FunK wrote:Downhill. Don't take me as blind homer here. I know I may come off that way but I understand that Bush hasn't been the best. Hell he comes off as really stupid sometimes when he speaks. Sometimes I shake MY head at some of the stuff I hear. As far as Clinton goes, I don't mean to make this into a Bush / Clinton thread but it's fact that we were tracking Bin Laden via his sattelite phone, we know where he was and waited too long to send in the birds.
Takes a minimum of 45 mins to launch a tomahawk from a sub once the op order is issued. The problem has always been that he doesn't stay on the phone for 45 minutes, and he never uses the same phone twice. Unless your willing to blanket an area the size of half-a-state with nuclear weapons,, or unless there's a SEAL team hanging out at the local 7-11, 45 minutes is just too long to have a shot at anyone who always moves after using telecomms devices.
Do you remember the USS Cole and what we did after that? I remember the Cole. I don't remember much happening... The Embassy's in Africa. Yeah, I remember them but no real action against the enemy.. Mogadishu? Yeah, we left. Nothing accomplished.
Actually, I do remember the Cole. Apparently you don't though.
Clinton had less than 30 days after the bombers of the Cole were identified before he left office. Bush on the other hand had 234 days to do something about the Cole.. He responded by giving the Taliban $43 million dollars.
Bush ended Clinton executive order stopping all aid and trade to the Taliban for harboring bin Laden.
Mogadishu was a Bush 1 Operation. It was already a goat-**** by the time Clinton inherited it. Clinton authorized Bin Ladens killing after the embassy bombings and armed the CIA Predator drones over the objection of the Air Force. Bush stopped the Predators tracking OBL.
At least this time we have a goal of wiping these guys out.
Have they planned the best for contingencies? NO. I can agree there. The argument there is not enough troops, equipment, etc. I believe downsing was the previous admins goal and folks like Kerry voted against the money to equip them..
Cheney cut the Defense budget when he was Sec Def. He wanted to cut the Apache program altogether. He cut 25% of the army and reduced over all manning from 2.2 million to 1.6 million.
But I don't question their decision to go and I support their actions to try and do what's best. What I hate is the overwhelming stupidity I hear everyday on the news in regards to this kind of stuff. It's like this big bandwagon and it just gets bigger everyday.. Supporting Bush in any way shape or form is seen as bad. I don't see it that way. He's trying to do something that's damn near impossible. I guess that it comes with taking action. If you never do anything, you can't be judged for it.
And for years, daring to question ANYTHING the administration did or said was seen as bad. "Why do you hate America?" "Why do you love the terrorists?" "Why do you hate freedom?" and so on. The right created this lack of goodwill. Now they get to taste their own medicine. With luck, they'll learn to act like grownups. I wouldn't hold my breath though.
I just don't see how Americans supported this action and the president but now, he can't catch a break. Are we that fickle? Apparently we are. Which boils down to resolve. We lost it in Vietnam and the terrorist believe we will lose it again. I fear they might be right.
Do you have any idea what we were actually doing in Vietnam? Leave aside the Ramboesque "Domino theory" crap. Do you have any idea what we were actually doing there. Here's a clue. We were the people supporting the Saddam like regime that was the South Vietnamese gov't.
A president can get support when he's caught lying under oath about having his penis in an interns mouth. His approval can go up even when doing nothing to protect us against these terrorists. Another pres can take the fight to them, kill a bunch and promise to not let up but he is the bad guy.
You know, this is hooey. Bush's ratings are in the dumper because his policies both foreign and domestic are catching up with him. Listenign only to what you want to hear and charging ahead is not "Bold Leadership". It's thrashing around like a bull in a china shop. Pointless and destructive.
Iraq.. more terrorists today, or in 2000? Today.
US.. less prepared for natural disasters today, or in 2000. Today.
Iraq.. more violence today, or in 2000? Today.
US.. more national debt today, or in 2000? Today.
Is it starting to sink in? Unless you are fabulously wealthy, your actual income has gone down under this President. American casualties under Bush stand at 15568 WIA and 2097 KIA. To get a man who never had the weapons and never was ANY threat to this country.
I guess it has more to do with American Society. This honestly is the only thing I can attribute it to. Society says it's OK for elected officials to lie and have affairs but damnit when one stands up to an enemy that attacked us and fights, the ways in which he does it are questioned to no end. So what sways americans into this kind of thinking.. Media or lack of principles is really all I can think of. Seems this Pres has had the carpet snatched from under him on several occasions by his supporters and his supporters-turned-detractors.
It's called learning. Smart people learn from their mistakes.
That's not my style. I was raised better than that. I'll leave it at that. The lack of principles is partly what has half the Muslim world pissed at us and it's also the reason noone can support the pres. No spine in America anymore.
In other words, you by-god REFUSE to learn from your mistakes. You may think this makes you loyal. To most of the rest of us, it makes you look like one of the characters in Dumb and Dumber.
Easy to jump on with what's popular.... Much harder to stand up for whats right.
You're 100% correct. So let's hear YOU stand up and call for the firing of EVERY SINGLE ADMINISTRATION PERSON INVOLVED IN LEAKING THE NAME OF A CIA COVERT OPERATIVE!!
Well?
Time to stand up. If it's not too hard for you.
Regards,
-Bouncer-
One of these days I will have my pilots as well. Like you said tho. no cannons/missles/ejection/supersonic... 
