Posted on 05/17/2004 7:32:27 PM PDT by new cruelty
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros on Monday stepped up his attack on President George W. Bush's international policies, saying the U.S. war on terror had claimed more innocent lives than the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Soros said the invasion of Afghanistan could be justified because the Taliban had helped al Qaeda, but the invasion of Iraq "could not be similarly justified."
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York, he further charged that recently published photographs of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners were "not a case of a few bad apples, but a pattern tolerated and even encouraged by the authorities."
"We claim to be liberators, but we turned into oppressors," Hungarian-born Soros said of U.S. actions in Iraq.
Soros has been a staunch critic of the Republican administration's policy on Iraq and has donated or pledged at least $12.5 million to the Democratic campaign to defeat Bush in the November elections.
"September 11 was a traumatic event that shook the nation to its core -- but it would not have changed the course of history for the worse if President Bush had not responded the way he did," Soros said.
"Declaring war on terrorism was understandable, perhaps even appropriate, as a figure of speech. But the president meant it literally and that is when things started going seriously wrong."
Soros said now that the U.S. position in Iraq had become "unsustainable," it was handing over power to local militias.
"This prepares the ground for religious and ethnic divisions and possible civil war in the manner of Bosnia rather than Western-style democracy," he said.
Soros said the United States must not fight terrorism by creating new victims. "By succumbing to fear, we are doing the terrorists' bidding -- we are unleashing a vicious circle of violence," he said.
"If we go on like this, we may find ourselves in a permanent state of war."
Hmmmmmm? So many anti-Bush, anti-war on terror posting these days.
Terrorism has been reduced worldwide. Soros is an enemy of America.
Soros and the damned campaign finance reform just has my blood boiling. While the recent FEC ruling that allows 527 corporations to freely spend on ads, while in clear violation to the spirit of the law, nonetheless upholds the right of people to spend their money on political messages.
But the net effect, compared with the pre McCain-Feingold era, is that now, all this unlimited money comes in through 527s which need not report their sources vs. the old soft-money channels that used to have to report their donors. It is this important change that will allow foreigners to royally screw with our election system, and not be held to public scrutiny as was done (at least in part) with Clinton's ChiCom connections. Now we won't have a clue who is buying the influence.
And George Soros is leading the way, that b$#@ard.
Do these leftists even KNOW how to give a speech without turning it into a partisan, poisonous rant?
What's with this "we" crap?
What a hateful man! How many Iraqis have been saved from killing by Saddam's goon squads?
That line made me laugh out loud!
Soros is so far out of touch that it's mind boggling. Never in the history of warfare has there been a more surgical war waged. This Country and its Defense Dept. made every effort to limit the loss of innocent life.
In Afghanistan we were dropping humanitarian supplies to the people of Afghanistan at the same time we were waging war on the Taliban. In Iraq, we went to great pains calculating exactly what munitions to use on each and every target in order to limit the loss of innocent life.
Maybe this leftist dirtbag George Soros should spend some time reviewing the innocent life that wasn't considered, and lost, when Clinton ordered the bombing of Belgrade.
The RAT in his pocket, of course.
"Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York" = Preaching to the choir.
I guess old Georgie is heavily invested in the terror structure. This must be killing him financially.
Exactly.
Personally I dont like to use the adhesive backing stickers since they usually dont come off very well.
I think a long political commercial by the GOP detailing Soros’s intention is needed. It should explain how he has vowed to get President Bush defeated and end with the question if we are going to allow him to select our next president, or if we are going to show Soros that America can’t be bought and reelect President Bush in a landslide. I think it would be a very effective ad.
What's he mean "We"?? Anyway, isn't this euro-trash a convicted felon? How come nobody ever mentions this?
HOW COULD SOMEONE BE SO ANTI-AMERICAN? HE IS TRULY AN ENEMY OF THIS COUNTRY. PLEASE DEPORT SOROS. A VERY EVIL MAN.
So Soros thinks we should only be all talk and no action against terrorists?
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