Bush doesn't
deserve re-election!
He has lied to America - and the only promise he's kept is to stay the disastrous course in Iraq.
I recognized Bush's lies, hubris, and destructive determination long ago
This is nothing more than a repeat of an Iddybud post from September 8, 2003. It's here to show you that Bush was wrong THEN, and he's wrong TODAY.
He's never attempted to change course in Iraq (and let's face it - it's FUBAR); nor did he ever once try to foster genuine cooperation from the world community.
Never.
He turned Iraq into his bitch, causing it to become the center of terror while he was lying to American citizens about a Saddam-9/11 connection. Most of Bush's supporters still believe there was a connection.
*(Beyond belief, but they really do).
Now Osama Bin Laden is back to taunt us; he's mocking Bush. Bin Laden, by his appearance on that tape, seems to have transformed from sickly, skinny Islamic fanatic to a tanned, rested politician for many Muslims to reconsider in what he hopes will be a serious light. He wants to look like an important man in the eyes of the Muslim world. The frightening part is, thanks to Bush , he might. Why? Because he was able to get the better of America under Bush's [failure to] watch!
Had we not blindly barged our way, in the darkness of unnecessary and poorly planned and unprepared warfare, into Iraq and caused disastrous strife, destruction, and death, the heart of the Muslim world (at least the centrist part) would have been calling for Bin Laden's head for what he did on 9/11.
Instead, many young Muslim men are taking Bin Laden seriously.
*(Beyond belief, but they really do).
We cannot allow Bush to escape accountability for 9/11 being an overwhelming success for the hijackers, for allowing Bin Laden to remain a free man (enabling him to encourage and inspire al Qaeda), and recruiting thousands of new terrorists with his horrific foreign policy.
Anyone who goes into the voting booth tomorrow should read what I wrote well over a year ago.
This is a man who will not change.
You cannot correct mistakes if you cannot admit that you made mistakes to begin with.
If Bush is re-elected, we are doomed to see more disaster.
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September 8, 2003 at IDDYBUD:
The Bush Speech-September 7, 2003
My questions and comments to Mr. Bush
Part I
1. "Nearly two years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we began a systematic campaign against terrorism. These months have been a time of new responsibilities, and sacrifice, and national resolve and great progress. "
Iraq and its Saddam Hussein Regime never attacked us before your infamous pre-emptive strike, Mr. Bush.
Not two years ago. Not ever.
2. ".. we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council. Our coalition enforced these international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history."
Not the 9-11 brand of terror, Mr. Bush. Not in the case of Iraq. There was no Al Qaeda connection.
The UN was proceeding with the renewed search for WMDs and/or evidence of existing programs for WMDs.
Iraq was cooperating...allowing them in.
You were childishly impatient, Mr. Bush.
You haven't found WMDs yourself, Mr. Bush.
You call your campaign "humane"? Do you realize at least 7,836 Iraqi citizens and soldiers are dead?
Have you seen the photos of what you have wrought, Mr. Bush?
Allow me to provide a few:
Credit: RobertFisk.com
Credit: latimes.com
How do you feel now that you've burned so many international bridges with your ugly pride and hubris, Mr. Bush?
4. A. "We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power."
B. (appeared later in speech) "Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated."
The central front of a war on terror? Do you mean Pakistan? Saudi Arabia--where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from? Are you speaking of the Phillipines? Indonesia? Iran? Georgia? Azerbijan?
Are you saying the heart of terror was or is in Iraq?
Or are you saying you carefully CHOSE Iraq because she was the weakest nation, knowing you would "bring on" the terrorists from all these other regions once the pre-emptive attack began?
If that is the case, and it appears it IS the case from all you have said, then you were immoral and the cause of the Iraq war was unjust.
You told us, Mr. Bush, that Iraq's regime posed an "imminent threat". That is what you said.
You lied.
5.This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly -- yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.
Worthy of us? It would be far more worthy of us to take care of the dangers and the basic needs we face right here at home, Mr. Bush. Our all-too-compliant Congress should tell you to eat your request for $87 billion...and go begging to the UN for it instead. Take your battle for desperately-needed cash to the central front--the heart of the world's hope...the UN.
6. Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of them -- free of assassins, and torturers, and secret police. They know that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful ambitions will fall like the statues of the former dictator. And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos.
In the view of the Iraqi resistance, I would beg to differ. They do NOT seem to understand this as you say they do.To them, you are no more than an occupier, Mr. Bush. We realize that you wish the ideals of these real people were as easy to take down as the statue of Saddam Hussein. They do not see themselves as a collection of killers, but as a collection of patriots trying to undermine your occupation of them.
7. "Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime, who fled the battlefield and now fight in the shadows. Some of the attackers are foreign terrorists, who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America and other free nations. We cannot be certain to what extent these groups work together. We do know they have a common goal -- reclaiming Iraq for tyranny."
You represent tyranny to them, Mr. Bush. You have gone about this in a dangerous and entirely wrong way.
8. "Most, but not all, of these killers operate in one area of the country. The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and Tikrit -- Saddam Hussein's former stronghold. The north of Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with reconstruction and self-government. The same trends are evident in the south, despite recent attacks by terrorist groups."
Sure, Mr. Bush...sure.
New explosion hits pipeline in northern Iraq
Ethnic Tensions Flare in Northern Iraq; at least 15 killed
US troops raid homes in Iraq's 'Sunni triangle'
27 August 2003
BAGHDAD: US troops hunting guerrillas and criminals raided homes overnight in Iraq's restive "Sunni triangle", the army said yesterday, as tension simmered among ethnic groups in the north and Shi'ite factions in the south.
10. " America has done this kind of work before. Following World War II, we lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany, and stood with them as they built representative governments. We committed years and resources to this cause. And that effort has been repaid many times over in three generations of friendship and peace. America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit -- for their sake, and our own."
Yes, we did this work before..in Europe. Unlike Iraq, 1940s Europe had been a place in which most basic structures (especially government-related) existed BEFORE the war.
A U.S. role in rebuilding Iraq should not exclude the assistance of and power-sharing with multilateral institutions. If you look at the period after World War II, our nation (the US) was the only nation that was feasibly able to rebuild Europe, so depleted of resources were the other countries that could possibly have helped at the time. If you look at history, however, the U.S. did the work in a rather new multilateral environment, for the time period, which included the UN, NATO, and what was once 'the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade'.
In the case of Iraq, other nations and institutions are available to help. And I know that they'd be ready if they believed our leader sincerely wished for an international cooperation based upon respect. The U.S. needs UN and international cooperation to lighten the overwhelming economic and military burdens.
Mr Bush, you also need desperately to counter these perceptions of U.S. unilateralism. Swallow this dangerous pride, Mr. Bush.
It's getting late.
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Getting late---and here we are --a year later-- with estimates of 100,000 Iraqi civilians (half of them women and children) dead, a shaky coalition with members dropping regularly because of insecurity, including intimidating, brutal beheadings, and Bush unwilling to admit he's made dreadful mistakes. On top of that, Bin Laden's back to laugh at him.
He doesn't deserve our votes.
I want to change horses before this one drowns all of us.
