Mine too, senorita.
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.
Mine too, senorita.
The fence Israel built is working fine!
A fence will work, but only if the government actually wants it to!
Same for enforcing immigration laws.
Make a statement and stop eating, that will teach them.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Much of your list is redundant, in that it highlights Bush's actions on different aspects of the same issues.
Yes, his foreign policy has been pretty good. I say "pretty good" because of a couple of glaring problems. He refuses to follow his own rhetoric in terms of "those who sponsor terrorism", vis a vis Syria and Iran. "Say what he means and mean what he says?" It was an empty threat, and now everyone knows it. We're fighting the problem too far downstream. Since the actual source of the war is not Iraq, I think the conflict has been dragged out by refusing to attack the true problem.
-Did his state department lean hard on Israel after they had been brutally attacked with hundreds of rockets, essentially telling them not to hit the Islamists too hard in response? Yes. (A bit of a mixed message, wouldn't you say?)
On domestic policy, Bush's record is mixed.
He pushed tax cuts, yet presided over and promoted staggering increases in the size and reach of government. To wit:
-Did he push the "No Child Left Behind" act? Yes. (Still looking for Constitutional authority to regulate education...)
-Did he create the Department of Homeland Security? Yes.
-Did he create the Transportation Safety Administration, piling a huge, frustrating, ineffective bureaucracy onto American air travelers? Yes. ...at the same time that our borders are flashing neon "Welcome!" signs to anyone who cares to cross.
-Did he push the "Prescription Drug Benefit" (Medicare, Part D), significantly increasing the present and future burden of the Federal Government on taxpayers' wallets? Yes.
-Did he ever veto even a single appropriations bill, regardless of the staggering level of pork in it? No.
-Has he steadfastly refused to effectively enforce the law (of, by and for the people) with regard to immigration? Yes.
It doesn't take a 100% deviation to equal a betrayal. A father may continue to be kind to his children and provide his family with a home and food, but if he has an affair with another woman, he has betrayed his family. Bush is having an illicit affair with Mexico, and deriding Americans for daring to complain. Even if he's doing other things right, that's still betrayal.
THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN
And JW uses phrases like "probably". So it is pure speculation on the part of JW. It has been widely reported that those planes carried Bin Laden family members who had no contact with Osama, but were scared of retaliation because of their last name, so I am sure that the last name of Bin Laden probably did show up on the charter records. I can't find the info now, but I remember reading that one of the Saudi Princes was the one that initiated these flights and that no one in the Administration above Richard Clarke was aware of them at the time, Clarke admitted that. Finally, IMHO, JW hasn't had any credibility in a long time.
True - but Israel does things for their salvation as they are surrounded by enemies.
We have not seen that we are surrounded by enemies yet.
It cut crime, drugs and illegals crossing drastically.
BEFORE
AFTER
There is no doubt that a fence is an integral part of a secure border.It is the first step, not the only one!
Exactly. Bush has been clear on his position since his first term.
And he was re-elected.
Which is why these calls to try him for treason, tar and feather and impeach him just amaze me. Where have these people been?
Does your definition on credibility change with what the individual is working on. This information was in the report, he was honest enough to place both options in the title of the article. How does that lack credibility? When he attacked Hillary and Bill for their wrongdoing he had alot of credibility but when he finds something that was hidden, that should be displayed and discussed, he now lacks credibility.
It seems that the word credibility is the loser in this exchange. Diluting the word because of an emotional response does not change the fact that the terms either OBL or Saudi were used in the report released by the Freedom of Information Act and that they themselve had to go to court to remove redaction.
Thanks for your service, brother. Welcome Home!
They certainly don't seem to be thinking things through. Dubya has been a pretty decent president.
"We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans." ...Ronald Reagan.
We all love Reagan and someday GWB will get his due respect I hope.
I agree. More than once I've received email support advising me to stop wasting my time on these FR threads and directing me to some of these "more hospitable climes".
It's easy to see why the anger, hostility and just plain meanspirited tone of these threads drives rational thinkers away.
Unfortunately I've always found it fun arguing with inarticulate hot-headed neanderthals..
I say "unfortunately" because I am trying to discipline myself.
And the challenge is to remain cool and rational while making my points without getting sucked into the name-calling and personal insults.
I loved this. He is my hero as well, no matter how much he is detested here and elsewhere. He has the courage of his convictions, rare these days.
You're doing fine amd making good points.
Can’t anybody disagree with the president without being accused of detesting him? Good grief!
America's been having an "illicit affair with Mexico"...and LONG before Bush ever moved into the White House.
Bush is just being realistic about it.
I have the greatest admiration for RR. Truly a great man and a great President. However, I don't believe his statement can be construed as a plug for open borders. And when he made that statement he was not referring to 12-20 million people. Nor was he advocating that each illegal bring in every bloody relative up to and including 3rd cousins.
Nor were we experiencing an explosion of dangerous diseases brought in by these illegals when he was in office. He was an advocate of controlling our borders, and said just that.
No offense, but I am very tired of the argument that controlling OUR borders, enforcing OUR laws and protecting OUR citizens somehow demonstrates a lack of compassion. There is nothing compassionate about turning the United States into a larger northern version of Mexico. And make no mistake, that is precisely what will occur in the long run.
But, all they have to do is go farther east to where there is no fence.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in a fence if the people monitoring it are not allowed to arrest, stop, or even shoot at those breaking the law.
****Can’t anybody disagree with the president without being accused of detesting him? Good grief!****
YOur question/statement is a powder puff to answer.
MANY of US disagree with President Bush on the Illegal Immigration Issue (and have repeatedly so stated), who are the ones arguing with those like you, and we are the same ones calling a spade a spade when we see hateful, demeaning, anti-Bush rhetoric used to ruin every thread. Those are the ones we call for their despicable remarks, NOT someone who merely “disagrees with Bush”.
We ALL know it when we see it, and we will NOT be silenced and cowed into pretending it hasn’t ruined this site, not to mention trashed this President.
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