Who's next?
Now we can see why nobody can see the truth they don't even know where countries are on a map!
Now we can see why nobody can see the truth they don't even know where countries are on a map!
no1important said:By American standards theoritically they should invade themselves, and throw that evil, wicked, war criminal, human rights abuser, torture loving, a man with WMD,nukes dangerous, mentally ill man out of the Whitehouse. :wink:
gopher said:A true America hero passes away - anti-war activist Senator Eugene McCarthy:
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_344160800.html
jjw1965 said:Who's next?
Now we can see why nobody can see the truth they don't even know where countries are on a map!
Colpy said:George W. Bush is the freely elected leader of the oldest, and greatest democracy on earth.
George Orwell wrote about "meaningless words" that are endlessly repeated in the political arena. Words like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice," Orwell explained, have been abused so long that their original meanings have been eviscerated. In Orwell's view, political words are "often used in a consciously dishonest way." Without precise meanings behind words, politicians and elites can obscure reality and condition people to reflexively associate certain words with positive or negative perceptions. In other words, unpleasant facts can be hidden behind purposely meaningless language. As a result, Americans have been conditioned to accept the word "democracy" as a synonym for freedom, and thus to believe that democracy is unquestionably good.
The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this, as evidenced not only by our republican constitutional system, but also by their writings in the Federalist Papers and elsewhere. James Madison cautioned that under a democratic government, "There is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual." John Adams argued that democracies merely grant revocable rights to citizens depending on the whims of the masses, while a republic exists to secure and protect preexisting rights. Yet how many Americans know that the word "democracy" is found neither in the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence, our very founding documents?
Simply put, freedom is the absence of government coercion. a government was created solely to protect the rights, liberties, and property of its citizens. Any government coercion beyond that necessary to secure those rights was forbidden, both through the Bill of Rights and the doctrine of strictly enumerated powers. This reflected the founders' belief that democratic government could be as tyrannical as any King.
Every politician on earth claims to support freedom. The problem is so few of them understand the simple meaning of the word.
~Rep. Ron Paul~
Bush defends U.S. right to launch pre-emptive attacks
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, December 15, 2005
President George W. Bush said he would pre-emptively attack another country if he deemed it necessary hoping that Thursday's parliamentary election in Iraq would put pressure on the governments of Iran and Syria.
Bush's comments came as quiet fell across most of Iraq as a draconian security lockdown and an informal cease-fire by many Sunni Arab rebels stifled all but sporadic violence.
Bush, who embraced pre-emptive war as U.S. strategy after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, did not identify any potential targets but said the Iraqi vote would put pressure on the governments of Iran and Syria.
"We are living through a watershed moment in the story of freedom," he said.
Iraq "will be a model for the Middle East. Freedom in Iraq will inspire reformers from Damascus to Tehran," Bush said in the last in a series of four speeches in two weeks laying out his Iraq strategy.
Bush again accepted responsibility for faulty intelligence pointing to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that he used as the foundation for his decision to go to war in 2003.
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I am also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities and we're doing just that," he said.
Still, "in an age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," Bush.
He called the decision to topple Saddam Hussein the right one.
"Saddam was a threat," said Bush, adding that Americans and the world are better off because he is no longer in power.
Bush hailed indications minority Sunnis were rallying to the political process and that rebels were abandoning hard-line militant groups.
Bush asked Americans to be patient and vowed not to rush to withdraw U.S. troops.
"As Sunnis join the political process, Iraqi democracy becomes more inclusive and the terrorists and Saddamists become marginalized," Bush said.
Back in Iraq, a traffic ban was in force for three days, borders were sealed and shops and businesses closed. Most Iraqis stayed at home ahead of the vote, leaving the streets to tens of thousands of police and troops on the lookout for bombers.
Violent incidents were concentrated in the north: a roadside bomb aimed at an Iraqi security patrol killed a child in Samarra, police said, a Trade Ministry employee was shot dead in the oil refining town of Baiji, and
One day before Iraq's historic parliamentary elections, US President George W. Bush defiantly defended his case for war and said he would preemptively attack another country if he deemed it necessary.
In remarks aimed at shoring up faltering US support for the conflict, Bush also accepted responsibility for relying on "wrong" intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programs to order the March 2003 invasion.
Still, "in an age of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long," Bush said in the fourth and final speech in a series ahead of Thursday's elections.
The US president, who embraced preemptive war as US strategy after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, did not name any potential targets but said the vote would put pressure on the governments of Iran and Syria.
"We are living through a watershed moment in the story of freedom," he said. Iraq "will be a model for the Middle East. Freedom in Iraq will inspire reformers from Damascus to Tehran."
Bush's job approval ratings have sunk sharply since his November 2004 reelection because of high gas prices, concerns about the economy and growing concerns about Iraq as the US death toll has risen beyond 2,140 soldiers.
The president said Sunni Arabs, who have fueled the bloody insurgency, were increasingly taking part in their country's politics after boycotting January elections and would turn out in large numbers.
Non-Iraqi extremists and Saddam loyalists "lack popular support, and over time, they can be marginalized and defeated by the security forces of a free Iraq," said Bush.
He also warned that violence would continue even after the vote, and he laid out how to measure progress toward the day when the United States can bring home its roughly 160,000 troops amid a growing chorus of calls for a withdrawal.
Bush said victory will have been achieved when extremists and Saddam loyalists are no longer a threat to Iraq's democracy, when Iraqi security forces are self-sufficient and when Iraq is not a "safe haven" for terrorists.
"These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq," said the president. "We cannot -- and will not -- leave Iraq until victory is achieved."
Bush acknowledged that the war had sharply divided the United States and that intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programs had turned out to be false, but he sharply rebuked "irresponsible" charges that he had deliberately misled the country.
"These charges are pure politics. They hurt the morale of our troops," he declared, saying that even countries which opposed the war agreed that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq -- and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities," he said.
But US media have quoted French and German intelligence officials in recent weeks as saying that they repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, warned Washington that crucial parts of its case for war were flawed or outright false.
German intelligence officials warned their US counterparts that accounts from an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, a critical US source for charges that Iraq possessed mobile germ weapons labs, could not be confirmed and, in many cases, were deeply suspect, The Los Angeles Times reported in November.
The same daily quoted a former senior French intelligence official on Sunday as saying that Paris tried for months to warn the CIA that there was no evidence to support a US allegation that Iraq had tried to purchase nuclear weapons material in Africa.