Its not Bushs fault we have stupidly convinced ourselves that Putin, or the Russians, are our friends. We did that on our own, or, with the help of our allies. George Bushs leadership has prevented another terror attack on our soil, along with the bravery of our troops, and those of our allies.
A reminder again, this is George Bush on Putin:
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.
"I was able to get a sense of his soul.
"He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said. LOL. Yeah, Bush is the man of the hour where a reemerging Putin Russia is concerned.
Putin doesnt have internal politics or public opinion that he has to worry about. He doesnt have a congress he has to answer to. He doesnt have allies he has to cater to. You can call Bush a neo-clod as much as you want but even that is an expression of personal political opinion that Putin would laugh at if a Russian said it about him. Putin is a Dictator, or as close to one as a sham Democracy can dream up…
"We" are the ones who have to grow up and start looking at the world as realists. This is an old game, with an old enemy, and if NATO doesnt unify and get its act together we might be handing off a real nightmare world to our kids. Its childish to revert to selfish, domestic, political name calling and silly to blame all the worlds ills on George Bush. Bush was right to act unilaterally after 9/11. If he hadnt we'd still be pokeing holes in the air at the UN debating society, "No doubt you'll see a lot of such hot air being blown around concerning Georgia". We simply cant let all our national security decisions be made by popular world vote. You probably notice theres a lot less world condemnation over this brutal attack on pitiful Georgia then there was when we invaded Iraq, despite having 100 x more provocation.
Did Georgia try and kill a former Russian President? Did Georgia violate UN resolutions dozens of times? Did Georgia start two major wars each time invading a neighboring country in surprise attacks? Do you remember the world community screeching when America went after Saddam, an event he could have prevented by simply allowing UN inspectors to do their jobs. And do you hear the thunderous silence now?
Bush had a free ride on all those areas you cite as not limiting Putin for the first 4 years of his presidency after 911. Congress and the media did little to oppose him. His allies supported him, his not-so-allies weren't powerful to do much against him. The result…
We have hemorrhaged money at home by his approving virtually every domestic pork ladened bill Congress placed in front of him. Continuing the Clinton legacy; virtually no oversight on the financial markets. In Iraq money has been blown with virtually no oversight of where it has gone or accountability. We have used up equipment to the point where recovery will be a serious budget issue in years to come.
For the war itself, the conduct of the post war operations in Iraq have been terribly mismanaged (the whole disbanding the Iraqi Army thing, as one example) even if you agree with the basic PNAC premise of the democracy domino effect (Wolfowitz, Pearl and Fifie, oh my) as leverage against Iran, the Saudis and Syria. Nope, no clod in the White House.
You seem to equate Iraq with Al Queda. Saddam was an butthole, but he was our very useful butthole for many years and after Gulf War I was easily contained. As much as his actions pissed us off he was a regional, Stalinist dictator in an area where our “friends” (Saudi Arabia, Nuclear Pakistan) are borderline stable, passively to actively support islamic terrorism and are one Ayatollah away from being the next Iran.
Now, I may be simple, but when I looked at the region I saw Saddam as an irritation, and the Saudis and Pakistanis and the Iranians under their new clod as the real areas of concern. Guess what, that hasn't changed, though our ability to deal with these real threats (and Islamic hotbeds in Asia, etc.) are diminishing each day. We don't have unlimited resources or unlimited capacity for action, and we have squandered both by eliminating an anti-Islamic Stalinist paper tiger dictator. Making things worse is our inability to comprehend 4th generation warfare in both the foreign and domestic dimensions which endangers any kind of successful exit strategy from Iraq.
We haven't hade another terrorist attack because the Al Qaeda network in the US was largely used up in 911 and hasn't been rebuilt -- yet. That was the opinion of Phillip Zilekow, who directed the 911 Commission. I asked him that specific question in 2005 at a dinner at University of Virginia where he was the guest speaker. He noted that it’s not all that easy to find ideological/suicidal men then train them to operate in a Western country then position them to attack a target. Little parallel to getting a local to strap on a bomb and go for a walk in the market.
What exactly has bush done though to keep the terrorists at bay? The fight them "there vs here" concept is a farce, since the ones we fight there (in Iraq, at least) are not the same ones we will fight here. No border security today (interfere with his support of illegal workers) leaving open the possibility of an infiltration attack through Canada or Mexico. And our ports remain relatively unsecure (expensive technology). We are perhaps starting to focus more on human intel compared to the pentagon industrial complex friendly satellite solutions of the cold war, which is a start, but it certainly has not been a proactive move.
This is the hypocritical anti-US world we live in. A world allows China to host the Olympics despite its Government sponsored brutality.
As for China, I regard them as a military and economic enemy. Always have; nothing has changed. The current Commander-in-Clod, like Klinton before him, doesn't seem to be as concerned. China is "good for business." Don't think that we are not an active part of that "hypocritical world" on China. Our fracking trade deficit dollars are putting their new fleet of Kilo class diesels to sea along with the rest of their military build up for the day they figure they can hold off the US Pacific Fleet long enough to make the hop to Taiwan. Of course, that supposes we would resist the move in the first place given our economic bondage to the PRC.
But do call Bush a "Neo-clod". If it makes you feel better then go ahead and let fly.
I've called bush a neo-clod or equivalent since he naively bought into the PNAC concept that Iraq would remain secular and become our democratic best regional buddy and base of operations once we removed Saddam from power. That was his show, 100 percent, and it illustrated absolutely no cultural understanding of the tribal mentality in the region, conflicting religious and cultural forces and conflicting geopolitical undercurrents that required a Saddam Hussein for the "state" of Iraq to exist in the first place.
You seem to think I'm some generic "bush hater." Unlike you, I see Bush and his Ilk as part of the problem, not as some sort of solution. Bush, Obama, McCain, Clinton… Congress as well -- A broken system. I’m a libertarian-leaning Goldwater style conservative, so calling bush a “neo-clod” while an accurate assessment IMO does not make me feel better. Hard to feel better when the American people support two political façade parties that both are far from my foreign, domestic or fiscal policy views.
Charon
