All smiles here...Semper Fi!
 

Honestly, the media as a whole needs to stop bullshitting. As we speak, the majority of the "liberal" media outlets doing the "unfair" reporting are owned by the same tiny group of people that own the "fair and balanced" options.

Both sides exist to bitch about the other while doing the same things they complain about.

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Although you may feel righteous in pointing out the differences in body counts between all the people you named, you're ignoring the context of some of these events to make a point. Body counts, no matter how compelling, do not determine rightness or who won. Do recall that, while they may not have won many (or any) battles and lost a hell of a lot of people, Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap won the Vietnam War.

You cannot blame all of the casualties in World War II on Hitler. Blame the Western world as a whole for attempting to placate him rather than taking action against his blatant breaking of the Treaty of Versailles. Blame the Allies for presenting Germany with a totally different document than Germany agreed to at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles punished Germany and Germany alone for a war that grew out of a dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. It escalated because of alliances on both sides. Singling out one country for all the punishment was wrong. Don't blame the Germans for taking to someone that promised them a better future after the Allies destroyed them morally, economically, and then had the gall to put them in a position where they couldn't even defend themselves as a country.

If anyone gets to be pissed about the large number of casualties outside of Jews and other "undesirables" Hilter wanted gone, it's the Russians. They lost more people than anyone else.

Truman dropped the A-bomb to prevent the mass slaughter of US military forces that would be accrued in an attempt to launch an amphibious assault against Japan in order to take it during WWII. A lot more people would have died if he hadn't. Many more people died before the use of nuclear weaponry because of the devastating effects of fire-bombing (as attempting to bomb strategic manufacturing sites, like ball bearing factories, was ineffective): entire expanses of civilization were wiped out because Japanese structures were largely wood and what would be the fire department was off at war.

If Truman hadn't done what he did, you would be calling him weak for not sending a message to the Japanese after we were attacked on our own soil.

With regard to the other President Bush, he would've been in a world of trouble if he would've disobeyed his orders while serving. You, Hess, are no better and you would do the same thing. That's the pot calling the kettle black.

As for his son, this is where we differ.

After 9/11, we had the support of the world in any action we wanted to take. This opportunity in the wake of such diversity was squandered. It was one thing to say that we needed to root out terrorists in Afghanistan; it's another to falsify documents about uranium sales to Iraq.

He has turned patriotism in to a political bone of contention: not supporting his actions is the same as not supporting the troops or our country. That is garbage. I, personally, am sick of my friends coming home dead or emotionally and physically wounded from a war that they were not properly equipped to wage. I am sick of them coming home and being unable to get the help they need. I would rather our people be home and hale than fighting a two-front war for dubious reasons.

I do not support a president that is instrumental in eroding laws that protect our environment. I do not support the degradation of the separation between church and state. I do not support a president that allows his people to repress sound science because it does not jive with what he wants to hear. I do not support the overall dumbing down of my country through No Child Left Behind, which has improved test scores without improving education and retention, and abstinence-only sex ed programs that drive up the rates of STDs.

Our president, surrounded by his yes men, fully believes that he is "the decider." He believes that he is above the law. Most importantly, he believes that the citizens of this country are stupid.

"Some traced phone calls" is oversimplification. This started before 9/11: "within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.” AT&T is being sued for its part in helping the NSA spy on US CITIZENS. It is not a few phone calls either: Mark Klein, who says he stumbled upon a secret room at an company facility in San Francisco that was reserved for the N.S.A. Company documents he obtained and other former AT&T employees have lent some support to his claim that the facility gave the agency access to a range of domestic and international Internet traffic. This is no different from Yahoo! supplying information to China that was pivotal to the case that country made in jailing two journalists for "spreading pro-democracy writings." As a result of the class-action lawsuit, Congress is trying to rush through legislation giving telecom companies retroactive immunity for their complicity in this issue.

Overthrowing the Taliban was admirable, but we plunged the country back in to chaos. Since we invaded Afghanistan, heroin production has sky-rocketed. We still do not have Osama bin Laden. The Taliban still exists. Terrorism still exists.

The oppressive regime in Iraq is one that we helped establish and maintain. Have you not seen the picture of one Donald Rumsfeld with Saddam Hussein? He was indispensable in reopening diplomatic ties with Iraq in the 1980s and was there when it was obvious the country had chemical weapons during the Iraq-Iran war. Apparently we did not care: it was reported that "the defeat of Iraq in the 3-year-old war with Iran would be ‘contrary to U.S. interests’ " less than two weeks after Rumsfeld met with Hussein in December of '83. Also curious is that, as soon as we removed the country from the terrorist list, we began selling it military equipment (like Hueys) although Congress disapproved.

Al Qaeda is the brain child of a Saudi national and the 9/11 attacks crew was mostly Saudi as well, perhaps we should start knocking on Saudi Arabia's door. But we won't: he has a vested interest in keeping his ties with big oil and OPEC strong. Halliburton is making money hand over fist so long as we keep wasting money on offensives that do not meet the objectives set forth in both the Weinberger and Powell doctrines.

As we speak, my mother is facing the serious possibility of having to go to Iraq for her job. The contracts the government has awarded have been mismanaged: not only are we being charged out the ass by our private contractors, but our people are being bribed to make sure that continues to happen. They want to DEPLOY my mom and people like her without hazard pay or tax-free earnings or a lot of the same security you can expect as a soldier to fix a mess that shouldn't have started. They specifically reclassified her job so they could force people to go because no one wanted to volunteer to work in the parts of Iraq where they are almost guaranteed to get their heads blown off.

On a larger scale, the war on terrorism has not solved anything. Although there have not been any attacks on US soil that are on the same scale as 9/11, we live in a constant state of fear. That is the goal of terrorism: to make people afraid. This administration is only helping this aim through fear-mongering. Holding and torturing prisoners does not rid the world of terrorists: it makes martyrs and makes the case for joining their ranks all the more compelling. Terrorism is the product of an idea: not a country, not a political group, simply not tangible, and it sure as hell is not new. So long as we exist as a symbol of what is wrong in the world, there will always be terrorists who will want us gone. So long as change does not occur fast enough or on a large enough scale, if at all, for some people, there will always be terrorism.

In many ways, my country is in motherfucking shambles because of the work of a one man and his cronies over eight years that has ensured they continue to make out like bandits and the American people are too divided to stop it. The damage that he has done to our country goes far beyond how many people have died in Iraq. That's what makes him evil incarnate.


Remember this when we're paying off the debt for this war long after Bush and his ilk are dead.

Remember this if I get my head blown off in Iraq because I needed money to pay for school.
 

First, you need to understand that I wasn't judging any of the other prior American presidents in that comparison, merely providing a method of comparison. I am acutely familiar with the casualties of WWII and the projected casualties of the invasion of Japan. I don't blame ANY American serviceman for enemy lives they took in service of their country, I merely pointed out that President Bush the First HAS taken enemy lives.

Second, you and your mother have FREE WILL. If she doesn't want to go to Iraq as a civilian, SHE HAS THE OPTION TO QUIT. If it truly comes down to "Go to Iraq or find another job", she has that option. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO JOIN THE MILITARY. There ARE other ways to fund college, including the (admittedly distasteful) option of working for a semester or ten before going back to school. And even if you CHOOSE to join the military, there is no guarantee that you will wind up in Iraq. You could be killed at the barbecue your family throws you when you come home from training. And even should you go to Iraq, there's no guarantee you'd even be close enough to hear mortars going off, much less "get your head blown off".

Third, your country is NOT "in a motherfucking shambles". Unemployment is under 5%. Three times during President Bush the Second's terms the stock market broke records (over 14,000). The "state of fear" you speak of is an exaggeration brought on by a media that loves bad news because it sells papers; I DO feel safer knowing that there are even more safeguards to prevent terrorist attacks than there were before 11 Sept 2001, and aside from minor inconvenience at the airport (most of which I personally mitigate by carrying my luggage and wearing my uniform) there is little-to-no impact on my life by these safeguards. And honestly... if you're not saying anything dangerous, are you REALLY impacted by wiretapping? I know that's heretical and "fascist", but seriously... 99% of citizens of this country have NOTHING to fear from someone listening in on their conversations.

Fourth, the War on Terrorism actually dates back to well before Bush II's presidency. Decisions made by presidents of BOTH parties dating back to Nixon or beyond have contributed to the current threat of terrorism. I know damned well we trained Hussein, bin Laden, Aidid, Noriega, and MANY others; we felt they hated communism more'n they hated us, and it made sense at the time. Since the fall of communism, it has made less sense, and we have made efforts to hunt down each of those bastards... some efforts more successful than others.

Fifth, the environment doesn't need our protection. Mother Earth was here long before us, and she'll be here long after we're gone. I greatly disbelieve Heavenly Father would allow children to frak up His beautiful creation, and in the meantime "environmental regulation" causes our country more economic hardship than good. After all, in the words of Ronaldus Magnus, "The business of America is business".

Sixth, I CAN blame that worthless Viennese failed artist/artillery corporal/hatemonger for causing the most devastating war in history. Regardless of anyone else's actions, HE MADE THE CHOICES that saw: over 12 million slain in concentration camps; Britain bombed back to the Middle Ages in parts; countries overran, civilians killed (accidentally or otherwise), property siezed and destroyed. Above all, ADOLF HITLER CHOSE TO BEA MONSTER. Others may have reacted poorly to his monstrous decisions, but HE CHOSE TO BEHAVE AS HE DID. You take away an individual's responsibility for their choices and you create the opportunity for monsters like him.

Simply put, there are many ways President George W. Bush could have more positively impacted our country and the world, but I believe he sincerely acts in what HE believes to be the best manner for our country's welfare. If you disagree, act! Petition for impeachment, work for the campaign of one of his successors, flee the country, join the military, but ACT. Don't just sit there and call him a monster, because he is NOT. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Hussein, bin Laden, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Jong Il... THEY are monsters. They deliberately harm others and oppress their own countrymen (and others) for their own aggrandizement. Disagree with his policies, dislike him as a person, but you CANNOT honestly say that statement describes my Commander-in-Chief.

Lastly, I swore an oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC" (emphasis added), as did EVERY OTHER MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. The fact that President Bush is still very much alive (as a matter of fact, not even an attempt has been made on his life, as I recall) should signal to you that none of us who take our oath seriously feel he is that kind of danger.