Funny how things change

ElMuertoMonkey

Remember a while back when Bush was talking all tough about Iraq and how only those who joined our cause would benefit from Iraq's reconstruction?

Well, months later, the benefits are no oil, a spiraling body count, and billions of dollars in bills we can't afford to pay. Our military is stretched thin and he knows it. Otherwise we wouldn't be talking to North Korea, a nation that truly deserves to have its rear kicked inside-out.

So now Bush is running to the U.N. for more troops. Oh sure, he can go on all he wants about how this is a move to internationalize the Iraqi peace effort, but what it boils down to is that he opened up his big mouth and bit off more than he could chew.

So much for American unilateral foreign policy and the notion that big talk makes for concrete results. Maybe he'll ask the U.N. for some aid when our economy finally bottoms out...

Rembrandt

...too many people use to getting fast drive through service and TV shows that conclude in one hour....perhaps they think foreign policy and rebuilding a country works the same way.

alledan

Politicians are politicians-what more could you expect?

ElMuertoMonkey

Rembrandt,
While I agree that our culture fosters a certain amount of impatience, your response does little, if anything, to address the issue. It's a nice little sound bite, but nothing else.

The fact is that Iraq's reconstruction is both a short-term problem and a long term one as well. We don't have the soldiers for it, we don't have the money for it, and, like it or not, a lot of Americans don't have the patience for it. Long gone are the days when America could live indefinitely on credit and Americans would tolerate privation for a cause. The former requires a more fiscal responsibility than we've been getting and the latter requires a good cause NOT motivated by personal greed and propped up by flimsy excuses.

Iraq has nothing to do with our security or that of the Middle East, not after the first Gulf War. And to say it did would be to admit that the first Gulf War was a failure.

So please, enlighten us all as to how we should resolve our current dilemma. And since Bush already tried rhetoric, something of more substance would be appreciated.

DancesWithSheep

quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey

So please, enlighten us all as to how we should resolve our current dilemma. And since Bush already tried rhetoric, something of more substance would be appreciated.

Easy. Print and sell Series-E Iraqi Freedom Bonds. Patriots buy 'em for their kids; when the bonds mature in twenty years, the kids can cash 'em in before deploying to Iraq.

HAIRY

Where's Saddam? [;)]

It's not what you know that gets you in trouble, it's what you know that just ain't so!
Resident Pyrrhonist

longhunter

Hairy........Really ..just where the h*** is this guy...you'd think tat...aw never mind......[xx(]

TOOLS1

Rembrandt Since the economy right now is so insecure. I have not had any work in two months. I dont have any work lined up. I am now haveing to sell some of my livestock. Next will be my car and then my guns and truck. Since you seem so optomistic you must be doing pretty well right now. So when they take my house and we are on the street. I guess you will take us in. Wont you?
TOOLS

General TOOLS RRG

Don't go blaming the beer. Hank Hill

So much Ice, So much Beer. So little time. Shooter4

I don't have an anger problem. I have an idiot problem. Hank Hill

When I was a child, I thought as a child. But now that I am grown, I just wish I could act like a child and get away with it.

Rawhide Pete

A resourceful man will always eat, somedays better than others.

beachmaster73

Well its all about Baptists and Catholics. The Baptists are the Shi'ites and the Catholics are the Sunni's. There are a whole lot of Koran thumpin Shi'ites in Iran and there are a whole lot of Koran thumpin Shi'ites in Iraq(not as many as in Iran but still a majority). And there are a couple(and I mean just a couple) of devote Sunnis in Saudi Arabia holding all the really cool Holy Places of Islam. So the Baptist Moslems want to take over the Vatican Moslems and remake it in their own image and likeness. Now the interesting thing is that in their own way the religious zealots of both groups tend to think alike.....they hate Christians and the non-Moslem world with a passion that can only be described as jihad. And into this caldron President Bush has gone nominally with the idea of slowing down the Baptist fervor.....He can sort of deal with the Saudi's and we certainly do need their calmness(at least by Middle Eastern standards) and thereby get enough gasoline to power all of our SUV's. Now the Vatican Moslems are scared out of their wits that these crazy Baptists are going to come sweeping into their kingdom, eliminate them(probably very painfully!), and set up a new Islamic Order. So they have been depending on a new Swiss Guard to protect the gates of the Kingdom. Instead of mercenaries from Switzerland they get Marines and Soldiers from the United States. The bottom line is that when the gates of the kingdom fall and the Shi'ites rule Islam and are sitting on all that oil....it's gonna be payback time on the Christians and we ain't seen nothing yet. If we can hold that line for a little while maybe the payback won't be as bad.....but it's coming and coming probably sooner than we think. Beach


P.S. I really have to stop sipping copious amounts of Scotch before I get on this computer. Beach

Big Sky Redneck

Aww heck Beach, sip away!

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Politicians are like diapers, every so often you need to change them, for obvious reasons.