My beliefs as a conservative

ehBeth, The national debt keeps increasing because 1) tax cuts for the wealthy, 2) a war that's costing 4 to 5 billion every month, 3) a growing economy, but with higher productivity rather than increased employment, 4) this administration and congress (controlled by the conservatives) continue to spend money they don't have, and 5) they continue to talk about making the tax cuts permanent, and increasing the national debt by 1 to 2 trillion dollars by Bush's private savings account.

Thanks, C.I.!
I should think we would all have tired by now of the Grand Excuse for Bush's failures. 9/11 is used to justify everything from the economy, the loss of 15,000+ young lives in a meaningless war, to the suppression of American freedoms. Enough already!

Meaningless?!

Please. Why even bother posting such tripe?

When the "tripe" is true...

It can hardly be considered tripe if it is true...and it is tripe.

No matter what your position may be on the Iraqi War, to describe it as "meaningless" is ludicrous in the extreme.

It is here that you [I]Ranting Liberals [/I[/b]]need to take heed.

There is no profit derived from hyperbolic emmisions.

For the sake of A2K discourse and the sake of your own self-respect, pause for at least a moment before you ejaculate these idiotic assertions.

Maybe YOU should pause (a very long time) when you treat the deaths of more than 15,000 youths as meaningful when the Iraq war that killed them is so controversial--in America (forget the rest of the world). History will prove you wrong if you cannot see the reality now, because of your social conditioning. Don't get tangled in your flag, Finn; it will obscure your vision.

Meaningless?

http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/legacyofterror.html

Amen, JLN. Agree 100 percent!

Oh how clever you are JL, I'm, almost, stunned into silence.

For a moment, climb down off your sanctimonious high horse and consider the question with intellect rather than emotion.

That an event, an idea, a plan, or a mechanism is controversial, in no way makes it meaningless.

I know this is hard for you Liberals to grasp, but because you don't agree with a meaning, doesn't mean the action is meaningless.

I cannot see your point of view because it is idiotic. If this is the product of social conditioning, than I have been fortunate to reside within an intelligent society. Mores the pity, you have not.

Finn, there are MANY intelligent people who see this war as not only meaningless (for the U.S. getting involved at all), but egregious, criminal, and a complete waste of American military resources which could have been put to better use dealing with such explosive situations like, oh, let's see:

Taiwan/China relations
North Korea
Tsunami relief (imagine if we had more resources)

Just to name a few.

I guess it's o.k. to you that the premise for invading Iraq, and the psychological buildup, has born nothing from it's original intent. We protested in the streets, condeming Bush's actions, and predictied exactly what is taking place today in Iraq, with the death of thousands upon thousands of Iraqis and U.S. Solders, and an violent insurgency hellbent on kicking the Americans out.

No wonder recruitment is down 27% for the Army.

If they only listened to us when we chanted in the streets.

Sounds like you're sitting firmly on YOUR sanctimonious high horse, Finn.

Parsing words isn't going to bring back the sons and daughters who were sent over there to Iraq.

So, what did they die for?

Your byline quote seems rather appropriate regarding your last quote, despite the sh*thole Iraq is currently turning into.

Does it surprise you that the Iraqi people felt safer under Saddam?

I don't think you would find a lot of Iraqis who would opt for Saddam over what they have now. And military recruitments are not down 27%; they missed their last month's recruitment goal by 27% partly due to parents telling their kids to delay sighing up and partly due to the strong economy offering better incentives than military pay and life. This is troublesome since we are at war; however it is not unusual and a check back through the Clinton years shows many months in which recruitment goals were missed.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/4/143054.shtml

I'm sorry, Fox, but I don't find any credibility in Newsmax whatsoever, especially when there are nothing but rabid neoconservative ads plastered everywhere.

The problem NOW is that recruitment goals are more crucial than ever as our military has been stretched WAY too thin by this illegal war in Iraq.

Although, the part about parents telling their kids to delay signing up seems a little specious; they would rather them not sign up at ALL! And it's because of this illegal war in Iraq, and the fact that U.S. soldiers are being killed every day by a violent insurgency.

Fair enough. I wouldn't have accepted your stats if they came from Salon or some place like that either.

I'll try to find some more stuff later but I gotta get to work here.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/06/military.recruiting.reut/

Thanx for the link, McGentrix. Less spin on the CNN site. Amazing how the language between the two articles can be so starkly different.

At least CNN doesn't have "evil" looking Republicans staring at you whilst a byline warns about what they don't want us to hear...

Of course they wouldn't, Fox. It is the duplicitous nature of the Iraqis that gets glossed over by the American press. They hated Saddam, and they ALSO hate us. And despite Saddam's dictatorial rule, there WERE less bombings, more employment, and much more freedom of movement within their country. But keep in mind; that isn't by any means an endorsement of Saddam. What it indicates is that Bush has done an absolutely lousy job of convincing Iraqis that we are there to liberate them, when the Iraqis themselves feel even LESS liberated. We are NOT winning their "hearts and minds."

And now we have Karen Hughes to try and smooth relations with the Middle East? Oh my...

Dookie, PR is a hard sell when their hearts and minds are reminded every day with bombs and death that security is still a long way off. It will be interesting to watch.

C.I.:

I can't imagine what effect Karen Hughes could possibly have on improving the Iraqi's perception of the U.S. occupation.

Perhaps fake newscasts, paid for by this administration, will do the trick.

David Frum, former Bush speechwriter, has a great column on Karen Hughes in The National Post today. I'm hoping it pops into his free, on-line diary tomorrow.

He's got some interesting comments on Karen Hughes last go-round trying to do media targeted at the Middle East. Given his credentials, I marvelled at his review of her odds of success.

This just goes to show how removed president Bush is to reality.