Admitting There's A Problem

[Smoke Screen]

washingtonpost.com
First Step? Admit There's a Problem

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, August 26, 2005; A21

SYDNEY -- History repeats itself in strange ways. Consider two statements.

"A slogan like 'stay the course' is unacceptable."

And: "Stay the course is not a policy."

The first quotation goes back to October 1982, when a Republican candidate for governor of New York named Lewis Lehrman complained about his party's national slogan during that year's midterm elections. Stay the course, insisted Lehrman, who eventually lost narrowly to Democrat Mario Cuomo, was a lousy theme in the face of a 10 percent national unemployment rate.

The second quotation is of more recent, though still Republican, coinage. Last Sunday, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska laid into the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. Hagel insisted that remaining in Iraq over an extended period -- staying the course -- "would bog us down, it would further destabilize the Middle East, it would give Iran more influence."

President Bush continues to insist, at least in public, on doing what he's doing. "We will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror," Bush said in Idaho on Wednesday. But staying and fighting in Iraq looks increasingly antithetical to winning the war on terrorism. What is a superpower whose power has been dissipated by a deeply flawed policy to do?

There was an electrifying moment here last week when a longtime friend of the United States spoke up during a meeting of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, a group I've been part of for several years. Kim Beazley, the leader of the Australian Labor Party and a former defense minister, proposed an alternative that would admit the errors of the past by way of salvaging America's influence for the future.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501615_pf.html

 

[Borealis]

washingtonpost.com
First Step? Admit There's a Problem

Well, the first problem is that you're quoting a Washington Post story, thereby shredding the credibility to begin with.

The first quotation goes back to October 1982, when a Republican candidate for governor of New York named Lewis Lehrman complained about his party's national slogan during that year's midterm elections. Stay the course, insisted Lehrman, who eventually lost narrowly to Democrat Mario Cuomo, was a lousy theme in the face of a 10 percent national unemployment rate.

Which, of course, is clearly and obviously connected to the current situation which has nothing whatsoever to do with unemployment. Iraq war...unemployment rate...sorry, not getting it.

The second quotation is of more recent, though still Republican, coinage. Last Sunday, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska laid into the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. Hagel insisted that remaining in Iraq over an extended period -- staying the course -- "would bog us down, it would further destabilize the Middle East, it would give Iran more influence."

And the alternative would be, what? Doing the slow withdrawal thing that made Vietnam such a glamorous success? I realize the left is enamoured of Vietnam as their shining moment of triumph, but really...

Pulling out of Iraq before the job is done will accomplish two things: it will embolden the terrorists and their supporters throughout the Middle East and elsewhere (including the many home-grown American ones), and demoralize America and its own allies for a generation at least. Repeating the follies of Vietnam and Somalia would be as productive and intelligent as driving a brand new Porsche 911 into a brick wall at maximum speed.

President Bush continues to insist, at least in public, on doing what he's doing. "We will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror," Bush said in Idaho on Wednesday. But staying and fighting in Iraq looks increasingly antithetical to winning the war on terrorism.

Only to those who don't think winning the war on terrorism isn't as important as scoring political points against a Republican president.

What is a superpower whose power has been dissipated by a deeply flawed policy to do?

Ask the Soviets.

There was an electrifying moment here last week when a longtime friend of the United States spoke up during a meeting of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, a group I've been part of for several years. Kim Beazley, the leader of the Australian Labor Party and a former defense minister, proposed an alternative that would admit the errors of the past by way of salvaging America's influence for the future.

Ah, yes...as long as America accepts the blame for all the evils of the world and does sufficient bowing and scraping to the intellectual elites of the UN, they'll be more than welcome to return to the fold and snarf up at the trough of Oil-for-Food programs.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082501615_pf.html

 

[Law of Loud]

Man, it seems like the harder we fight, the worse things turn out for us, and the better they turn out for the terrorists. They've really played their cards right in this whole war on terror. We've tried racial profiling, random searches, and we even smoked Saddam out of his hole, but they still get away with murder. I'm pretty frickin' tired of it.

Everywhere I go, they've got me wasting a lot of my energy looking out for suspicious people and being worried about suspicious packages. That's just what the terrorists want—me spending less time enjoying my freedom and more time wondering if that towelhead on the bus is one of them. Hey you terrorist big shots, I'm tired of constantly being on edge—how about giving us a chance to win once in a while?

Here's what I'm talking about: Last month, I was watching American Chopper, and they interrupted it right before the bike was finished to announce that the London subways had been bombed. One point terrorists, zero points freedom-lovers.

So, they won that round, no question, but did they have to be such showoffs about it? A week after they got us in the subways, they turned around and got us in the subways again! Like a ********* touchdown dance. We get the point, *******s. Ever hear of a sore winner?

They even score without taking a shot sometimes. I hit a huge snag in traffic the other day. Give you three guesses why. Turns out they were searching trucks at the toll booths, looking for bombs and terrorists that morning. I was an hour late for work. Man, Osama must have been sitting back in his cave and laughing his ass off at me.

Speaking of that, do you know it costs me almost $70 to fill up my truck nowadays? What really kills me is knowing half of that goes to put food on the bin Laden family dinner table. I mean, they've got this whole global network of secret agents and underground video cells ready to strike at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, I can't even get my e-mail working.

It's just not fair. We passed that whole Patriot Act thing, my little brother's off fighting in Iraq along with about a million other guys, and we're fingerprinting all the Muslims in America, but we're still getting our asses handed to us. What the hell's going on?

I don't think it's out of line to call the terrorists cheaters. Yeah, I said it. We took over two whole countries, and there's still terrorists everywhere. You're supposed to turn yourself in when your country gets taken over, but not them. Come on, guys. Play by the rules once in a while.

I hate the terrorists for hating us, but I gotta respect them for their strategy. Those anthrax letters had everybody afraid to open their mail for months. Not even the Unabomber pulled that off.

If only we could do that to them. Send the terrorists a poison letter. Then they'd think twice about... Aw, who'm I kidding? They'd probably send it right back to us and kill some innocent schoolteacher. They're too smart to fall for any tricks.

Man, I got half a mind to go up to one of those terrorists and give him a piece of my mind. Oh, but I can't—they're in disguise and nobody can find them. There's not even an address I can send a strongly worded letter to.

I tell you, you just can't win with some people.


http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4134


Just for you Borealis, as you're the only person I've met who's put The Onion and "credible" in the same sentence.

 

[Smoke Screen]

Man, it seems like the harder we fight, the worse things turn out for us, and the better they turn out for the terrorists. They've really played their cards right in this whole war on terror. We've tried racial profiling, random searches, and we even smoked Saddam out of his hole, but they still get away with murder. I'm pretty frickin' tired of it.

Everywhere I go, they've got me wasting a lot of my energy looking out for suspicious people and being worried about suspicious packages. That's just what the terrorists want—me spending less time enjoying my freedom and more time wondering if that towelhead on the bus is one of them. Hey you terrorist big shots, I'm tired of constantly being on edge—how about giving us a chance to win once in a while?

Here's what I'm talking about: Last month, I was watching American Chopper, and they interrupted it right before the bike was finished to announce that the London subways had been bombed. One point terrorists, zero points freedom-lovers.

So, they won that round, no question, but did they have to be such showoffs about it? A week after they got us in the subways, they turned around and got us in the subways again! Like a ********* touchdown dance. We get the point, *******s. Ever hear of a sore winner?

They even score without taking a shot sometimes. I hit a huge snag in traffic the other day. Give you three guesses why. Turns out they were searching trucks at the toll booths, looking for bombs and terrorists that morning. I was an hour late for work. Man, Osama must have been sitting back in his cave and laughing his ass off at me.

Speaking of that, do you know it costs me almost $70 to fill up my truck nowadays? What really kills me is knowing half of that goes to put food on the bin Laden family dinner table. I mean, they've got this whole global network of secret agents and underground video cells ready to strike at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, I can't even get my e-mail working.

It's just not fair. We passed that whole Patriot Act thing, my little brother's off fighting in Iraq along with about a million other guys, and we're fingerprinting all the Muslims in America, but we're still getting our asses handed to us. What the hell's going on?

I don't think it's out of line to call the terrorists cheaters. Yeah, I said it. We took over two whole countries, and there's still terrorists everywhere. You're supposed to turn yourself in when your country gets taken over, but not them. Come on, guys. Play by the rules once in a while.

I hate the terrorists for hating us, but I gotta respect them for their strategy. Those anthrax letters had everybody afraid to open their mail for months. Not even the Unabomber pulled that off.

If only we could do that to them. Send the terrorists a poison letter. Then they'd think twice about... Aw, who'm I kidding? They'd probably send it right back to us and kill some innocent schoolteacher. They're too smart to fall for any tricks.

Man, I got half a mind to go up to one of those terrorists and give him a piece of my mind. Oh, but I can't—they're in disguise and nobody can find them. There's not even an address I can send a strongly worded letter to.

I tell you, you just can't win with some people.


http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4134


Just for you Boreal, as you're the only person I've met who's put The Onion and "credible" in the same sentence.

HUGE LOL! The Onion is pretty funny!

 

[Fa'Head]

What I would give or sacrifice for a president who would just tell it like it is. Regardless of what his policy was, if he said "Folks, this is the way it is" I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Alas, that is something we'll never enjoy as presidents rely on their experts to tell them what needs to be said to win the majority of the population over.

Iraq is the War on Terror? Biggest crock of you know what. Regardless of what happens in Iraq, only the most ready-to-be-brainwashed people will think that the problem with terrorism has been solved or even affected very much. The reasons (given) for the war in Iraq was the biggest ingestion of B.S. I've had in a long time and endless amounts of Peptol-Bismol or Republican/Bush supporter rhetoric has done nothing to alleviate the discomfort. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating an early pullout from Iraq, the die is cast. We've got to follow through with our roll and try to make the best of a situation we shouldn't even be in. (or maybe the location of the situation was wrong?)

As I'm at work spinning music for a bunch of horny inebriated people, I've somewhat lost touch with why I originally started this post. I guess I just wish that everyone, even Republicans, would admit there is a problem and that problem is George Bush and, more specifically, the people pulling his strings. I'm not so much anti-Republican as anti-GWB. It would not bother me in the least if the Republican party successfully elected a president in 2008 that said "People, here is what the real problem is and here is how I'm going to fix it".

 

[Doctrine1st]

What I would give or sacrifice for a president who would just tell it like it is. Regardless of what his policy was, if he said "Folks, this is the way it is" I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. Alas, that is something we'll never enjoy as presidents rely on their experts to tell them what needs to be said to win the majority of the population over.

Iraq is the War on Terror? Biggest crock of you know what. Regardless of what happens in Iraq, only the most ready-to-be-brainwashed people will think that the problem with terrorism has been solved or even affected very much. The reasons (given) for the war in Iraq was the biggest ingestion of B.S. I've had in a long time and endless amounts of Peptol-Bismol or Republican/Bush supporter rhetoric has done nothing to alleviate the discomfort. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating an early pullout from Iraq, the die is cast. We've got to follow through with our roll and try to make the best of a situation we shouldn't even be in. (or maybe the location of the situation was wrong?)

As I'm at work spinning music for a bunch of horny inebriated people, I've somewhat lost touch with why I originally started this post. I guess I just wish that everyone, even Republicans, would admit there is a problem and that problem is George Bush and, more specifically, the people pulling his strings. I'm not so much anti-Republican as anti-GWB. It would not bother me in the least if the Republican party successfully elected a president in 2008 that said "People, here is what the real problem is and here is how I'm going to fix it".

Just a little integrity in the Whitehouse, that's all that's asked.

 

[Fa'Head]

Just a little integrity in the Whitehouse, that's all that's asked.

11 words, a comma and a period to sum up what I took 3 paragraphs to express. Kudos to you.

What a gift that would be; if people would only realize what integrity in the White House would accomplish for this country and did their best to put someone of such disposition there. There's something to pray for.

 

[Law of Loud]

11 words, a comma and a period to sum up what I took 3 paragraphs to express. Kudos to you.

What a gift that would be; if people would only realize what integrity in the White House would accomplish for this country and did their best to put someone of such disposition there. There's something to pray for.

That's the problem with integrity though, it rarely comes in small packages. It rarely fits into classy soundbites either.

 

[Borealis]

Just for you Borealis, as you're the only person I've met who's put The Onion and "credible" in the same sentence.

Well, it was entertaining. But I never put 'credible' and 'The Onion' in the same sentence. They were in separate sentences.