest ones, etc etc... I do not see him that way at all and see no reason to keep repeating my opinion. I have no use for him, don't respect his motives and you are the absolute opposite. How could we ever agree on it? Everything, and I do mean everything, you said about what he's done, I see at a polar opposite. It's how the country is right now.
As for Christians who claim to be born again-- which Bush has said he is-- they believe in Armageddon and that the Messiah will come again. check it out. It's a very similar belief to the Iranian leader for the fundamentalism at its base. When they asked Bush (early on with this war) if he had asked his father for his insights. He said he talks to a different father. You tell me what that means. I certainly hope I am wrong about Bush because what happens next could be worse than what has gone before -- by the way, how do you figure attacking Iraq in the beginning figured into the terrorist attacks? Bush planned that attack and only used 9/11 as an excuse. He implies that it relates but it never did to start and hard to say how much it does now. Iraq was a secular country, in embargo, limited in power and not in cahoots with bin Laden. Now it's a total mess with who knows what potential. And that is thanks to Bush, not a war on terrorism but some idea in Bush's head and who knows from where. Maybe his heavenly Father?
Good points. I hope you are wrong about W also. If he is that big of a religous fanatic then that scares the hell out of me too.
Otherwise we will just have to agree to disagree having beat this topic to death.
Switching gears I heard today that new queen Pelosi got an expemption to the new minimum wage for American Samoa (the only US territory exempted) and also home to the largest tuna cannery in the world that is owned by Del Monte Foods which is headquartered in Madam Speakers home town of San Francisco. The current wage at the tuna cannery is $3.60 an hour and this exemption will give them an unfair advantage over the other major US canneries in Puerto Rico and California.
So much for her big speech about dirty government being over and no special deals for political friends.
Most people who I know voted Democrat last elections did so because the Republicans has abused power, always were in lock step with Bush and deserved to have what they had done overseen because corruption was rampant. Nobody liked the alternative but it was the lesser of evils. Now if the democrats don't do what they say, if they play the same games, then I and many like me will be voting them back out and hoping independents come next. I do not know anything about the situation in American Samoa; so cannot comment on why she did that, whether she had some corrupt payoff or whether that would have ended the plants even being there and throw people on the job. I know a lot of investment has gone overseas and favor what Edwards said that if he gets in NAFTA will be on its way out. We need fair trade, not free trade and we shall see how the Democrats fare on that. I trust nobody very much who is in politics. It's a corrupt business. The worst of them rise to the top
Very well written but I'm almost ashamed to admit my "hope" in this situation is quickly dissipating. Very quickly. The more I hear, the less hope I seem to have. I certainly don't have the answers,but deep inside I truly feel Bush doesn't have them either. My feeling....get out now. Nothing's going to change...except perhaps saving some of our troops lives. They're in a horrible situation!
Great analogy with the photo and the subject.
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