let me address the first statement. president george w. bush was a complete train wreck. here's why with nothing but fact for you to digest. bush allowed the largest attack on american soil since pearl harbor to happen on september 11th, 2001. during the time the planes were being used as missiles in various parts of the country, our president was in a school reading a book to children. when he was told that in fact a second plane had hit the other trade center building and that the country was under attack this great, fearless leader waited another 8 to 9 minutes as he continued to read some damn children's book. real strong.
after the attacks, the president proceeded to invade afghanistan pledging to smoke out osama bin laden and other terrorists even calling upon the capture of bin laden 'dead or alive'. this was all what was done in public. behind the scenes the president, the vice president dick cheney, and the secretary of defense donald rumsfeld were already making the unimaginable acts of september 11th as an opportunity to complete the job of ousting saddam hussein in iraq that was started in 1991 during the first gulf war. this is not hearsay.
George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld speak in private. Bush asks the Defense Secretary what kind of plan the Pentagon has for invading Iraq. “What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret,” Bush says. When Rumsfeld says its current plan is outdated, Bush instructs him to devise a new one. “Let’s get started on this,” Bush says. “And get Tommy Franks looking at what it would take to protect America by removing Saddam Hussein if we have to.” Bush requests that discussion about Iraq remain low-key. “I knew what would happen if people thought we were developing a potential war plan for Iraq,” Bush later explains to journalist Bob Woodward. Bush does not share the details of his conversation with Condoleezza Rice, only telling her that Rumsfeld will be working on Iraq. [Associated Press, 4/16/2004; New York Times, 4/17/2004; Washington Post, 4/17/2004; CBS News, 4/18/2004 Sources: George Bush and other top officials interviewed by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward] When General Tommy Franks—who already has his hands full with the operation in Afghanistan—learns that the administration is considering plans to invade Iraq, he utters “a string of obscenities.” [Associated Press, 4/16/2004 Sources: Top officials interviewed by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward] General Franks will meet with Bush and brief him on the plan’s progress on December 28 (see December 28, 2001).
this war in iraq though was never about protecting americans. it was about claiming land that was rich in oil. it was about being involved in the war profiteering that comes with the dismantling and rebuilding of a country. it was about profiteering from the use of private mercenary groups like blackwater. scores of bush administration officials have absolutely made fortunes from their war to 'protect americans'. this war was about president bush completing the job his father never got the chance to do because they left the country in shambles back in the early 90's. then, they left a country that was ready to revolt against the tyrannical leader, but were left to fend for themselves and deal with the response from saddam as we abandoned them.
president bush and his administration used faulty accusations as the reasonings behind why we should invade a country like iraq. he stated that the country was planning on attacking the united states at that they were an immediate threat to our security because they had 'weapons of mass destruction' and had indisputable ties to al-qaeda. we know now that both of these points were false. to this day we have not found one WMD in iraq. not one. also, since then, it has even been admitted by bush administration officials that their was no link between the attacks of semptember 11th and al-qaeda to the government of iraq.
so why did we go? you may say to rid a country of an evil dictator. come on. if that was the case wouldn't president bush make that one of his campaign promises for his platform of what he believed in when he was running for president? if the president was so worried about another country's well-being, then why did he ignore the genocide that occurred in Darfur? why did he not step in with military force and stop mass murder in this country or in others that have powerful dictatorships? no, no, he picked the exact same country that his dad went to war against with in 1991. to protect americans.
the number of fatalities from the iraq war is staggering. 4,367 american soldiers alone have been fatally wounded. that is approaching twice that of those who perished during the attacks on america on 9/11. this war that blossomed out of what turned out to be falsities is responsible for 4,367 deaths. meanwhile, the war in afghanistan was largely overlooked and always looked at as the other war. the other war holds the people responsible for our war on terror. the other war has cost americans 929 dead sons and daughters. would the number had been less if we did not lose our focus from the get-go? would american have less than 5,000 dead now if our president had not started planning for a war in iraq two months after al-qaeda attacked american targets from nowhere near iraq?
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the president and vice president have allowed for easier restrictions that allowed interrogators to torture prisoners. it has been shown in endless studies that torture is not an effective means to get answers from the enemy. the bush administration had also set up the prison system where nobody is granted a trial for their accusations of being a terrorist. for years and years these humans have been wasting away inside the prison at guantanamo bay in cuba. they have been denied a basic right that is bestowed upon people in the united states and that is a fair trial with representation with a judgment made by fellow citizens.
the second question posed to me was what has president obama done so far that has been good. the way this question was asked of me made me think long and hard. a talking point that i was given tonight was that the bush administration was over now and what has president obama done? it almost sounded to me like sweeping a little bit of dirt under the rug and move on to the next task. no, we don't have a rug that is that big to sweep the dirt under. the past administration is still with us and we have a current administration that is in the throws of fixing a lot of wrong. and it's only been 10 months. i have come to the following question: what did you expect from our president 10 months later? although we live in a grand technological age, the world does not rotate any faster because of it. it takes time to build a nation that has fallen from grace. rebuilding the way we appear to the world and to ourselves takes time. shedding our skin of this holier than thou approach is necessary. now is not the time for america to remain arrogant. their is a reason other countries hated our last regime. wake up.
i was given the argument over the large deficits incorporated over the bank bailouts and how poor of a thing this was by president obama. this is an excerpt from nbc.com dated october, 1 2008, 4 months before the president took office:
The Senate passed its version of a mammoth plan to rescue the financial services industry Wednesday night, saying changes designed to protect individual investors and small business owners could be enough to persuade reluctant House members to go along with the plan.
Senators agreed to the plan 74-25 as an amendment to an unrelated bill, which was passed shortly thereafter.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who put together the original scheme to bail out the banks after Lehman Bros. and other financial institutions collapsed on Wall Street last month, welcomed the “strong bipartisan vote.”
this bailout was signed into effect later by president george w. bush.
president obama has order the closing of guantanamo bay and moving towards the trials of suspected terrorists giving potentially the most evil men in the world their day in court and allowing us the stance of not dipping to the levels of others. president obama has started the withdrawal effort in iraq and is now focusing the attention of our eyes back to where it should have been from the start, but a terrible tragedy was seen as an opportunity to take action in other arenas. the president has allowed the research to finally start with stem cell research. i am sure that michael j. fox and muhammed ali have really enjoyed the last 8 years of wasted time when it has shown that all of these embryos never would have been used in a reproductive manner anyway. again, do some research people.
and this leads me to my final point. i was told that i am one-sided and that i was not rounded. i find this to be so far from the truth it is laughable. i spend my late nights reading up on the world. on the way to work, i listen to national public radio. on the way home, i listen to conservative talk format. i read the newspapers online, probably more so than my boss would like me to, and i watch as much news on the internet and tv as i can. what i can't watch is fox news because it has been proven that the entire network has talking points e-mailed everday from the executives with what points they would like to hammer down the throats of their listeners and watchers everyday. that is not news. it is a view. again, this has been proven.
i do research. i am rounded. when my beliefs are related to not even being as that of a pimple on the ass of a president that i despise, that offends me. it offends me that my idea of what is right is not even seen to be in the same region of a man responsible for the murder of thousands ON september 11th (remember when he disregarded the report about osama bin laden intent on using planes to attack america?), and the thousands that have been killed in two long, and costly wars. one, that never should have happened, and another that has gone on for too long. when i spend most of my time trying to be well-informed, i don't need that kind of throw away indecency. sometimes, i think that i read too much and maybe i should be like most that just don't even care, but then, i wouldn't know when i hear bullshit.
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