Replies

"We don't have an election cycle to play around with. "

Sure we do. One thing I have learned as a teacher of American Government, about our government, is that nothing ever operates at the spped with which you seem to suggest.

"The murderous Islamaniacs will not call time out..."

Well, there hasn't been another attack on our soil since 9-11, and that is I'm sure partly due to the attrition of their groups by our SpecOps and Intel groups working where the rubber hits the road, not up in the ethereal levels of the Pentagon and Langley Puzzle Palaces. Although, I must admit, I'm a bit startled that it hasn't already happened.

".......another RAT weakens the military, strengthens the UN and plays havoc with our intelligence capabilities. "

I doubt seriously if the next RAT will RISK any significant weakening of our forces, I worry more about unilateral withdrawal of forces from places where they are still needed. I also worry about a unilateral weakening of SpecOps troops. I don't sweat the UN, at least in the short term of the next four years. They have to have Senate ratification for anything earth shaking. The UN is still trying to recover it's sense of relevance. Our intel, due to PAST RAT havoc, already can't GET much worse. The solutions aren't really available to either a Bush or a Kerry. I suspect we will continue to rely rather heavily on HUMANINT from MOSSAD and MI6 and others, until we can rebuild and that will likely take another ten years.

IF the AWB in any form reaches Bush's desk and he falls victim to your observation that he can't seem to veto anything, then I think he will have betrayed his oath of office and MUST be removed by the people.

"......he is also the best leader who could possibly be elected today and that is the important factor. THAT is the most important consideration. "

There are capable leaders everywhere. Heck, I'd take JEB over GW anyday! But I accept that GW is the nominal head of the Republican Party at this point in time. That's fine. But he is guilty of walking away from the conservative base that is his strongest line of support in order to curry favor with folks who align themselves with ideology that I consider flatly contrary to conservatism. Just because he sacrificed HIS integrity in this manner doesn't mean I'm going to sacrifice mine. Liberalism will destroy the country, eventually. Not right away. As I said, these things take time. But eventually. One thing I'm not going to do is: justshutupandtakeit!

There are certain times where proper action becomes critical and to not act ensures great misery and defeat. That was what we faced after 9/11. It required great leadership and that was what Bush provided.

You are correct that most times there is not a need to act with great urgency but we are not in those times now.

Taking the war to the enemy has made us safer and that is the indispensible leadership Bush supplied and why he must be retained for the good of the country. Those special ops and intel forces are useless unless they are employed and evidence indicates that Kerry would fall back on the Clinton policy of non-response to our enemies.

Surely you are aware that Kerry voted AGAINST providing the funds for our forces in Iraq after voting to allow them to go in. You would really risk elevating such leadership to the Oval office? There would be NO rebuilding under such a leader but further undermining of our Intel capacities and military ones as well.

Capable leaders are not necessarily electable as President or even Congress. Jeb Bush would do very little different than his brother. He has been attacked by the uncompromising purists as well on various fronts.