Posted on 06/21/2007 6:45:17 PM PDT by SJackson
IN THE CURRENT by GOLDA SHIRA By . (06/15/2007) President George Bush is my hero. No, this is not another Bush joke. The truth is that I have come to see him as a man of rare integrity. What a guy!
No, I wouldn't have said those things seven years ago. I certainly wasn't keen on the mechanics of his election. And I wasn't voting for a guy who started out not too interested in international involvements, certainly not in the Middle East.
Yet he has risen to the challenges presented during his presidency with courage and enormous self-sacrifice.
So you think he's doing this for daddy? You think he's doing this for a legacy?
How could that be? Look what he is enduring-not only constantly being the butt of jokes and (friends of) Pelosi's spitting through her teeth seething contempt, but also facing a 66% disapproval rating.
Doesn't seem to me that that's trying to win a popularity contest.
Except maybe Upstairs. Where it really counts. I think the man is really trying to do the right thing. No, it's not easy for me to say. Yes, I have very dear friends who have served and are about to go back to Iraq. My heart is in my mouth not only for them and their families but also for my very own sleepless nights and the anguish I endure every day they are away.
But that is the greatness of what America is and hopefully always will be: a nation willing to make wrenching sacrifices in the name of freedom and democracy.
It isn't easy. And we like easy. While we sit in our leather easy chairs and watch the biggest and newest HD flat screen TV and relieve our boredom with the latest flavor of chips (Tuscany parmesan sea salt guacamole salsa baked) and get really irate about the ending of "The Sopranos," or really annoyed that we can't see how much blood got spilled when someone got whacked on our favorite permutation of "CSI" because some special was on. While our domestic crime statistics rise and we blithely go about our business unwilling to do much to stop that senseless bloodshed, we are nonetheless enraged that our country has the nobility to stand up for the very values upon which this country was founded.
We can pretend otherwise but we pretend at our peril.
We love our violence but we love it only if it's wrapped up in 60 minutes. We choose instead the myopic focus on Paris Hilton and Jennifer Aniston's new boyfriend.
"Don't bring me down with this war stuff, man. War is not peace, man." And it sure as heck ain't easy.
Okay, so did we go into Iraq the right way? No. Did we make grave errors in how this war has been fought? Absolutely.
But there, too, the President again is humble enough to admit that. And to change course and put in men like General David Petraeus so we will correct course and do better. And we are.
Listen to our amazingly brave soldiers who almost unanimously say they want to stay and get the job done. They know it won't be fast and they know it won't be easy. They and the President know that to leave now is inviting greater tragedy the likes of which most Americans cannot conceive.
We elect leaders to lead and Mr. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have embodied the statesmanship to be true leaders in the face of unrelenting scathing attacks. And because Mr. Blair knew he was right, he willingly sacrificed his position as prime minister rather than back down.
Hello? Is anyone awake out there? Politicians don't do that. Leaders of true stature do. Risk themselves and their reputations and their good name for all time to come in the name of what is for the greater good.
They know the real and present danger global terrorism is, and not just because they're privy to intelligence we're not. They, and any of us who have lived or spent ample time in the region, know we're dealing with a mentality and an insidious and pervasive many-headed hydra that obviously most Americans can't and don't want to understand.
Until the next 9/11 or worse, G-d forbid. (Until then, we're back to our cushy routines. And they are cushy compared to the standard of living of the average Iraqi. Or the average Israeli.)
I think it presumptuous, ignorant and arrogant of us to think otherwise. I could be wrong. No one wants another Vietnam. We Americans are a good-hearted, heroic nation.
For posterity, what will matter in the end is not how "The Sopranos" end, but how this war will end. How we, the mostly highly-educated boomers who live in the legacy of Woodstock, grow up and confront the reality for which previous generations were willing to fight. To fight for what's right, do what needs to be done, even if it's hard, especially if it's hard, in order to create peace not just in one country, one region but also to help bring it to the world.
Golda Shira is a multi award winning journalist (Columbia University Press Association, numerous Rockower awards) who has been part of the White House Press Corps for the past ten years and has covered the Middle East for the last three decades.
Yes... It is very hard to get a green card when you're already a U.S. national or citizen.
Sir are truly as dumb as you come across? We’re about to make what 10-15-20 million people eligible for welfare,disability and Social Security benefits and we can’t even pay for the people on these programs now.Are you honestly so foolish as to think putting these people on the government handout programs will just take care of itself ???
I didn't trust that bill and I'm glad it has been killed (if it has been killed) but I suspect that just like No Child Left Behind made our schools better (and that wouldn't have been and isn't my solution), Dubya's immigration bill would have improved things over the status quo.
What I fear most is that if enough conservatives refuse to compromise on letting a lot of those illegals remain, what we will get is a fast track to the bilingual/multicultural society the left wants. Illegals will be fast-tracked to citizenship as was apparently done in the Clinton years, and even allowed to vote without being citizens as is suggested in some places.
Pinging you to this post #116. Also to it’s companion post #110.
Care to comment?
Someone is paying attention.
You wouldn’t believe how many people fall for that.
Oh, I'm still here, but this Bush-Bot has gotten tired of arguing that we should extend trust to the President to enact his agenda. So far he's done a decent enough job that even when I disagree with him, I figure he's earned the right to count on my support regardless.
I agree with you. He is protecting us over there, while selling the entire country down the river over here.
The negatives far outweigh the positives, in my opinion.
Glad you’re still here!
I don’t think debating equates to bullying. I think people who can’t argue their positions tend to fall to a defensive attitude of calling other people names.Kinda like what D’craps do all the time !!!
President Reagan did not deal with terrorist problem. What action did he take when our Marines were blown up in their sleep hundreds of them?
Yeah right. Stop me, I'm hurting from laughing.
In this last couple weeks we've seen:
(1) Bush is calling Abbas and Fatah "moderates" and is going to let them get millions. "You're either with us, or with the terrorists" huh? Yeah right.
Bush on Abbas:"He has spoken out for moderation," Bush said at an Oval Office strategy session with Olmert. "He is a voice that is a reasonable voice amongst the extremists in your neighborhood."
Hundreds of millions heading to terrorists:To bolster Abbas, the United States and the European Union said they were ending a 15-month embargo that cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in direct aid after Hamas won elections and formed a government.
(2) Bush is weighing reaching out to the Muslim Brotherhood:
The Bush administration is quietly weighing the prospect of reaching out to the party that founded modern political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is the group that is the root of all terror groups. Either you're with us or...yeah.
(3) Bush is likely to move the dirtbag Muzzie terrorists out of Gitmo because of all the moonbat wailing and tranzie gnashing of teeth, not because it's the right or proper thing to do.
(4) Bush still fails to build a fence on our border with Mexico, the same border which his FBI chief admitted last year had been the scene of a Hezbollah smuggling operation:
FBI Director Robert Mueller said this week that his agency busted a smuggling ring organized by the terrorist group Hezbollah that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the U.S.
This is all going on THIS WEEK. He's not even competent with what was his strong suit -- the War on Terror.
As you go to bed, try to imagine the 15,000 Saudi students his administration has let into OUR COUNTRY. We already know what 15 of those bastards can do, I wonder what we'll get from 15,000. Sleep well.
Well, I have an unfair advantage. I was born in a U.S. territory and have my citizenship by virtue of my father’s citizenship when I was born. Otherwise, I’d be a U.S. National instead of a citizen. Puerto Ricans on the other hand are citizens at birth by virtue of a law passed by Congress.
I encourage you to perform a ‘down and dirty’ rhetorical analysis of recent posts here at FR . . . Now tell me, who is doing the name-calling and bullying? . . . And exactly how are these posters qualitatively different from those you call “D’craps”.
Love your posts. Nice job.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
I really think you have to include Woodrow Wilson in the list of worst presidents.
She misspelled zero. Why can’t people learn to spell?
True Leaders do not try to win popularity polls even when that would be far easier. President Bush will be judged very well looking back. They may criticize his stands on big issues since there are no good answers.
Pray for W and Our Troops
What a piece of highschool crap THAT was. I thought it was a joke as I was reading it. Then I was sure that “The Chicago Jewish Times” was a neighborhood vanity paper published on a mimeograph machine in some basement in an old line Jewish neighborhood, like Roosevelt Road.
Then, finally, at the end, I see this gal worked in the White House Press Corps. That explains it all. Peter Principle, anyone?
Not sure what you’re talking about,but I can tell you one thing. I couldn’t care less what you or anyone else thinks about people who challenge George Bush and his supporters on a number of issues starting with illegal amnesty. What I care about is the USA and the country we’re going to leave to our kids and grand kids. Bush is not a conservative and people who support him are not paying attention.He can take his opposition to stem cell research and shove it, if in exchange he’s going to give us illegal immigration instead !!
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