Reply #56: Agree completely [View All]

[ljm2002]

In even 50 or 100 years, it will be crystal clear what went on. Right now we are too much in it. Right now, it is too easy for people to say there are parallels between the right wing hatred of Clinton and the left wing hatred of Bush. What they miss, of course, is the basis (or lack of same) for the hatred. Clinton was actively investigated for all the years he was in office, and they found that he had an illicit affair. Bush runs the most secretive administration since Nixon and no one dares to investigate even one of the smelly deals he has been involved in, from Harken to the numerous conflicts of interest of the current administration to Cheney's energy meetings to the pre-9/11 put options to the fighters that were not scrambled on 9/11 -- you get the idea.

The fact is, the positions are not parallel. I'm not saying that everything bad we suspect about Bush and his team are correct; I am saying that we have many more facts to support our position on this than the right had against Clinton. Yes, my feelings are as visceral against Bush as theirs were (and still are) against Clinton. But my feelings are based on more factual information.

And before anyone goes accusing me of knee jerk responses, please understand something. When 9/11 happened, my feelings of patriotism came to the forefront in a big way. I felt a distress for those killed, and a deep love of my country and its ideals. I supported invading Afghanistan, not as an act of vengeance, but because I thought we could not wait for an international police action to bring down the Al Qaeda scum who were ensconced there. In the event, though, it became clear that my ideas and the Bush team's ideas of how to effectively fight terror were a bit different...

I had been willing to give Bush my support after 9/11, believing him to be sincere in his response to this horrific act. Certainly he said some of the right things about not viewing all Muslims as terrorists and about not taking it out on our fellow Americans of Arabic descent. But after Afghanistan, I started taking a closer look. I came to DU, I heard about the "trifecta" remarks, I started following all of the 9/11 stuff (his non-action at Booker Elementary; the put options; no jets scrambled; no investigation; etc., etc.). And it started falling into place.

I make no apology for my hatred of Bush and his cronies. It is a well considered hatred. What I feel is based on my own research, and on corroborated facts about who he is and what he represents. I can't prove anything about various assassinations, but I've seen the Booker video. I've listened to the testimony of the 9/11 wives before the commission. I've followed the whole obscene buildup to the invasion of Iraq -- from Andy Card's acknowledgment that it was a marketing campaign, to the disgusting dissembling they used to justify what was a foregone conclusion, to their use of Shock and Awe. These people are wrong, evil and bad, and they need to be stopped if there is any hope that we will get our country back. And right now, I'm not at all certain that we will succeed.

Now that was a rant!