Time for a change
The bombings in London are further evidence that Al Qaeda's ability to attack has not been diminished since 9/11. Instead the war in Iraq has left the US and UK with a lack of resources to effectively protect their citizens. Walking through the train station today the state police with machine guns didn't make me feel safer. I know that next week they will be gone as funding for security in my area is running dry. At the federal level 18 billion dollars has been spent on the airline industry as oppsed to 250 milllion for mass transit systems. After all Bush's base prefer limos to trains (Bush said it himself: "You are the haves and have mores...you are my base.")
Meanwhile our soldiers are dying in Iraq, in a war that each day strengthens Al Qaeda; the image of US troops occupying Iraq strengthens their numbers and the lack of domestic security strengthens their ability to attack. I have no confidence in this administrations ability to protect my livelihood. They have repeatedly shown their determination to continue fighting a war that can only be won by changing their global image. Meanwhile they are adamant that there is nothing about the US image that needs to change. I'm stunned when people tell me they don't like George Bush but they are impressed with his resolve. His convictions continue to be wrong and are not in the best interests of this country.
The English will realize that they too have been lead astray by their leader. Blair has stood doggedly behind Bush in a war that has been detrimental to their country and has done nothing to make the world safer.
Meanwhile our soldiers are dying in Iraq, in a war that each day strengthens Al Qaeda; the image of US troops occupying Iraq strengthens their numbers and the lack of domestic security strengthens their ability to attack. I have no confidence in this administrations ability to protect my livelihood. They have repeatedly shown their determination to continue fighting a war that can only be won by changing their global image. Meanwhile they are adamant that there is nothing about the US image that needs to change. I'm stunned when people tell me they don't like George Bush but they are impressed with his resolve. His convictions continue to be wrong and are not in the best interests of this country.
The English will realize that they too have been lead astray by their leader. Blair has stood doggedly behind Bush in a war that has been detrimental to their country and has done nothing to make the world safer.
posted by mochi at 7:10 PM
4 Comments:
Whether one supports George Bush or not, his actions have made the world less safe from terrorism. In fact, they have greatly increased the danger of terrorism. In Great Britain and Europe, they know that, too. While Bush and his cabal of the power elite are safe in their ivory tower, our lives are put more at risk. I wonder how many people on that bus had ever said, "we're fighting them over there so we won't have to fight them here."
Just plain horrible all around. This has inspired hatred against those responsible for this attack, naturally, as well as those who condone it. It has also inspired hatred against our spineless leaders who have failed miserably in protecting its people, preserving their military, and who constantly claim we are winning. This is what happens when spoiled, rich cowards start running a country I guess. How can anyone honestly feel secure with weasels like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Blair at the helm? These are the LAST people who would ever fight for their countries and the first to promote war. Makes no goddamn sense and there is total chaos for a reason. When you have cowardly people with no military experience, who have never given an ounce of their being to their country planning and running the takeover of a sovereign nation, how can this possibly be a recipe for any success at all?
And in my attempt to stray from partisan rhetoric and to express my hatred for all of our congressional leaders,
http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/articles/sidebyside-military.html
I am calling for a recall election of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress as well as the president and his chronies. Each and every one of them is a failure. Yes, even those against the war because they are not outspoken enough, and I cannot recall any one of them reaching out to their constituents during this disaster of an administration.
My take on the London bombings and the issue of terrorist violence in general has been evolving slowly towards an agreement with what Thomas Friedman has been saying all along ... that what is happening in the Islamic world is NOT "all about us" (as in why do they hate US), but really is more of a civil war between modernist and fundamentalist extremists. One of the most effective tactics winning the hearts and minds of the 1.7 billion Muslims in the world is to demonstrate that the Christian West will launch a Crusade based on religion and ethnicity. Attacks on New York, London, Madrid, and other Western strongholds is a cross between collateral damage and a successful effort to evoke a vengeful response. Those who would drag the Muslim world back to the 13th century know they cannot defeat the West in a military sense .. they count on the West destroying themselves economically and morally. al-Qa'ida boasts that THEY brought the Soviet Union down by engaging them in a bankrupting unwinnable war in Afghanistan for more than a decade, and that they are doing the same to the United States.
As such, the battle against Islamic extremism cannot be won by the West. It must be won by the majority moderate and modernist elements in the Muslim world who know that the only way for their nations and religion to succeed in the 21st century is to embrace the world, renounce the isolationist and extremist views of the fundamentalist minority, and root out and defeat terror in their midst. The West must do everything they can to support and nurture these Muslims to build their own nations, their own pride, their own acceptance in the community of nations and people. It is the ONLY way we can succeed. The alternative, so understandable and so primitive, of lashing out indiscriminately when we are attacked and harmed, only serves to bolster the legitimacy of the violent few. One need only look as far as Israel's history to see the inescapable truth.
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