Miss GW Yet?

[Benny B]

March 12, 2011
In Search of Monsters
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

The Iraq war hawks urging intervention in Libya are confident that there’s no way Libya could ever be another Iraq.

Of course, they never thought Iraq would be Iraq, either.

All President Obama needs to do, Paul Wolfowitz asserts, is man up, arm the Libyan rebels, support setting up a no-fly zone and wait for instant democracy.

It’s a cakewalk.

Didn’t we arm the rebels in Afghanistan in the ’80s? And didn’t many become Taliban and end up turning our own weapons on us? And didn’t one mujahadeen from Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden, go on to lead Al Qaeda?

So that worked out well.

Even now, with our deficit and military groaning from two wars in Muslim countries, interventionists on the left and the right insist it’s our duty to join the battle in a third Muslim country.

“It is both morally right and in America’s strategic interest to enable the Libyans to fight for themselves,” Wolfowitz wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

You would think that a major architect of the disastrous wars and interminable occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq would have the good manners to shut up and take up horticulture. But the neo-con naif has no shame.

After all, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates told West Point cadets last month, “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”

Gates boldly batted back the Cakewalk Brigade — which includes John McCain, Joe Lieberman and John Kerry — bluntly telling Congress last week: “Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses. That’s the way you do a no-fly zone. And then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down. But that’s the way it starts.”

Wolfowitz, Rummy’s No. 2 in W.’s War Department, pushed to divert attention from Afghanistan and move on to Iraq; he pressed the canards that Saddam and Osama were linked and that we were in danger from Saddam’s phantom W.M.D.s; he promised that the Iraq invasion would end quickly and gleefully; he slapped back Gen. Eric Shinseki when he said securing Iraq would require several hundred thousand troops; and he claimed that rebuilding Iraq would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues.

How wrong, deceptive and deadly can you be and still get to lecture President Obama on his moral obligations?

Wolfowitz was driven to invade Iraq and proselytize for the Libyan rebels partly because of his guilt over how the Bush I administration coldly deserted the Shiites and Kurds who were urged to rise up against Saddam at the end of the 1991 gulf war. Saddam sent out helicopters to slaughter thousands. (A NATO no-fly zone did not stop that.)

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is also monstrous, slaughtering civilians and hiring mercenaries to kill rebels.

It’s hard to know how to proceed, but in his rush, Wolfowitz never even seems to have a good understanding of the tribal thickets he wants America to wade into. In Foreign Affairs, Frederic Wehrey notes that “for four decades Libya has been largely terra incognita ... ‘like throwing darts at balloons in a dark room,’ as one senior Western diplomat put it to me.”

Leslie Gelb warns in The Daily Beast that no doubt some rebels are noble fighters, but some “could turn out to be thugs, thieves, and would-be new dictators. Surely, some will be Islamic extremists. One or more might turn into another Col. Qaddafi after gaining power. Indeed, when the good colonel led the Libyan coup in 1969, many right-thinking Westerners thought him to be a modernizing democrat.”

Reformed interventionist David Rieff, who wrote the book “At the Point of a Gun,” which criticizes “the messianic dream of remaking the world in either the image of American democracy or of the legal utopias of international human rights law,” told me that after Iraq: “America doesn’t have the credibility to make war in the Arab world. Our touch in this is actually counterproductive.”

He continued: “Qaddafi is a terrible man, but I don’t think it’s the business of the United States to overthrow him. Those who want America to support democratic movements and insurrections by force if necessary wherever there’s a chance of them succeeding are committing the United States to endless wars of altruism. And that’s folly.”

He quotes John Quincy Adams about America: “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy ... she is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

As for Wolfowitz, Rieff notes drily, “He should have stayed a mathematician.”

[Soul Crusher]

He continued: “Qaddafi is a terrible man, but I don’t think it’s the business of the United States to overthrow him. Those who want America to support democratic movements and insurrections by force if necessary wherever there’s a chance of them succeeding are committing the United States to endless wars of altruism. And that’s folly.”


________________________ ________________________ _____________


Funny - obama has different standards for Egypt, Honduras Lybia, Bahrain, etc. 

HOLLA! 

[Benny B]

Benny - please tell me in one serious way Obama is better than Bush on any issue whatsoever.   Pick any one you like. 

1.

Obama Created More Jobs in One Year Than Bush Created in Eight
Yesterday morning, the Labor Department released its employment data for December, showing that the U.S. economy ended the year by adding 113,000 private sector jobs, knocking the unemployment rate down sharply from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent — its lowest rate since July 2009. The “surprising drop — which was far better than the modest step-down economists had forecast — was the steepest one-month fall since 1998.” October and November’s jobs numbers were also revised upward by almost 80,000 each. Still, 14.5 million Americans remain unemployed, and jobs will have to be created much faster in coming months for the country to pull itself out of the economic doldrums.

Responding the jobs report, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) noted that President Obama and the Democratic Congress have created “more jobs in 2010 than President Bush did over eight years.”

Indeed, from February 2001, Bush’s first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, the economy added just 1 million jobs. By contrast, in 2010 alone, the economy added at least 1.1 million jobs. This chart, produced by Pelosi’s office, demonstrates the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration on jobs:

As the Wall Street Journal noted in the last month of Bush’s term, the former president had the “worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.”And job creation under Bush was anemic long before the recession began. Bush’s supply-side economics “fostered the weakest jobs and income growth in more than six decades,” along with “sluggish business investment and weak gross domestic product growth,” the Center for American Progress’ Joshua Picker explained. “On every major measurement” of income and employment, “the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms,” the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein observed, parsing Census data.

 

[Soul Crusher]

 

[Benny B]

Mar, 10, 2011
Obama's wise restraint echoes first President Bush
The Dallas Morning News

On the day the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, I remember watching President George H.W. Bush react with reserve and an absence of gloating despite the sheer size of that victory for democracy, signaling the West's triumph in the Cold War.

Bush's low-key stance drew some criticism. But combined with subsequent encouragement of both Soviet restraint and the region's democratic forces, it helped pave the way for a peaceful transition that ended nearly five decades of artificial political and military barriers within Europe.

In a sense, the democratic revolutions sweeping the Arab world bear some similarities to the ones two decades ago in Eastern Europe. They, too, reflect the impact of a global communications revolution, although they basically represent indigenous uprisings fueled by long-simmering resentment of authoritarian rule.

And President Obama, coping with the same sorts of issues the Bush faced two decades ago, is showing the same wise restraint, despite pressure for a more assertive U.S. role, especially in the bitter struggle now enmeshing Libya.

Obama's path ultimately should turn out to be the best one, especially since the Arab world's transition may prove far more complex than Eastern Europe's transformation from Soviet satellite to sometimes uneasy partners with the West.

The countries that stretch from Morocco in northwest Africa to the oil-rich Persian Gulf emirates make up one of the world's most volatile regions, partly due to continuing tensions from the Arab-Israeli dispute and partly from strains within Islam itself.

Not only does Obama's careful approach resemble that of Bush, it also mirrors those of other Cold War presidents from both parties who resisted direct U.S. involvement in the sporadic anti-Soviet uprisings that rocked Eastern Europe from World War II to the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Like them, he seeks to encourage the spread of democracy while avoiding anything that makes the U.S. an issue in the uprisings or undermines the fragile stability of a region on whose rich oil supplies Americans remain heavily dependent.

Obama showed how to balance those tensions in his evolving response to the demonstrations that caused the ouster of Egypt's longtime pro-U.S. president, Hosni Mubarak. Initially restrained because Mubarak has so often supported U.S. policies, Obama helped show him the door when it became evident change was inevitable.

In Libya, by contrast, the U.S. position has been less ambivalent and more direct, namely because the country's embattled leader, Moammar Gadhafi, is an unstable despot not particularly friendly to this country and because a speedy resolution will help ensure the continued flow of oil.

Obama is considering joining top U.S. allies in implementing some sort of an international "no-fly" zone to protect Libyan rebels. But Obama has wisely resisted pressure for a more active U.S. military role from those who seem determined to ignore the lessons from Vietnam to Iraq, in that what seems simple to start can turn complicated, costly and virtually unending.

Future events in the Arab world are likely to proceed with unforeseen twists and turns, given the vagaries of the Arab-Israeli dispute and the parallel conflicts within Islam between fundamentalist and modernist forces and between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.

So far, leaders of the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings seem to reflect the U.S. hope that democratic, pro-U.S. governments will emerge. But fundamentalist forces are major players in Yemen, and the future seems especially hazy in places like Saudi Arabia.

Still, Obama shows he understands that while these countries continue to play an important role affecting American security, the U.S. can't control events in them. Failure to heed that lesson could detract from the positive forces already at work.

[Soul Crusher]

Nah - bama is too distracted with picking bball brackets, partying, drinking, boozing, snorting coke, scarfing down kobe beef, champaigne, caviar, etc. 

[George Whorewell]

Oh brother--- more idiocy from another affirmative action flunky.  

You mean the first President Bush? The one who invaded Iraq in the early 90's and then promptly left without cleaning up the mess he caused, thereby allowing Saddam to remain in power?

You have your tounge so far up Obamas ass that you are too stupid to recognize the fact that if he wasn't a "brother" you would have absolutely nothing good to say about him.

The economy is much worse, our position in the world is much worse, the country is more divided, taxes are higher, jobs are fewer, confidence is at an all time low across the board in both government and the direction in which America is headed-- but its all good son! Nah mean?! Homey in da big chair gonn make dat money and watch dat NCAA dawg! Thaz gangsta!

[Soul Crusher]

Obama Now Pushing U.N. Toward Intervention In Libya
Neon Tommy, the Annenberg Digital News Service ^ | March 16, 2011 | Staff

________________________ _________________


The accelerating military blitz by forces of the Libyan dictatorship against pro-democracy insurgents has sparked a dramatic shift in Obama administration policy toward military intervention in the conflict. After dragging its feet with other members of the U.N. Security Council in imposing a no-fly zone to ground the regime's warplanes, the United States is now pushing for a U.N. authorization that would sanction the use of air strikes against Libyan tanks and heavy artillery.

Indeed, the U.S. has now joined Great Britain and France in lobbying for a Security Council vote on Thursday.

The radical shift in U.S. posture comes as Gaddafi's forces push toward a final and perhaps bloody final showdown in the so-called rebel capital of Benghazi and concern by the White House that time has come to stop the Libyan leader from drenching the eastern part of his country in a blood bath.

Until now, Washington had been reluctant to as much as impose a no-fly zone which might require bombarding of Libyan air defenses and, perhaps, its airfields. But in the last 24 hours, the administration has come full circle and now appears ready to take measures more aggressive than grounding Gaddafi's air force. The New York Times reports:

The administration, which remains deeply reluctant to be drawn into an armed conflict in yet another Muslim country, is nevertheless backing a resolution in the Security Council that would give countries a broad range of options for aiding the Libyan rebels, including military steps that go well beyond a no-flight zone.

Administration officials — who have been debating a no-flight zone for weeks — concluded that such a step now would be “too little, too late” for rebels who have been pushed back to Benghazi. That suggests more aggressive measures, which some military analysts have called a no-drive zone, to prevent Colonel Qaddafi from moving tanks and artillery into Benghazi.

The United States is insisting that any military action would have to be carried out by an international coalition, including Libya’s Arab neighbors.

The administration's reluctance to embroil itself in a third war in a Muslim country is deep-seated and permeates both its civilian and military branches. But it's believed that the fast-moving events on the ground are pushing President Obama into a corner he would have rather avoided. Whatever the political cost of engaging in Libya, it might be higher for the administration if it becomes a passive spectator to wholesale bloodshed as Gaddafi tries to drown the popular uprising in armor and blood.

The New York Times continues:

Among the other measures being proposed by the United States: sending foreign soldiers to Libya to advise the rebels, or financing them with some of the $32 billion belonging to the Qaddafi regime, which have been frozen by the Treasury Department. Rebels could use the money to buy weapons, officials said.

Neither of these steps, however, would come in time to stave off an assault by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces on Benghazi.

“What everybody is focused on is drawing a line, literally in the sand, around Benghazi, to prevent Qaddafi’s forces from capturing the city and staging a bloodbath,” said Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “If Qaddafi wins, it could kill the moment in the entire Middle East.”

However the U.N. acts or not, there seems little doubt that time is now very short in Libya as Gaddafi tries to capitalize on his military momentum. On Thursday, Gaddafi vowed to "cleanse" the anti-government capital of Benghazi by the end of the work week.

The thousands of Libyans who stood up to Gaddafi when they saw similar authoritarian regimes fall in Egypt and Tunisia have unsuccessfully maintained their hold on cities that they initially captured control of. They claimed minor victories Wednesday, but the larger battle may soon be taken over by international intervention.

Overmatched in battlefield intelligence and weaponry, the rebels have been brushed back from the western edge of Libya to their strongholds in the east.

On Wednesday, hours after a Benghazi airport was bombed, Gaddafi's son Saif said Benghazi would be back in his father's control by the end of Friday.


________________________ ____________


TYPICAL FUCKING ASSHOLE OBAMA! 


Wait till the action is over and then come in and pick a side and claim he tried everything.   This is like Commodus from Gladiator coming in after the battle and trying to take credit.   

[Benny B]

"Well, I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States, and I just don't understand how they could have lost that election." There you have it coming from Donald Trump, not some hippie or homeless person but the billionaire who can't possibly be wrong according to you "business knows best" neo-cons. Trump later goes on to say "that just about everything coming out of this administration is a lie!" Donald Trump would get an understanding of how Bush got elected if he were to read "What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election" the report by Representative John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, it would be apparent the 2004 election was rigged for George Bush.
TRUMP "Bush worst president ever"

[Soul Crusher]

Yeah - until obama came along you duche.   

Trump has been steam rolling the kenyan communist POFS ghetto trash for months now.   


HOLLA! 

[Benny B]

George Bush is the worst president ever, says Bill Maher

[Soul Crusher]

Yeah - even Mahr is slamming obama lately. 


Benny - please tell me one decent thing obama has done since in office.  Even one.     

[blacken700]

Yeah - even Mahr is slamming obama lately. 


Benny - please tell me one decent thing obama has done since in office.  Even one.     

made you cry like a baby every day 

[Benny B]

Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55 historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure," such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study the American past.

The most recent poll of 238 presidential scholars (conducted in July 2010) ranks Bush as the WORST PRESIDENT IN MODERN HISTORY. Overall he ranks 39th, which is fifth from the bottom. Official bottom five list is: A. Johnson, Buchanan, Harding, Pierce and G.W. Bush.

George W. Bush -- Worst President in Modern History

[Soul Crusher]

made you cry like a baby every day 

  


Please tell me one policy, one program, one initiative that has worked since Dear POFS has taken office?

[Benny B]

George W Bush - American Idiot

[Soul Crusher]

Really Benny?

[Benny B]

George W Bush's legacy: The global village idiot
By Tony Parsons


Was George W Bush really as dumb as he looked?

Widely derided as the very worst President in American history, will the passing of time make us look more kindly on those blank, bewildered features?

Have we - in Dubya's own immortal phrase - misunder estimated him?

History has a way of radically altering the image of American Presidents. Lyndon Johnson, reviled in his day for the escalation of the Vietnam War, is now best remembered for pushing through Civil Rights legislation.

Ronald Reagan, despised as a simple version of Doctor Strangelove during his administration, is now grudgingly admired for his stance against Communism.

Even Nixon - scourge of the hippies, carpetbomber of South-East Asia, the dark hand behind Watergate - is viewed more sympathetically and seen as a deeply flawed, even tragic figure, rather than the murderous crook the world took him for at the time.

Will we start missing George Bush once he has gone? They will miss him in Africa, where a year ago thousands of adoring fans lined the streets to cheer him.

It is a difficult fact for Bush-haters to swallow, but during the eight years of the Dubya regime, America spent Û18billion (£12.4billion) on AIDS prevention, Û1.2billion (£850million) to prevent malaria and gave Û3.5billion (£2.4billion) to African nations that govern well, provide social services and encourage economic growth.

Of course this is small change compared to the Û850billion (£583billion) he has spent on his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a figure currently rising by Û13.6billion (£9.3billion) every month. Add in extra costs, such as payouts to the families of dead soldiers, and estimates put the total bill at three times that.

But all across Africa, even in Muslim countries, George is worshipped. In Darfur, many couples name their baby boys George Bush.

"The Bush regime has been divisive - created bitterness - but not here in Africa," Bob Geldof has written. "Here, his administration has saved millions of lives."

With projects like his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Bush administration has ensured that, for millions of Africans, from the townships of South Africa to the backstreets of Rwanda, HIV is no longer a death sentence.

If anything rescues George Bush from the dustbin of history, it will be his work in Africa.

And yet Africa is not the world.

George Bush's lifeline for millions in the Third World proves that blanket, unequivocal condemnation of his Presidency is as simple-minded as that little, pea-brained smile that played across his features when he wasn't sure what was going on. Which was most of the time.

But there is also no denying his Presidency has made millions more despise the US. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Africa will emerge from the darkness into the light and history will record that George Bush did far more practical good than Bill Clinton or Bono ever did.

But what about the misery he created in the rest of the world?

When he ducked those shoes in Iraq, his wife loyally said that George was "a natural athlete". But to most of us he always looked like a natural simpleton, a rich man's son who got to the Oval Office on his daddy's shirttails, the global village idiot.

In truth, anti-Americanism is always thriving in large parts of the planet because for most of the 20th Century, the USA was the richest, most powerful nation the world has ever seen. But George Bush gave the world good reasons to hate America. He has been a far more effective recruiting agent for Islamic terrorism than Osama bin Laden.

With his clumsy, murderous war in Iraq, Bush made anti-Americanism a global sport. Even those of us who love America have despaired of the country under George Bush's watch.

The best things about America - its generosity, its sense of limitless possibility, the profound belief in freedom that sent Americans to fight and die in Europe in two world wars - has been replaced by a seething paranoia and murderous belligerence.

When the planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, almost all of the world was on America's side. It is to George Bush's eternal shame that he squandered that goodwill. Incredibly, on a day when we watched 3,000 people murdered on live TV, George Bush somehow contrived to make the USA look like an aggressor.

Bush seemed too stupid to be President. Saddam Hussein has nothing to do with 9/11, and yet Bush and his neocon cronies wanted to make an example of someone with a beard.

Iraq, for all its murder and torture, was a largely secular state. Saddam wanted to be the god Iraqis worshipped. But Bush - and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney - turned Iraq into a seething hotbed of militant Islamic terrorism. And for that, history will never forgive him.

Perhaps the great mystery of George Bush is this: he was not only stupid, but empty.

The very worst forces of America - warmongers, religious nutters, and raving nationalists - swarmed around him and painted their fantasies on his blank canvas.

Lawrence Wilkinson, a top aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell - a good man who was shamefully duped into believing the great lie that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction - said: "Dick Cheney knew that he was going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush. Personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum."

In many ways, Bush was a luckless President. 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the global economic meltdown all happened on his watch. That's an awful lot of world shattering events to have sitting in your in-tray, but with a gritty, shrewd response, Bush could have seized greatness.

However, the Texan twit was never made for greatness.

9/11 produced unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The citizens of New Orleans were left to rot in the rising waters of Katrina. And the casino capitalism of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco flourished under his regime, while the response of Dubya's Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, seemed slow and inadequate until he followed the lead of Gordon Brown. George Bush never missed an opportunity to do the wrong thing.

He had his followers, the "USA! USA!" chanters who acted as though the war on terror was a basketball match there to be won if they just shouted loud enough.

But even these chubby patriots have shuffled off now, worried about losing their homes, their jobs and their shirts, and his approval rating has slumped to an almost nonexistent 27 per cent.

Which makes George Bush, at the end of his two terms as President of the United States, only slightly more popular in Biloxi than he is in Baghdad.

[Benny B]

 


The 50 Dumbest Bush Quotes of All Time
A compendium of idiotic and maniacal utterances by President Bush, 2000-2008

50. "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." --at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

49. "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease." --Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." -Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001

47. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." --Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001

46. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004

45. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." --at a White House menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

44. "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." --interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006

43. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th." --Washington, D.C., July 12, 2007

42. "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president." --as quoted in Bob Woodward's Bush at War

41. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." --discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson in 2003, as quoted by Robertson

40. 3. "I think I was unprepared for war." –on the biggest regret of his presidency, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008

39. "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." --talking to key Republicans about Iraq, as quoted by Bob Woodward

38. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." --presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

37. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family." --Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000

36. "Do you have blacks, too?" --to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001

35. "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." --as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002

34. "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." --on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

33. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." --Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

32. "I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake." --on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006

31. "They misunderestimated me." --Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

30. "For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it." --Philadelphia, Penn., May 14, 2001

29. "This is an impressive crowd -- the haves and the have mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base." --at the 2000 Al Smith dinner

28. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." --LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

27. "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right." --Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

26. "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

25. "People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

24. "I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it...I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't yet...I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't -- you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one." --after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

23. "You forgot Poland." --to Sen. John Kerry during the first presidential debate, after Kerry failed to mention Poland's contributions to the Iraq war coalition, Miami, Fla., Sept. 30, 2004

22. "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." --in parting words to world leaders at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as those present looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

21. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." --State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

20. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." --Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

19. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." --Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

18. "So what?" –President Bush, responding to a an ABC News correspondent who pointed out that Al Qaeda wasn't a threat in Iraq until after the U.S. invaded, Dec. 14, 2008

17. "Can we win? I don't think you can win it." --after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, "Today" show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

16. "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." --Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

15. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." --to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

14. "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." --speaking underneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

13. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories ... And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." --Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

12. "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" --joking about his administration's failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

11. "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008

10. "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" --Florence, South Carolina, Jan. 11, 2000

9. "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." --on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

8. "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." --Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

7. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense." --Washington, D.C. April 18, 2006

6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." --Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

5. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

4. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

3. "You work three jobs? ... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." --to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

2. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

1. "My answer is bring them on." --on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003

[Soul Crusher]

After your posting rampage, be prepared for a beating like you should have received but for your daddys' incarceration during your childhood.   

[Benny B]

 
Mission not so accomplished



On May 1st, 2003, Bush was flown to the USS Lincoln where he made a speech announcing what he said signified “the end of major combat operations,” and that “In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” After the giant “Mission Accomplished” sign behind him was criticized by many, the White House initially claimed that the Navy had made put it there, but it was later revealed that the White House produced it. On the same day, the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a similar announcement about the end of the war in Afghanistan.

Secretary Rumsfeld said in an interview that Bush’s speech originally contained the words “mission accomplished” but he asked the Commander in Chief to remove them since they seemed too conclusive at the time. Administration officials made similar statements in what is now seen as only the beginning of the Iraq War, with Rumsfeld stating that he believed the insurgency “could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.” Vice President Cheney also predicted that the insurgents were in their “last throes” around the same time.

Four years later, both conflicts are still ongoing and the United States has been involved in them longer than World War II. The vast majority of casualties, both civilian and military have occurred since Bush made his famous speech.

[OzmO]

I see the cut and pasting wars are well under way.   

[kcballer]

I see the cut and pasting wars are well under way.   

It's funny but Benny and 333 are pretty much the same type of posters.  Just on different sides of the spectrum. 

[ChopperRider]

GW didn't give a fuck about his enemies thinking he was a nice guy. He didn't give a fuck about what the spineless eurotrash thought about the United States. He knew how to exert pressure on other countries diplomatically and he knew that the UN is an absolute joke in every way shape and form. He believed in American exceptionalism, stood behind his beliefs and while he made bad decisions sometimes- he had the guts to make tough choices instead of sitting on his hands like a pussy.

What some people fail to realize is that no military action was required on Libya from us. The French just wanted us to say we were in support of a no fly zone-- the arab league, NATO, practically every major player in the world wanted us to give some sort of support and show of solidarity. An international coalition was willing to act if we took the lead. Instead, our spineless weasel of a President did what he does best-- nothing.

Obama's foreign policy is mindless-- absolutely mindless. When the biggest threat to our national security and the security of the planet ( Iran) was in the midst of a brutal crackdown with a sustained uprising by the population, Obama did nothing and said nothing except that he didn't want to get involved. Here we have a regime that openly sponsors terrorism, the Iraqi insurgency, the Taliban, who kills our soldiers, is ignoring the UN and pursuing nuclear weapons, has said repeatedly that it will wipe Israel off the map, supplies weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas and makes Obama look like a jack ass on a daily basis. The people of Iran wanted a more modern, less extreme brand of leadership and are willing to die to remove the leadership in place-- and Obama doesn't want to get involved. Contrast that with Egypt-- an American ally for 30 years who despite having a repressive regime was an immeasurable ally in stabilizing the region, trading, keeping peace with Israel and sharing intelligence. The government is decidedly pro American, pro capitalist, has deep ties with America and is one of the freer countries in the region.  Lets not forget that Ahmedinijhad makes Hosni Mubahrak look like Santa Claus. After practically no violence directed against the population, Obama forces Mubarhak to step down.

Now lets look at Libya. Gadaffi masterminded Pan Am flight 103—an act of terror and war against the United States; this comes on the heels of Gadaffi getting the Lockerbie bomber freed. He is the most brutally oppressive dictator in the region. He has pursued chemical weapons in the past, openly sponsored terrorism and has been a thorn in America’s side for years. He uses his own air force to drop bombs on his people during peaceful protests, and Obama hides under the table like a bitch? He issues empty statements, takes no action and refuses to support a no fly zone. Now Gadaffi is going to kill his way back into power and probably commit genocide in the process. He is holding his oil hostage (which effects Europe not us) and has vowed revenge against the west.

Can someone explain the logic behind his decision making?

+1

[ChopperRider]

Oh brother--- more idiocy from another affirmative action flunky.  

You mean the first President Bush? The one who invaded Iraq in the early 90's and then promptly left without cleaning up the mess he caused, thereby allowing Saddam to remain in power?

You have your tounge so far up Obamas ass that you are too stupid to recognize the fact that if he wasn't a "brother" you would have absolutely nothing good to say about him.

The economy is much worse, our position in the world is much worse, the country is more divided, taxes are higher, jobs are fewer, confidence is at an all time low across the board in both government and the direction in which America is headed-- but its all good son! Nah mean?! Homey in da big chair gonn make dat money and watch dat NCAA dawg! Thaz gangsta!

+2