Our troops wore MOP gear in the blazing Iraqi desert in March 2003 for sport, right? Or maybe it was because all the world's top intelligence services believed Saddam had WMDs and was prepared to use them. Hosni Mubarak, even though he opposed the liberation of Iraq, warned Gen. Franks that Saddam would use WMDs on our troops.
Saddam had every intention of re-starting his WMD program once the weakening sanctions program was lifted. He was in continuous violation of the 1991 ceasefire, especially with regard to cooperating with WMD inspectors.
Your statement that the intel was faked and trumped up by the Bush administration is a favorite lefty lie.
Next: Arguably, but at what cost? $2 trillion between the war in Iraq, domestic security, and a sizable loss of freedom and privacy?
You're lying when you say we've lost freedoms under President Bush. What freedom have we lost? I'm not aware of any. But I've seen the Bush administration support the Second Amendment like no presidency has in decades.
We give up more of our privacy to everyone in the course of our daily actions and transactions than what the government picks up in national security surveillance.
As for cost, 9/11 wiped a trillion dollars out of our economy.
Next: (President Bush) cratered the economy, the public's trust, the conservative movement, AND America's moral and military prestige and clout.
The economy: President Bush inherited a recession followed hard by 9/11. His administration prosecuted corrupt CEOs who got away with their corruption under Clinton. He turned the economy around and it stayed strong until this fall.
He pushed for energy independence but got backstabbed by the likes of John McCain. He tried to reform Fannie and Freddie and Social Security but got stymied by elements in his own party. He resisted a minimum wage increase until the 'Rats forced it on him to fund the war effort. He cut taxes and did not raise them once.
As far as the other things he 'cratered', no it was the left, whose lies you gleefully regurgitate, that has led to the cratering of "America's moral and military prestige and clout."
Most of that is BS. Canada, Germany, France and Italy elected pro-Bush governments in recent years, replacing anti-Bush governments.
The left has waged a relentless propaganda campaign, aided and abetted by the Democrats, to undermine and humiliate President Bush at home and abroad by smearing and lying about him--just like you're doing here.
Next: Dubya ran as a Conservative and reigned as a Democrat on Steroids. He's pretty much admitted his intel was BS, as are the reasons for the Iraq War.
Again with the lies about Iraq. Sheesh.
President Bush ran as a 'compassionate conservative', not a movement conservative. He tried to temper liberal government programs that aren't going away anytime soon with conservative ideals.
His two 'big government' programs were No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Other than that he has been solidly pro-life, he has not encroached on the Second Amendment, he has cut taxes and not raised them, he has taken the fight to our terrorist enemies, he has promoted freedom around the world, he has held a light regulatory hand, he has appointed conservative judges and Supreme Court justices, he did not kow-tow to the unions, he slow-walked Kyoto and the environmental clap-trap, he opened up off-shore drilling and he's kept us safe since 9/11.
Al Gore is a Democrat on steroids. President Bush has been a center-right president whose administration has had more conservative success than Ronald Reagan's.
As for the border, our borders have always been open. President Bush has done more than any president in history with regard to the border and immigration. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do it, but do it he has. It is not enough for me, but I recognize the enormous change from previous administrations and that he responded to the will of the people after they furiously rejected his amnesty proposals.
I don't mind people criticizing President Bush. I mind the lying and smearing. He's a good man and doesn't deserve it.
well I see there are no replies to your very good post....I’ll say it again whether these people are on the right or on the left doesnt matter ,they are seriously disturbed.
One question I have for them is about Dick Cheney ...do they consider him a leftist RINO? an idiot ? was he asleep at the switch for 8 years allowing GW to destroy the GOP and the nation ?
Again ...the sickness around here is simply amazing.
Oh, to be sure, the leftist sycophancy would still spittle the hate and insults, but if the enemedia had not programmed the stupid populace to believer their lies so as to promote the political capital of the deeper enemies of the Republic, the democrats, what would honest discussion of Bush's amazing two terms sound like?
With the final slip into democrat oligarchy through the Obama administration, the writing of History will be disgusting to witness. We who can had better remember for those few who may want to know the actual history rather than the fantasies of deranged leftist sycophants of societal engineering.
And the 'liebertarians' are nearly as disgusting as the democrats since they are more than happy to deceive in order to try and up their meager numbers at the ballot box. The real enemy of the Republic has a useful idiot ally in these voices.
No Kristinn - let's start with this excerpt from the original thread article:
Bush said that his "biggest regret" was that he and his team got the intelligence wrong in Iraq. THIS is the overriding problem that is most disturbing.
What exactly did Dubya mean? Was the WMD intel misunderstood? Erroneous from the start? Or merely doctored and fluffed? Where ultimately does the buck stop?
As to assuming Saddam was fully willing and prepared to use WMD, so then too are other rogue states like N. Korea and Iran, yet we didn't invade those countries. FACT: NO threat was imminent.
Yes, Saddam was indeed repeatedly in violation of the 1991 ceasefire and refused to cooperate in a timely fashion, but did such violation justify invading Iraq? And so why again did we invade Iraq instead of merely bloodying its nose? Was the reason for an invasion the "WMD" or Iraq's violation of the 1991 Ceasefire? The administration seemed to have been caught hedging their bets. And how long did the mission take to turn into 'Nation Building'? Funny how while Bush himself campaigned, he claimed we were NOT in the business of 'Nation Building'...
"Your statement that the intel was faked and trumped up by the Bush administration is a favorite lefty lie."
My assessment is NOT a "lefty lie"; Dubya admitted getting the wrong intel. Connecting the dots leads any pursuer of truth and common sense to conclude that the intel was indeed theatrically massaged and subverted to usurp the American peoples' (and world) confidence and support for the invasion. You are entitled to believe otherwise.
"You're lying when you say we've lost freedoms under President Bush. What freedom have we lost? I'm not aware of any. But I've seen the Bush administration support the Second Amendment like no presidency has in decades...We give up more of our privacy to everyone in the course of our daily actions and transactions than what the government picks up in national security surveillance."
The Bush Administration has admittedly been a strong proponent of the Second Amendment. Thank God. However, intrusive TSA and Homeland Security (aka "secret") measures have infringed on the privacy of millions of low-risk Americans, while the inconvenience of so-called "security protocols" (as at airports) has clearly been nothing but window dressing. Do you support internet monitoring by the government? Oh...And I don't know where you live, but there are now "security" surveillance cameras located on many roads in my town and state. Do you feel these are necessary, or should the state be allowed to stick camera on every street corner as well?
"The economy: President Bush inherited a recession followed hard by 9/11. His administration prosecuted corrupt CEOs who got away with their corruption under Clinton. He turned the economy around and it stayed strong until this fall."
Too bad the Bush Administration retained so many Clinton US attorney holdovers or else maybe Bubba himself might have been snagged. Of course who was to know that he'd be appointed 'Ambassador' along with Poppy Bush.
Look - THIS is the bottomline for 'President George Bush's economy' circa 2008:
1) $1+ Trillion wasted for an unnecessary Iraq War (and "Nation Building")
2) Bush's advocacy of $440 Billion wasted thru CRA for making homeowners out of deadbeats.
3) Minimum $700+ billion for the Wall St. Bail Out
4) Importation of foreign and illegal labor which has helped facilitate state and federal debt
5) The subsidizing of 20 millions illegal Invading Mexican/South American foreigners foreigners have overloaded of health care facilities and American taxpayers.
So now what is the true cost or rather detriment to the U.S. economy because of Dubya Bush's administrative malfeasance?
"He [Bush] pushed for energy independence but got backstabbed by the likes of John McCain. He tried to reform Fannie and Freddie and Social Security but got stymied by elements in his own party. He resisted a minimum wage increase until the 'Rats forced it on him to fund the war effort. He cut taxes and did not raise them once."
Bush didn't push very hard did he if McCorpse was able to nudge him out of the way. As far as Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, again, Dubya did not succeed in making a strong enough case, nor was he able to lead or inspire those in his own party (nevermind he NEVER learned to use the veto pen regarding across-the-board spending.)
"I don't mind people criticizing President Bush. I mind the lying and smearing. He's a good man and doesn't deserve it."
You see things through your own rose-colored glasses, Kristinn. Or maybe rather it's an ideologiocal kaleidescope. I admire your loyalty to the man and his Administration, but the Presidency of George W. Bush was marked by globalist-RINO inspired Party-before-Principle politics and policies. He and his faction of the GOP have left the Party a cadaver, and the country in shambles. At least in 1980 we had Reagan to fall back onto; This time the mess is left to a Far-Left Marxist loon. THAT shall be Dubya's "legacy."
May God help us.