I Miss Bush

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by Pete Zicato

True. I should have payed more attention to the date specified.

Still had nothing to do with Bush.

C'mon guys, haven't you heard 9/11 was Bush's fault too?

[monster]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

I miss the way our country was in late fall of 2001. We were united. People showed patriotism and meant it.

They also showed a lot of hatred, intolerance, racism, stupidity and bigotry and meant it. (I probably missed a few, but you get the drift). However, I'm sure the armed forces were suddenly appreciated a whole lot more and that has faded now

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by monster

. . . I'm sure the armed forces were suddenly appreciated a whole lot more and that has faded now.

They were, and it hasn't. Admittedly, I live in a Navy town and drop in on the local American Legion post at the other end of town fairly regularly.

But even old NavVets like me, long out of the service, are getting "Thank you for your service" and a handshake, at random times and places around town.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

But even old NavVets like me, long out of the service, are getting "Thank you for your service" and a handshake, at random times and places around town.

You still wearing the uniform?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You still wearing the uniform?

Oh dear, Bruce. Was NavVet an unfamiliar term? Means Navy veteran. You hear recruiters using it mostly. 1977-86. You do seem to have missed the "long out of uniform" phrase.

My Navy retiree wife has more tats than I do. Which is easy, since I haven't any. She thinks it would be cool if I did get one. She got all two of 'em after she retired.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

I miss the way our country was in late fall of 2001. We were united. People showed patriotism and meant it.

Bush certainly squandered that quite spectacularly, when he invaded Iraq and tried to equate support for that to patriotism.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Bush certainly squandered that quite spectacularly, when he invaded Iraq and tried to equate support for that to patriotism.

Not to mention that bit of exquisite legerdemain where he managed to conflate 9/11 and his old family friend Bin Laden with Al Quaida and Iraq. That was sweet.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Bush certainly squandered that quite spectacularly, when he invaded Iraq and tried to equate support for that to patriotism.

Let's see: destruction of unfreedom -- happened when Saddam went fugitive, was later captured, and later hanged. Check.

Replacement of unfree social order with a democratic one. Check. (Corruption problems? Common in Third World countries. Undesirable, the same way measles are undesirable. Not necessarily lethal to the body politic, nor necessarily a reduction thereof, is it?)

And is not liberty a birthright of mankind, attributable to God if you're a believer, however weakly?

Don't sweat the patriotism angle: this was obedience to God, as Ben Franklin put it lo these many years ago.

And some people -- if they really are people and not some kind of possessed meatpuppets -- object to that.

[Big Sarge]

I strongly support Operation Iraqi Freedom. I think it was an excellent strategic move to force AQ to fight in Southwest Asia instead of being able to choose their own battleground, such as the US.

[Happy Monkey]

We managed to sort of create and sort of defeat Al Qaeda In Iraq, I suppose, but Al Qaeda Everywhere Else was just fine. It wasn't a flypaper strategy; it was a hunk of rotting meat strategy. Rotting meat certainly attracts flies, but more than that it allows them to breed.

You might as well build a filthy hospital to attract all of the germs from the other hospitals.

[Big Sarge]

AQI and ISI siphoned manpower and funding from AQ thus depriving them of the means to successfully conduct attacks on our soil.

[Happy Monkey]

Attracting some flies into a newly created fly breeding ground doesn't diminish the number of flies, even if you swat some.

[Happy Monkey]

The Dems held the Senate.

[classicman]

It's the R's turn again... If they don't get "it" done, they'll be out next election.
Political patience of the people seems to be at near zero.

[Beest]

Originally Posted by classicman

It's the R's turn again... If they don't get "it" done, they'll be out next election.
Political patience of the people seems to be at near zero.

They were saying on the radio this morning that this is another pendulum swing of the large moderate group who is just dissatified with the the way things are and reacts against who is in power hopeing for seomthing better.

I guess next time it will be a competetion as to who can claim credit for anything good that happens, unemployment falling, or pin the blame on the other guys for anything bad, house prices still in doldrums.