President Bush, once again, ignored the fact that the United States has always opposed torture and has spoken out when our soldiers were mistreated by other countries. We can no longer claim that torture is not a part of our culture. Other countries can simply do what they want with our people and we can not object on the basis of a civilized nation. We are now "kissing cousins" with the likes of the N. Vietnamese, Communist Russia, and Sadaam Hussien. Granted, we, hopefully, are not nearly as cruel as they, but we have admitted to using torture and the leader of the free world has condoned it. What a sorry state of affairs!
Bush has succeeded in placing our military personnel in even greater danger if they are captured. Enemies can easily use the excuse that we do it also, so what is the problem? Our standing in the world, which was once that of integrity and standing up for the Geneva Conventions has been lowered even farther.
Once we were able to admonish other nations for aggression against sovereign nations. We can no longer do that because we invaded Iraq without provocation. We have an aggressive, uncompromising leader who will not negotiate or even talk to those who oppose us. Our biggest enemy during the 30 years following the cold war was Russia. We kept open communications with them. I shudder to think what might have happened if Bush had been President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My guess is that I would not be here writing this today. It is simply amazing that he was re-elected for a second term.
At least we have less than a year of such poor leadership. No matter who is elected in November, it will certainly be better than today. Neither Democratic candidate will condone torture. One thing we certainly can count on. John McCain, a military man and a victim of torture, will bring an end to any torture that our people are carrying out.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
My Greatest Political Fear
On the day following the big primaries in Texas and Ohio, my greatest political fear is that the Democrats will self destruct. Clinton in her stubborn quest to be president, will drag the race out until there has been so much sniping and mudslinging on both sides, that the current enthusiasm shown by voters will die an unfortunate death. John McCain will be left to enjoy the spoils of the Democrats stupid bickering and the United States will suffer through four or eight more years of backward Republican rule.
McCain, for all his talk about the environment and his past stands on issues related to abortion, stem cell research, etc., and his "independence," would be forced by the heavy handed extremists in the Republican party, to embrace their "ideals." We would be back under the "Bush Conservatism" and the country would continue to fall into Bush's abyss of extremism toward our citizens and our adversaries around the world. The economy is already a mess, so there isn't much he can hurt there. He has already said he knows little about the economy, and he has embraced the old Reagan era economic conservatives, who know only to cut the taxes of the rich, so that prosperity will "trickle down" to the rest of us. Health care costs, trade issues, the "war" in Iraq, etc are in danger of bringing us down, and I see McCain doing little to solve them.
One can only hope that the Bush endorsement will be the kiss of death for McCain's campaign. Unfortunately, there is still a large contingent of voters who worship the ground Bush walks on, and will do anything he says to do. There are many other voters who will allow themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and he has certainly done that over the past seven years.
I will keep my faith in the voters for one more election. Hopefully, this time, they will do the right thing and take us away from this inclination toward losing our civil liberties, unprovoked agression toward other countries, a refusal to negotiate with those who are hostile toward us, giving tax cuts to the rich, and total disregard for the middle and lower classes.
McCain, for all his talk about the environment and his past stands on issues related to abortion, stem cell research, etc., and his "independence," would be forced by the heavy handed extremists in the Republican party, to embrace their "ideals." We would be back under the "Bush Conservatism" and the country would continue to fall into Bush's abyss of extremism toward our citizens and our adversaries around the world. The economy is already a mess, so there isn't much he can hurt there. He has already said he knows little about the economy, and he has embraced the old Reagan era economic conservatives, who know only to cut the taxes of the rich, so that prosperity will "trickle down" to the rest of us. Health care costs, trade issues, the "war" in Iraq, etc are in danger of bringing us down, and I see McCain doing little to solve them.
One can only hope that the Bush endorsement will be the kiss of death for McCain's campaign. Unfortunately, there is still a large contingent of voters who worship the ground Bush walks on, and will do anything he says to do. There are many other voters who will allow themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and he has certainly done that over the past seven years.
I will keep my faith in the voters for one more election. Hopefully, this time, they will do the right thing and take us away from this inclination toward losing our civil liberties, unprovoked agression toward other countries, a refusal to negotiate with those who are hostile toward us, giving tax cuts to the rich, and total disregard for the middle and lower classes.
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