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I Weep for this Country
Literally. I cried myself to sleep last night and my eyes are leaking again today. I don't know what people are thinking. I don't know how they can look at that idiot and see a "leader" of any kind. A draft-dodging drug using party boy who has alway cheated to win. Looks like we're in for four more years of tax breaks for the wealthy and young men dying in the name of...oil.
I just don't understand. All I know is I'm going to encourage my son to marry his fiance as soon as possible. I don't trust the idiot not to reinstate the draft and my child is not going. He has a baby to take care of. I won't give up my child to an unjust war.
Anyway, I'm still shell-shocked. I don't know how I'm going to concentrate at work today. Because I will look at the people around me and wonder--why?
I just don't understand. All I know is I'm going to encourage my son to marry his fiance as soon as possible. I don't trust the idiot not to reinstate the draft and my child is not going. He has a baby to take care of. I won't give up my child to an unjust war.
Anyway, I'm still shell-shocked. I don't know how I'm going to concentrate at work today. Because I will look at the people around me and wonder--why?
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(Anonymous) 2004-11-03 07:05 am (UTC)(link)I have told Joe to maintain his duel citizenship (in Canada). If the next 4 years are anything like the last 4, I am terrified as to where our beloved country will be then.
Remember James will be turning 18 during this next term.
Re: The Military
WMDs, anyone? Anyone...? Bueller?
And where is Osama? Hmm? We have his "good friend" Saddam. Gosh, I feel so safe now that he won't be purchasing any more solid gold fixtures for his palace.
How many lives are enough?
Re: The Military
Ok granted Bush is not a great choice, but apparently the majority of the U.S. thought, as I did, he was a better choice than Kerry, whom has betrayed the country he is running for. I fail to see why anyone who doesnt believe in American values can even run for president, or even represent a party.
Secondly, being a veteran in the United States Air Force, (which by the way is an Armed Forces branch), if I am not mistaken (and I am not), ANY Armed Force Branch, (National Guard included), has a duty to protect the interests of the United States of America.
Be it for what interests, you have developed an opinion that this is for oil, since you listen to the media and have them make up your mind instead of coming to intelligent conclusion, in which the President himself, was given the intelligence information from our CIA and other agencies, and based on his intelligent information, made a very tough choice to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to further prevent attacks on our great nation. Now please dont tell me that you thought for one second that our President did not take all the consequences into consideration before sending his volunteer force overseas. Even Kerry himself has said two or three times (I havent been keeping track of how many times he changed his mind) that he supported the decision to disarm Saddam Hussein. Now the question you have to ask yourself, do you believe what Kerry said then or what he said now, or even what he said over 30 years ago, what he thinks about wars?
America has made its choice. It has kicked out Tom Daschle(sp?), made the Republican party the majority leader in both the House and Senate and re-elected President Bush for four more years. Not only that, President Bush has received a majority vote, something that Bill Clinton couldnt even accomplish, even against Dole.
Now you can weep and be scared all you want (for what reason...), or you can let your voice be heard and tell your representatives what you want to see changed in our great country. Our President and our Representatives are in Washington D.C. now to work for the people. But please dont come to such conclusions such as those who are over in Iraq are not there because President Bush sent them there, they are there because they raised their right hand and solemnly swore to defend the country. And I myself would rather be over there right now under President Bush's leadership, rather than being in a commercial air plane in the United States with Kerry as our president, and I believe the majority of the Americans felt the same way.
Re: The Military
Second...
"A draft-dodging drug using party boy"...
Wasn't that Clinton??
And I'd like to mention that Bush didn't DODGE anything, he served in the National Guard... Clinton never served and IS actually a draft-dodger...
Third...
But this isn't about Clinton and Bush or Kerry and Bush...
This isn't even about winning and losing...
It's not about good or evil, blood or oil, war or peace, or even right and left...
It is about right and wrong. Would you rather this baby of yours be blown up in a one of the largest building(s) in the entire country from terrorists thinking they can assault our civilian population unchecked? Would you rather wake up to news that some building your family works in was destroyed with car bombs? Or perhaps killed by a terrorist sniper IN OUR OWN COUNTRY?
I doubt it, but hey...
Fourth...
Saddam = Evil Dictator. End of discussion.
Fifth...
Do not call us morons or idiots. We have firm, rational thoughts about what we say and do, just like you... I do not beget you your right to vote (or even your right to complain, because you voted)... But it's done. We've gloated all we need to thanks to the Gloat Fest from Glenn Beck, and we are back to being reasonable people once more. And with high turn out and high margins for winning, I don't see how you can really point at over half of us and say "You all are idiots" when we got our guy elected. We obviously did SOMETHING intelligent and voted. I would not be complaining -that- much if Kerry got elected, and you shouldn't complain so much about Bush.
Sixth...
WMD's? Korea has a nuke now, should we go to war with them next? That's what you're telling me with that argument...
Seventh...
I don't see YOU out looking for Osama, putting yourself in the path of danger and never knowing when a terrorist is going to car bomb or snipe you. So until you are over there looking, I really think it is unfair to assail our armed forces for not having found him yet.
Eighth...
At least John Kerry did the right thing and let it go, instead of dragging us through recount after recount after recount.
Ninth...
Election is over, results are in, try to live with it. I mean cmon, this is still the greatest country on the face of the Earth. And it is for that reason you should be happy regardless of the results. Rape, murder, and stealing are not going to suddenly become legal because Kerry lost (though that does not mean lawyers may not get people off for them)... There isn't going to be a draft, jeez, how can you even THINK there would be a draft?
Tenth...
Just go about your daily life, stop watching so much TV. Voters have spoken and even if you doubt the intelligence of over half of the United States citizens, they spoke louder and in bigger numbers. If Kerry had won, I'd be writing this to calm MYSELF down, so I hope it helps you too.
Re: The Military
I just want to make it known to those who have a negative outlook on war and why we are over there, that it IS necessary to keep them from attacking us. Yes, Iraq is a mess, something must be done to correct it. I have full faith in President Bush that he will take the next four years to make changes necessary for the best interests of our country. You have a right to your opinion, but your feelings that we are idiots for putting him back in office was an emotional comment and not one based on common sense. Now that we have radicals such as Daschle out of office, we can start getting things passed to fix the domestic issues in the United States. All I ask is give him a chance to work for you and you will feel better about yourself and your country.
Re: The Military
Second, I DID lose collegues in the attack on the World Trade Center, so how dare you. Our company had a branch office on the 101st floor of Tower One and eleven of our people died that day. Do not attempt to preach to me about loss from a terrorist attack, because I know of such loss first hand.
I have no problem going after the ACTUAL terrorists who attacked our country, or their followers, but there is no evidence that ANY of them were in Iraq. Until after we invaded.
Saddam Hussain was only a threat to his own people. Iraq under Saddam was not an Islamic fundamentalist stronghold. Before 9/11, the official position of the Bush Administration and Congress and the UN was that although the Iraquis were resisting inspections; the restrictions and inspections and sanctions HAD worked and Iraq DID NOT have WMDs. Once we were going after the terrorists in Afganistan, then it was just easier to go after Iraq--so W could go finish what his daddy started. BTW, W's administration includes Dick Cheaney, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld all of whom served under his daddy and had a score to settle with Hussain. It's a bonus that the corporate interests served by Bush are reaping the benefits of the "reconstruction" unilateral invasion. The irony is, during the first Gulf war, we were a part of a coillition of countries who responded to a unilateral invasion of Kuwait.
I would say that because 55 million people voted AGAINST W, that he doesn't have a "concensus". George Bush has NOT been given a mandate. He HAS NOT captured the hearts and minds of ALL of the American public. He THINKS he has, but he is mistaken.
Since this is MY LJ, and I wrote ONE paragraph about my disappointment--I wouldn't call that complaining "so much". And I did not call anyone a "moron" or an "idiot". When I typed my rant, I used an unfortunate turn of phrase "people I thought were intelligent", which I edited out. I should have said, "grossly misled".
The entire reasoning given for going into Iraq in the first place was "they have WMDs." We are not talking about North Korea (who DOES have them), or China (who ALSO does) or even Pakistan (scary thought, isn't it?). All of those countries HAVE WMDs and two out of three of those are run by "brutal dictators". To my way of thinking, it makes as much sense to invade those countries as it did to invade Iraq.
Our armed forces have not found Osama yet, because they are not looking for him. They are too busy dodging the car bombs and snipers in Iraq.
John Kerry condeding shows just how classy he is.
How can I be happy when our civil rights are being slowly eaten away? The so-called "Patriot" Act, gives the government the right to suspend Habeas Corpus if they suspect you of being a terrorist. They can put any type of behavior under the list of "suspect" activities, and then they can tap your phone, search your house, monitor your internet connection...
That may sound like paranoia and conspiracy theory, but that is what the "Patriot" act does. What we are being told to do is "trust the government" they are only looking for terrorist activity. The right-wing "right-minded" high moral standards they pretend to represent (which are outlined by John Ashcroft) enables them to call all kinds of things you have the right to do "suspect behavior". They want you to think like they think. They believe their "morality" is the ONLY morality. For example, civil unions are now against the law.
End of part the first...
Re: The Military
As far as "How can I even THINK there would be a draft"--it has already been discussed in Congress, that's how. And that was before the election. Now that Congress has an even larger Republican majority; and since Bush thinks he now has a mandate to do what he sees fit to "fight terrorism"--and since he believes the American people support the war in Iraq--why shouldn't he think that a draft (whatever it may be termed) is an impossibility? What's happened, while it isn't a "true draft", is that service men and women who had finished their "official" obligations have been called back into service. And their terms/tours of duty have been extended. And while it's not "officially" conscription, it is an unfair recycling of our military personnel. These "modifications" to members of the National Guard and Reserve personnel's tours of duty is due to the obvious fact that the military STILL does not have a grasp on the situation in Iraq. When they entered Baghdad, they did not have enough forces to control the situation and to protect the Iraqis from insurgents from other countries who came in to fill the power vacuum. Since then, the military has had forces strung out and endangered to the point where there has been disobedience and "mutiny" that we know of and most probably that we do not know of. When we speak of betrayal, having forces under-manned and under-gunned and under-armored and without a clear plan of resolution---then WHO is betraying WHOM? The military is having trouble recruiting enough people to man their "volunteer" fighting force. If this situation in Iraq continues, there WILL be an excuse for a draft.
I have formed my conclusions and understanding of the situations by checking the facts and not letting any certain political party's ideology and official platform tell me that the media is right or wrong. In the case of the Fox News Network, we see the opposite of the so-called "liberal agenda" in the media. I do not depend on television for the majority of my information. Nor do I depend upon any political party to tell me what to think. The Bush administration expects everyone to just believe everything they say and not to question it. If everyone would just accept everything they say as the truth--everything would be fine. And that is NOT what a democracy is all about.
The real problem with the administration's insistence that Bush has the answer to the terrorist question is: What happens when there is another large-scale terrorist attack that they are incapable of preventing? Their position was that a vote for Kerry was a vote that questioned the security of the United States. The only real effect the Homeland Security measures have had is to keep Aunt Bertha from bringing her knitting needles on a plane. And the subsequent debilitation of the airline industry. And the impact that has had on the economy.
Bush only won by 20 electoral votes and that 55 MILLION voted against him. The American people have spoken and what they've said is: We are not sure.
Our nation is split down the middle about what the so-called "American Agenda" should be. And instead of stepping back and re-examining; the Bush administration and Congress seem to be taking the election results as a seal of approval on the status quo. And that is simply not the case.
I'm not angry about the election results, I'm very disappointed and very, very scared.
And this is all I'm going to say about this subject.
Re: The Military
grossly misled....
Regarding the "draft dodging" performed by Mr. Bush, I'll point this out: Bush volunteered to join the Guard. His daddy may or may not have pulled some strings to get him into the pilot training program of the Air National Guard, but G.W. still had to pass all the tests to finish the training. He then flew F-102s. The F-102 was one of the most dangerous fixed wing fighters to fly. Also, when Bush was in the National Guard, we were still at the height of the Cold War and the Soviet Union was constantly flying into US air space with recon aircraft as well as bombers. The F-102 was commonly used to interdict the Soviet aircraft and fly as an "escort", though they were mostly there to be ready to shoot them down if they started acting up. Bush may not have had to do this, but it is not out of the question for it to have been asked of him at some point. Every time he strapped on that F-102 and took off, he was taking a chance, Soviets or no.
The National Guard has been called to active duty over seas since it's inception in 1913. Remember reading about World War 1 or World War II? National Guard units fought overseas in both of those wars. The National Guard can be federalized, at which point it becomes part of the United States military. Anyone who joins the National Guard with the idea that they'll never be sent overseas hasn't paid attention to their history books.
Finding a six foot tall Arab on dialysis has proven more difficult than one would expect, but I assure you that American soldiers are still looking for him. While some units were pulled out of Afghanistan to go into Iraq, other units replaced them. The Russians worked for a decade trying to turn the Afghan people into subjects. We've been in there for three years and barely that.
WMDs. Saddam had WMDs. They were gone by the time we got in there. How long they had been gone? I don't know. Saddam had from the early 1990s to move them. If he was smart, he moved them to Syria, or through it to the Beka Valley in Lebanon. A decade and more than a dozen UN resolutions didn't make him give them up.
WMDs were not the only reason to go into Iraq. After 9/11, Bush gave a speech in which he said that the US was going to go after terrorists and treat nations that harbor and fund terrorists as terrorists and to go after them, too. "But Saddam wasn't linked with Al Qaeda," you say? Ansar Al Islam had a training camp in Iraq between the Kurdish region and the town of Tikrit. Ansar Al Islam is funded by Al Qaeda. That one not good enough for you? How about this: Saddam paid the families of Palestinian terrorists $25,000 if the terrorist killed any Israelis. Funding terrorism, right there.
You mention that we went into Iraq for oil and to finish the job that George H.W. Bush couldn't finish. I'll remind you that A) G.W. wants to drill for oil in Alaska. Reasons for this are numerous, but the best one is because it reduces our dependency on foreign oil. Why go to war over foreign oil if you can get it here? Besides, Saudi Arabia has more oil and is more easily accessible. The equipment's already there and run largely by Americans, and we already have a military presence there. We could have made war on them for oil, which would have made more sense from a logistical and tactical perspective. The war for oil bit doesn't wash. B) I remind you that Saddam Hussein did try to have George H.W. Bush assassinated in the early 1990s while he was still president. Last time I checked, assassinating or attempting to assassinate a head of state is an act of war. The fact that Iraq did not become synonymous with "World's Largest Glass Covered Parabolic Dish" in 1991 is a testament to American restraint.
Re: grossly misled....
Then there's the talk about our troops mutinying and refusing to follow orders. I assume you're talking about the group that refused to run an unarmored convoy through a dangerous region - correct me if I'm wrong. That convoy would have had the proper armor, except that Senator John Kerry voted against the $87 Billion in funding that would have supplied the necessary armor to those vehicles and others, as well as to the individual troops. John Kerry supports giving our troops all of the funding they need to finish the job....except the $87,000,000,000 he voted against.
John Kerry's concession does not make him classy. He didn't stand a chance of winning the electoral vote at the time of his concession. He didn't even have a chance of stealing it, since the margin Bush led by in Ohio was greater than the number of provisional and absentee ballots anyway. Without Ohio, Kerry had no chance of winning. His concession was to keep the Democrat party from looking more foolish than they did in 2000 when their candidate couldn't win his home COUNTY. Was the concession wise? Yes. Classy? No.
A direct quote from you, if I may: "The only real effect the Homeland Security measures have had is to keep Aunt Bertha from bringing her knitting needles on a plane." Would you like to know the reason for this? No? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Bleeding heart Liberals will whine and cry and throw a fit over any attempt at profiling those who would wish you harm and call it "racial" profiling. Except in this case, they'd be right. The people we have to watch out for are primarily Muslims of Arab decent between the ages of 18 and 30. But since any attempt to go "Hrm...that Arab man with the bulky jacket in July...in Texas, with the wires hanging out of it and a sign around his neck saying 'Allahu Akbar! Death to the Infidels' looks suspicious" gets met with "RACIAL PROFILING, STOP!", it's really tough to do their job. So to be politically correct, they have to give Aunt Bertha crap about her knitting needles and let the Arab dude wearing a bulky jacket with wires hanging out of it the middle of July in El Paso go.
Here's a question for everyone playing at home: Would you rather have the radical Islamic fundamentalists shooting at and trying to blow up our military personnel, or would you rather have them blowing up shopping malls and school busses here in the States?
Kerry lost the election. Bush can't run again in 2008. If the Democrats want the White House back, they'll get a candidate that doesn't make Teddy Kennedy look conservative.
Re: grossly misled....