You can't have love and rhetoric without the blood, blood's compulsory ya see...

[wushi]

Bush said:
The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time.Alright, I don't entirely agree with this premise, but am willing to go along with it for the moment. Let us accept that the Middle East represents a challenge that is the decisive ideological

Comments

[black_op]

Give a military all the funding you can imagine... if the corporations being paid for a. supplying some of the military's needs 'in country' and b. rebuilding infrastructure continue to 1. overcharge, 2. perform substandard work, 3. lose billions of dollars, 4. lose thousands of weapons and 5. act in such a way as to anger the natives, or 6. otherwise screw-up... If that is the case... and it is... and the gov't refuses to investigate where called for and prosecute where sufficient evidence already exists and CONTINUES TO GIVE THESE COMPANIES CONTRACTS AND $$$$$ AND NO ONE STEPS FORWARD AND DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT DO THE MINIMUM REQUIRED TO CLAIM TO BE SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...
...
Then all that exists are traitors, the misinformed, the uninformed, the insane, and the complicit. By every DOD estimate from 1980-1999 U.S. and allied troops are doing better than expected with fewer personel than called for in those estimates. Compared to all the other players the men and women stationed in Iraq are miracle workers. Could Iraq be stabilized by foreigners after all the mistakes which have been made thus far? Maybe... but no plan involving the escalation of troops has a chance without 'redeploying' the companies, the politicians, and the diplomats who have been fornicating with the canine so far(and charging the appropriate individuals with war-profiteering, miscarriage of justice, etc.). Enabling the start of a nation capable of reliably providing justice to its citizens abroad will not take place until we demand it here.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[wushi]

Oh certainly, the nepotism has to stop. Here, though, the President has cast our ongoing strife in the Middle East as an epic struggle on par with World War 2, and the Cold War. Both of these struggles caused the US government to levy considerable funds to update the military (70 Billion now to get our military back to the state it was in prior to our little "adventure" in Iraq...and that's just equipment). Both also called for a drastic increase in the size of the deployed army, and thus an increase in the size of the overall military. In this day and age that means higher taxes and a draft.

Clearly oversight is a requirement, and I am hoping that the change of party control of Congress will begin that process. But, Bush should attempt to match his rhetoric with action. I do not have much hope that he will, but a "good" and "moral" person would not use such words without the intent to follow them with action.

But right now, it's second verse, same as the first...just louder.

[black_op]

I agree with you. Without the activities that made us the powerhouse we were in WWII (rationing, taxation, war bonds, draft, etc.) Bushes arguements (and strategic style) have a bark to bite ratio that is way to high to get the job done. I just get frustrated at the corruption and the interruption (sometimes permanent) of families by the family values president. Sorry for the rant earlier.