More interesting stuff from Charlie Reese

[Resistance Is Futile]

On Iraq
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030929/index.php


No, there is apparently something in the Bush genes that forbids ever admitting to having made a mistake. Such arrogance cost his father a second term, and it could do the same to the son's political ambition. In the father's case, he refused to apologize to the American people for breaking his promise never to allow new taxes.

Now, son Bush doesn't bring up the topic of weapons of mass destruction, except to say that he's sure they will find evidence of "programs." Well, dormant programs weren't used to sell Americans on going to war. Stockpiles and imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons were used to sell the war. That was, as Sen. Edward Kennedy has put it so bluntly, a fraud.


...


That old colonialist racism is manifesting itself in all these remarks about our having to tutor the Iraqis in running their own country. The Iraqis can govern themselves. They've been a nation as long as Finland and a civilization longer than Europe. Bush wants to stay in Iraq for purely economic reasons. He wants to make sure it's we, not the Iraqis, who decide who gets the business of a rebuilding a country. He doesn't want a democratic government in Iraq. He wants a puppet government that will follow his orders.

It's too bad Bush isn't a reader. He's following in the colonialist footsteps of the British. They tried occupation and found it was too bloody and costly, so they set up a puppet government. The Iraqis overthrew it. And the probability is high that they will drive us out and overthrow whatever puppet government we leave behind. The question is how many billions of dollars and how many American lives we want to spend teaching George Bush a lesson he should have learned at the library.



On Israel
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030924/index.php

As I write this, the United States has once again vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding that Israel not assassinate the elected leader of the Palestinians. Great God, how do you think that plays in the Arab world when we cannot bring ourselves to condemn what would be a war crime? It's no wonder the World Trade Center towers came down. It's no wonder American soldiers are ducks in an Iraqi shooting gallery. Israel is the source of terrorism in the Middle East, both that directed at it and that directed at us.

...

The question for Americans is this: How long do you want to bleed lives and treasure because your corrupt politicians have sold their souls to the lobby of a foreign country now led by a fanatic right-wing extremist?

On Shrubite propaganda and the value of education
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20030922/index.php

The question all of us should ponder is how we, a free people blessed with self-government, can avoid being manipulated by political leaders. The obvious answer is education. I saw a reference to a study recently that showed 69 percent of the Americans polled couldn't find Iraq on a map that was unmarked. That shows gross ignorance of geography. Add to that ignorance of world history, other people, other cultures and other religions, and you have a recipe for sheep that can easily be led by the nose.

I wonder how much overlap there is between the 69% who thought Iraq was connected to Sept 11 and the 69% who can't find Iraq on a map.

[DemoVet]

1. I think the genuine conservatives are waking up

and realizing that there's a difference between them and the regime. The Republican Party has been hijacked by radicals who are not conservative but deeply reactionary and totally amoral in their approach to obtaining and maintaining power.

The Republican Party now belongs to powermongers so blinded by their drive for domination, in our country as well as the world, that they have either no cognizence or caring that their actions will destroy our democracy. The party is beholden to a corporocracy that is so blinded by profit that they cannot see that impoverishing our citizens and undermining and destroying our democracy will ultimately ruin them, too. Don't they remember the 90's, before Bush took over? Weren't they all making just piles of money then?

The question is, will these conservatives get past the fact that Bush's opponent will be a Democrat and vote against him in 2004, or at least not vote out of disgust for him?