The Very Worst President of the United States

Enter Stage Right ^ | Aug. 11, 2003 | Bruce Walker

[JohnGalt]

"As for the idea that we should kill those who would kill us, that is just common sense. "

'We' or kids from Iowa and Wisconsin?

It is logical for me to conclude that Max Boot thinks Wilson's world view is something to be emulated (thus Wilson is a hero of Boot's) just as its logical for you to deny a very simply fact.

You doth protest too much.

[William McKinley]

We being our country, and its volunteer military.

Even your favorite President used troops to forcefully project American interests abroad.

[William McKinley]

Wilson's world view and Boot's are considerably different, unless you believe that Wilson's worldview is the same as Reagan's and both Roosevelts' (in which case, the designation is meaningless).

As a matter of fact, the very article you posted to has Boot rejecting much if not most of Wilson's worldview.

Yet you act as if it doesn't. I don't know why you are assuming, on a text based message board, that people cannot read. They can, and they can clearly see that you suffered from very poor reading comprehension on Boot's article, and have refused to back off of it.

[JohnGalt]

Never to build a 'global hegemony' some geek from Harvard dream up while on holiday.

Did you think Reagan made a mistake, as the neoconservatives say, when he pulled the troops out of Lebanon after the Beruit barracks bombing?

Should be a good litmus test on where you stand...

[citizen]

bttt

[JohnGalt]

Why would a conservative of Boot's ilk even mention Wilson? Again, thou doth protest too much. Most neutral readers could plainly ascertain that Boot is attempting to reconcile the internationalist position as demonstrated by Woodrow Wilson to that of the conservative lexicon.

You can be a denialist all you want, it does not change the obvious.

Neither of the Roosevelts were particularly conservative on anything, and Teddy Roosevelt in particula did a lot of damage to the office by being such a public persona. Reagan simply held the office after over 100 years of generally declining Executive leadership.

[William McKinley]

At the time, I do not think it was a mistake, given what we knew and the state of the world at the time.

Given how things turned out, do you believe that withdrawing our troops after a terrorist attack helped quell terrorism?

Should be a good litmus test for where you stand.

[JohnGalt]

Do you think Thomas Sowell also has "very poor reading comprehension on Boot's article?"

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20030106.shtml

[JohnGalt]

What a lawyer like response, I'll take that as a nonanswer.

'Terrorism' continued at the pace it had been before and after Beruit.

[William McKinley]

Why, actually, yes. In this case, I do think he suffered from shockingly poor reading comprehension in this instance.

Either that or he forgot that just because milk is white, and chalk is white, does not mean that milk is chalk.

This conversation was beyond boring quite a while ago. Feel free to continue flogging the dead horse. Eventually, it may dawn on you to get off it, because no matter how hard you whip it, you aren't going to win this race.

[Bullish]

leftists forget history so they can relive it.

[JohnGalt]

You are skipping 87.

[William McKinley]

Not lawyerlike at all. Let's see, you have tried to compare me to a neocon, to a fascist, and now to a lawyer. Keep throwing stuff out, you may get something to stick if you try long enough!

Good to see you admitted that Reagan's removal of troops did nothing to prevent terrorism.

Now if we could only get you to realize, like most rational people did after 9/11, that terrorism must be actively eradicated...

Anyway, I'm done. Feel free to get as many last words as you want.

[JohnGalt]

88 that is.

[William McKinley]

You obviously are not reading carefully. I responded to that above each of your whines that I was ignoring it.

I'm out.

[JohnGalt]

Reagan's removal of troops neither prevented or encouraged terrorism, but its your claim that the removal of troops encouraged terrorism, no?

9/11 was the result of the CIA and worthless government agencies not being able, like any government agencey, provide a service they have given. Radical Islam was tapped by the CIA to fight the Cold War and later in Kosovo, I doubt you have spent much time looking at the paper trail but its alarming.

The CIA company men must have laughed at their luck that a team of amateurs in the White House were willing to blame the whole thing on Iraq.


Still waiting on Thomas Sowell's poor reading comprehension skills...

[JohnGalt]

Good commentary from Thomas Sowell on why the neoconservatives don't have much negative to say about Wilson:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20030106.shtml

[PJ-Comix]

His famous (or infamous) "Cross of Gold" speech referred to the same "New York Jews" that seem to have so troubled Harry Truman.

Huh? No it didn't. Bryan had his share of faults but there was no such reference in the "Cross of Gold" speech.

[Burkeman1]

My tag line is a Coolidge quote. Bump.

[Burkeman1]

There is little question in my mind that had America not been aiding the allies with munitions and loans they would have lost. Even when we entered the war Wilson had no clue how close to defeat the allies were. He didn't even think that American troops would be needed in Europe and that our participation would be mostly naval. The allies had done a good job of hiding how bad things were for them from Wilson and the American public (one of the first British acts of the War was to cut a transatlantic cable from Germany to the United States and then a backup one in Liberia so that news sharply limited from only the allied perspective). Marshal Petain said to Pershing upon his arrival ahead of any troops "I just hope it isn't too late." Pershing was shocked at the military situation from what America had been lead to believe - that the allies were about to win. In March of 1918 before any significant American presence was in Europe- the Germans launched the "Kaiser Battle" which nearly took Paris.