Re: Are there too many conservatives on this forum?
I've tackled this before, but I will try again.<br />The notion that dems "hate" Bush is ridiculous on its face, and an invention of right wing talk radio.<br />We don't hate Bush. We hate his policies. There is a huge difference, and this is not personal.<br /><br />But you can take virtually any policy of Bush/Cheney and this administration and find lots of reasons to hate it.<br /><br />Take for example, your example of Kosovo vs. Iraq, as you brought up.<br /><br />Kosovo had fallen victim to specific current policy of ethnic cleansing, and was a specific immeidate threat to their citizens. We, along with a real coalition of Nato forces, took them out, and then immediately turned over the cleanup of that country to Nato, and international forces, which, by the way, is working pretty well. Not perfect, perhaps, but pretty well.<br /><br />Iraq, on the other hand, was billed as an imminent threat to the US, and was sold on that basis. Whether it was the notion that they were close to being a nuclear threat (which we knew was incorrect) or that there was an Al-qaeda connection (which the CIA had said all along was incorrect) or that there were WMD's, which while problematic, no one, not even Israel, considered them an "imminent threat". But we rushed into war.<br />And now we hear that this is really a war about Iraqi "freedom"--that Saddam was a bad guy who years ago committed atrocities (with WMD's supplied by us to fight the Iranians, of course)<br />Sure he was a bad guy, but there are lots of bad guys out there--Milosovic was indeed imminent, and Saddam was not...<br /><br />And now we really find out that this was some sort of neo-conservative grand plan to turn Iraq into this mid-eastern model of democracy that is going to cause all the rest of the dictatorships of the mid east to crumble under the pressure of this new found Iraqi freedom.<br /><br />Now that is indeed a noble goal, perhaps, if not a fair bit naive and full of wishful thinking ("The Iraqis are going to greet us with open arms") But it was not what was sold to us.<br /><br />And now we steadfastly refuse to let anyone else like the UN in to help reorganize Iraq, and seem to hope somehow this will all work out--and now we hear that we are going to turn over Iraq to the Iraqis on July 1--does anyone really think this is even remotely possible? Who do we turn control over to once Bremer leaves? Who knows, but anyone who thinks this will work is simply naive.<br /><br />All the while we had an enemy, we still have an enemy, that is indeed an imminent threat to the rest of the world in the form of Osama and Alqaeda--unfortunately techniques need to be utilized other than cruise missiles and tanks for this enemy--cooperation, coordiantion, diplomacy, are necessary for this war, and those are skills this administration sorely lacks.<br /><br />It is not a hatred of Bush personally. It is a hatred of his policies, and the notion that this country is isolating itself on a tack that will not possibly have good results--<br /><br />Sure a schoolyard bully gets his way for a while--He even may get some others to give up their lunch money--but eventually they figure out a way of getting even somehow, and he never gains respect, even if he does generate a fair bit of fear.<br /><br />For the record, I do hope the dems shape their message better. so far Kerry has, in my opinion, not done very well, and I hope he improves. For an articulate response from dem political leaders, you have to go listen to Mario Cuomo or Joe Biden---and I hope Kerry does indeed listen to them--time will tell.<br /><br />As far as too many conservatives on this board--I no longer know what a conservative even is, so would not even know how to answer it.
