Posted on 04/12/2008 12:31:48 AM PDT by T.L.Sink
In this final year of the Bush presidency, what was once a doctrine of preemption has given way to a weird presumption that threats that Washington doesn't officially acknowledge somehoe won't hurt us. It's an alarming sign when CIA director Michael Hayden says, as he did on NBC that, personally, he believes Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, but officially he stands by the NIE report that maybe they aren't. So America sails on, under the fiction that nothing dramatic need be done, despite Hayden's further warning that in Iran, "the development of fissile material, the development of delivery systems, continue apace." Likewise, the administration's special envoy for human rights in North Korea warned that the Six-Party Talks have failed. In Rice-world, these nuclear ventures can be stopped with failed talks, Iran's nuclear quest can be contained with U.N. resolutions, and peace in the Middle East can be built by downplaying Palestinian terrorism to clinch the umpteenth "peace" deal between Palestinians and Israelis. These fantasies are a strange counterpoint to the surge in Iraq where the administration has correctly understood that America must win. But Iraq is the exception, not the rule.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
You’re right. A strong and committed President can exercise LEADERSHIP which can mobilize public and congressional support. The Executive branch can be as influential - sometimes moreso - in shaping policy as the Legislative.
You’re right - Bush is not conservative and I don’t think any true conservatives believe he is. He’s given us the biggest entitlement (prescription drugs) since LBJ; in his first term he refused to veto every piece of wasteful, earmarked, pork legislation that came before him. Yes, he cut taxes but that was nullified by a spending binge that would shame many liberals! By the way, we don’t feel the pinch right now but Heritage has projected that the unfunded liability of the drug program will saddle the next generation with a multi-trillion dollar debt.
A cartoon is worth a thousand words!
That’s a really good question. I’d guess that it takes a lot to make Americans fighting mad, and sometimes we’re slow in recognizing who our enemies really are, but eventually we get the picture and then - look out! The question, in my opinion, is whether or not today we have the capacity to respond as a unified country in time. By that I mean that we are a balkanized nation - consisting of so many ethnocentric, racial, and commercial special interest groups that we seldom speak with one voice. That impedes decisive and unified action. We see that PC thought, moral equivalence, and cultural relativity have infected all our educational, political and social structures. Have we lost what’s necessary to act as America traditionally has?
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