COMMENTS
Posted,
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 7:20 pm
I read your precious articles “dutifully” and
find them very good, interesting and informative. I hold your work and through
it your person in high esteem.
I fully agree with the
content of your latest article on failed presidency of G.W. Bush. However, I
have one small remark, as to the sentence in which you rightly said the
Bush-Cheney administration exploited the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I hope you did
not mean that those terrorist attacks (and they were terrorist, criminal acts!)
were acts of certain foreign terrorists, Moslems, Arabs or Afganians or some
mysterious Osama bin Laden (CIA agent!). I believe that you perfectly know who
the real terrorists were; that they were the domestic, i.e. American government
terrorists, including the highest government officials, not mentioning the
perpetrators or collaborators, accomplices to the crime from the CIA, FBI, FAA,
the US Air force, etc.
Jan
Posted,
Saturday, October 18, 2008 11:45 am
I write from Norway. Thank you for the essay. I very much
like your opening quotations.
But,
by putting the blame so much on Bush and Cheney, you release the US Congress
and the US population from any responsibilities. You are making aggressors into
victims. The US population owes immense reparations to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sometime a team of right minded economists or a team of anti-war economics grad
students, perhaps in alliance with some political history students, should
start computing the reparations owed. Include lost personal and family incomes
due to deaths and handicapping, adding on the interest and inflation
adjustments. Lost opportunity costs for individuals and the society. How much
should be the penalty per child for having lost a decade of educational
preparations. Reconstruction costs. Costs of PTSD and other traumas. All of
this with inflation adjustments and compounding interest. It should be a very
big number. Then divide it proportionately to the nations in the Coalition of
the Willing, in proportion to how many soldiers they sent. Iceland, Holland, El
Salvador, etc. those populations should know what they should pay for having
voluntarily contributed to an illegal and brutal destruction of another
people... I very, very much want the populations of the Coalition of the
Willing to know what they have done, and that they should pay for the crimes
that they have done. I want the Dutch and the Poles and especially the British
to know that they should budget, xx billions of dollars annually for yy numbers
of years as their reparations to the Iraqi people.
It is a big mistake, I think, to narrow this all down to
Bush and Cheney. They, along with Tony Blair, should go to war crimes trials.
Yes. But the supporting politicians and population should pay. A lot. For a
long time.
Floyd
Posted,
Saturday, October 18, 2008 12:43 pm
I have just now finished reading your
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10598
(The Failed Presidency of George W. Bush: A Dismal
Legacy)
You said it all and said it perfectly. I cannot figure
out how we got here.
Best I can do is reflect on the end of Mark Twain's
"Mysterious Stranger", where the devil acts surprised that the
victims didn't realize it was all a dream.
-"Strange, indeed, that you should not have
suspected that your universe and its contents were only dreams, visions,
fiction!
- Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically
insane--like all dreams ..."
Posted,
Saturday, October 18, 2008 1:11 pm
I believe that from the perspective of a rational humane
individual the Bush Presidency was a failure but for the powers that placed him
into the Presidency, the past eight years have been a rounding success.
Steve
Posted,
Saturday, October 18, 2008 10:24 am
I just read your new article regarding the
"record" of our current president. It is really powerful,
frighteningly so. It is that quality of "lawlessness" I thought about
as I read your description of Bush's war making enterprises. Yes, it does seem
that Bush is frantically rushing at the present time to extend and solidify his
policies for world domination in both militaristic and economic fronts. It is
alarming to witness how rapidly he continues to try to consolidate more and
more power away from the American people. And how, as Investor-In-Chief he is
using Paulson to move more and more money to the top. Maybe I am a little
cynical about the intentions of Bush and Paulson and Bernanke ( an intelligent tragic
figure in the situation who knows more of the truth than he is allowed to say,
like Colin Powell on Iraq?). But when they speak about a crisis, I think they
are just thinking about the wealthy, and reaching out to all taxpayers to
support them in their great needs!
It is a great summary of the presidency of Bush II,
really frightening to contemplate the direction he has taken the world in many
ways. Thank you again.
Joe
Posted,
Friday, October 17, 2008 11:35 pm
Thanks for your very comprehensive and insightful survey
of the Bush/Neocon Maladministration.
Three things occur to me.
(1) That
Bush was able to continue in this deleterious and heinous manner for TWO terms
(8 years) is also an indictment of either the rationality or character of most
Americans or else of the American systems for disseminating public information,
holding elections, or doing the business of government.
E.g., if an 'enfant terrible' runs rampant all weekend
and destroys much of his own home, the parents would bear ultimate
responsibility.
(2)
The costly, destructive wars remained largely popular at home at least until
2007 because there was a great initial provocation. Also, with civil rights for
principal target groups now well protected, frustrated bigots of various stripe
were relieved when it became 'open season' on Muslims and Arabs.
Finally, during the pre-detente years of cold and hot
wars involving Russia, China/Korea, Cuba, Viet-Nam, and our Levantine client
state, the patriotism of many Americans had devolved into chauvinism or
jingoism.
Thus, it was only when the colossal explicit and
opportunity costs of the wars (like $3 to $5 gasoHOL and milk) began to disrupt
everyday American life that dissatisfaction reached 'critical mass'. And when
the 'Greenspun' 'house of cards' that had financed both 'guns and butter' came
tumbling down, blindsided Americans unraveled along with the economy.
Nonetheless, you certainly captured the broad sweep of
Bushwhacked America.
(3) As many Israelis oppose the oil-&-land wars, and
Rabin was killed for his 'peace-mongering', the problem with US foreign policy
has not so much been that it has been pro-Israel as that it has been aligned
with far-right Likudnik warhawks.
As General & President Eisenhower had said, we should
beware the "military-industrial complex", not feed it more and more
of our human and material resources.
Johnny
(Home: TheNewAmericanEmpire.com)