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.
Excellent post and link.
Yes, he sincerely wants to destroy America.
But Mr. President is dead wrong on Shamnesty.
Comment:
Yep you whipper snapper this ole boy is jest a stopid, egorant, begotid, arrowminded right of center individual.
I prayed for George Bush and was on many a prayer thread during those hard election days.
Like many on FR, I am a US citizen by birth and served in the military during the Vietnam era.
I believe just the fact that I am a citizen gives me the right to question any politician about whether their doing right or wrong for this country.
I believe the real description of an ignorant,narrow minded individual is sort a like that of a partisan Mushroom politician sitting in a dark Washington D.C. cave, ignoring the sunlight of the majorities wishes and thriving on what ever political manure is fed to them.
Tell me your not really with Trench Lott, Arlo Spincter, Limply Gramnesty, Murdering Ted Kennedy and Hairy Read on this travesty supported by less than 4 percent of America?
“So I absolutely disagree with the President on his illegal immigrant amnesty program - but I know he’s doing it because he thinks its the right thing to do (as opposed to the country club republicans who want cheap labor, and the democrats that want to speed up our slide into socialism).”
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(Sigh).........true.
.
Wow THAT really means a lot.
Sincerity alone is not much of a virtue. GWB sincerely wants to welcome millions of illegal immigrants into this country.
If this nativism movement leads to the election of Hillary Clinton I will hold you and the others responsible.
If people want to put in Duncan Hunter or individuals they deem enforcers of immigration law then more power to them.
Given such options, I see no reason for people to seek the disgrace of this President. The tearing down of the President is part of a larger agenda to make America unworkable and broken.
There are major crossing areas that 854 miles would close down. If you look at a map and do some research, you'll see that there are vast areas that are nearly impossible to cross,due to deserts or mountainous terrain.
Keep looking for excuses, and I'll keep providing the answers.
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.
So what you mean to say is, you don't have much confidence in the current Administration.
Marking.
If people want to put in Duncan Hunter or individuals they deem enforcers of immigration law then more power to them.
Given such options, I see no reason for people to seek the disgrace of this President. The tearing down of the President is part of a larger agenda to make America unworkable and broken.
REPLY:
Again I give you the example of of someone blind to what the majority of Americans want from their government.
“I believe the real description of an ignorant,narrow minded individual is sort a like that of a partisan Mushroom politician sitting in a dark Washington D.C. cave, ignoring the sunlight of the majorities wishes and thriving on what ever political manure is fed to them.”
Senor lonestar67 are you a Mushroom or an individual?
I believe your statement of who is to blame for this Shamnesty belongs on the shoulders of congress and the president.
However, the ultimate blame belongs to the individual voter for not choosing political leaders who represent their political views.
You call me naivete but Senor lonestar67, I am not the one who has angered 90 plus percent of the country over a bill being rammed down citizens throats.
Yes I am a supporter of my former neighbor Duncan Hunter.
If he dosen’t get the nomination then I plan on supporting any of the other candidates that get that honor.
I believe that that person will probably be Fred Thompson.
All of the current Republican candidates are better than any of the Democrat candidates combined.
I can not stop you from making inaccurate statements about my past or present support for many of the programs the president holds near and dear.
This immigration bill as put forward by Kennedy, Spinctor and others is just plain bad for America.
Just the lowly opinions of a red state wannabe.
I offered you reasonable ground in this debate— you rejected it.
So, you are Pro Shamnesty.
In rejecting the current immigration bill which increases enforcement you show yourself to be pro border breakdown.
The status quo has less limits on immigration than the new bill.
You are pro illegal immigration.
Your advocacy is shamnesty.
Thx.
Sends chills up my spine, and makes me buy lots more ammo, BTW.
And I will hold you and other rose-colored glasses wearing locksteppers responsible. If you cannot see what is happening to the GOP and WHO is really responsible you have no business commenting on a political board.
Although I'm sure that won't stop you.
In the 1990s, the Buchannan brigades put Bill and Hill in.’
This crowd has an obligation to demonstrate successful electoral arguments.
I do not see it yet.
I see a lot of anger and not a lot of thought.
Thought = Shamnesty.
Fence, deportation, enforce the border = Righteous rage of nativism
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