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Originally posted by Mokuhadzushi
This is interesting, but is it sure that Kerry will lead to a change in US foreign policy ? So far, he has only articulated his full support for Israel's illegal policies, and i have seen no further statement regarding US policy change. Could it be that Kerry harbors the same basic views of the middle east as Bush ? If yes, it would be better, from a historical perspective, that Bush gets reelected, so that he gets the full historical consequence of his wrongdoings, for example the first elected Iraqi governement asking the US to leave the country. Kerry would, if he hasnt got the guts for a complete US foreign policy change, only mess the situation further up.
Originally posted by Herman
Goose, you never read that memo, I'm sure. You have NO idea what's in it. I think it's funny how some people (I don't know if you do or not, goose) will think that 9/11 is planned, and believe in all these conspiracies, but they believe everything that Michael Moore says. Part of the reason 9/11 happened was because of Clinton and what he did to our defense. PART of it, not all of it. Anyone who blames Bush for 9/11 doesn't know what they're talking about. I mean, the president doesn't have THAT much power! And no, Bush is not a war criminal. Just because we don't put our army under the command of the U.N. does not make us war criminals. We did not attack another country, therefore that alligation is nothing. The U.N didn't say that he COULDN'T go into Iraq (Correct me if I'm wrong).
Originally posted by goose
Look at Bush's track record so far, in the first years its been this bad the last four are probably going to be even worse.
I have read the memo the memo is online
Originally posted by Herman
Part of the reason 9/11 happened was because of Clinton and what he did to our defense. PART of it, not all of it. Anyone who blames Bush for 9/11 doesn't know what they're talking about.
The terrorism briefing was delivered by Richard Clarke, a career bureaucrat who had served in the first Bush Administration and risen during the Clinton years to become the White House's point man on terrorism. As chair of the interagency Counter-Terrorism Security Group (CSG), Clarke was known as a bit of an obsessive�just the sort of person you want in a job of that kind. Since the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000�an attack that left 17 Americans dead�he had been working on an aggressive plan to take the fight to al-Qaeda. The result was a strategy paper that he had presented to Berger and the other national security "principals" on Dec. 20. But Berger and the principals decided to shelve the plan and let the next Administration take it up. With less than a month left in office, they did not think it appropriate to launch a major initiative against Osama bin Laden. "We would be handing [the Bush Administration] a war when they took office on Jan. 20," says a former senior Clinton aide. "That wasn't going to happen." Now it was up to Rice's team to consider what Clarke had put together.
Originally posted by CiderGood_HeadacheBad
goose,
Your link didn't work, but here's the memo censored for our eyes only
www.thesmokinggun.com...
It's not too specific, but there is mention of a plan dating back to 1998 to hijack US aircraft. Whether Bush could have acted on the intelligence provided in the memo is debatable, as it is quite vague.
I believe, however, that Bush's reaction post-11th September was poorly planned, rushed and disorganised. The public expected a swift reaction and they got it, but if his defence staff hadn't planned the invasion of Afghanistan so poorly they might have caught Bin Laden. And then there would be no need to invade Iraq to distract the people from the fact that they had failed to catch Osama.
The idea he was responsible is far fetched, but Bush didn't handle 9/11 competently enough and for this reason should not be C in C of a superpower.
Originally posted by WolfofWar
Have you forgotten that Kerry and the crew were in shock and couldn't for 45 minutes when the planes hit, untill the point when the pentagon was hit?
Have you forgotten that this could have ended in clintons administration?
Have you frogotten the three terrorist attacks upon us by Al-quaeda that was not acted upon?
Have you forgotten the Embassey bombing?
Have you forgotten the USS Cole?
Have you forgotten the terrorist explosion in the WTC?
Have you forgotten that in the 90's to 2001 when we started the war on terror, we were attacked many times without action?
Have you forgotten that now, finally, after the swift actions of someone finally saying "its time to stop them" that indeed, the terrorist attacks have stopped?
some food for thought.
The army that Bush used to fight the war on terra, and Iraq, is Clinton's army. The high technology used so effectively, was what Clinton did to our defense. And Clinton's administration WAS working on taking the fight to Al Queda, and tried to pass their knowledge to Bush's team:
Originally posted by Herman
No, Bush has changed the army since. He's made it stronger over his 4 years in office.
However, dramatic changes to the U.S. military -- its structure, organization, technology, personnel -- take time. Bush has only been in office for two years. Yet, in those same two years, Bush has sent troops into battle in two major theaters, and if it's not too early to consider Iraq a victory, the military was overwhelmingly successful in both instances.
This won't make our neo-con, hawk friends happy, but there's a point raised by these truths. Bush was clearly wrong when he said during the campaign that the U.S. armed forces had been hallowed out. Clinton/Gore, therefore, were not as bad for the military as the conventional wisdom would have you believe.
Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy scholar at the centrist Brookings Institution, raised this point, much to the conservatives' chagrin, as fighting was nearly completed in Afghanistan in 2002.
"Just over a year ago, George Bush and Dick Cheney were campaigning hard on the theme that Bill Clinton and Al Gore had run down the United States military," O'Hanlon wrote. "Picking up a traditional Republican refrain, they claimed that defense cuts under President Clinton had gone too far, that the armed forces had been overused badly, that readiness was poor. But now President Bush stands on the verge of winning a war with the military that Bill Clinton bequeathed him.... The administration developed an effective war plan that defeated the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and it has a sound broader strategy in the struggle against terrorism. But it is still Bill Clinton's military that has actually been winning this war."
Originally posted by Mokuhadzushi
"We did not attack another country" ?!??
The UN didnt give any permission for the full-scale invasion of Iraq. Invading another country without acting in self-defense or without the written permission of the UN security council is a WAR CRIME. get over it.
Originally posted by Herman
27jd, this is turning into the exact same argument I just had with you on another thread, lol. I would argue it, but I already have! I've said my peice. You know that Bush is strong on defense. I don't study our military very often, but we both know that Bush likes a strong military, Clinton did not. You can look it up, I know you'll find it.