When I began this blog in 2001, I was appalled by President Bush's headlong rush to an illegal war (we were not in fact under attack). As time wore on and Bush began his assault on the Constitution and any people bold enough to criticize, I believed that "the republic is endangered more by actions of our own government than by those of any terrorist." With the election of a high-minded, compassionate, intelligent man like Barack Obama, my fears have ceased.
"Honor them with peace, not war"
United for Peace
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
A Canadian newspaper says American politics must have gone far down hill for Kerry's rather mild and narrow-focused criticism of Bush's policies to have him 'hailed a hero.' Writing in the Toronto Star, columnist Haroon Siddiquisays:
It was my feling that Kerry was aiming his statements at those voters are are leaning toward Bush. for them it might be too harsh a message to tell the whole truth about Bush's adventurism. They, after all, have to some extent bought the Bush line, and to denounce it utterly would be to make fools of them. Would you vote for a guy who makes you look like a fool? No; the most effective way to win hearts and minds is to start from where your listener IS, not where you'd like him to get to.
Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
Changing times,changing minds
A Canadian newspaper says American politics must have gone far down hill for Kerry's rather mild and narrow-focused criticism of Bush's policies to have him 'hailed a hero.' Writing in the Toronto Star, columnist Haroon Siddiquisays:
It is a measure of the sad state of American public discourse — in which the media play stenographers to those in power and politicians do not deviate much from their financiers' scripts — that anyone putting up the feeblest of challenges to presidential assertions, as Kerry did Thursday, is hailed a hero.Listing a number of issues that neither man spoke of such as the Israeli-Palestinain conflict, or the torture of our prisoners, Siddiqui noted thestrengths of Kerry's critique:
...He was solid on Russia — on Vladimir Putin's, and Bush's, failure to secure the 600 tonnes of loose nuclear material.
He was on the mark on Afghanistan — on Bush's casual tolerance of rampant warlord-ism, bumper opium crops and thrice-postponed elections.
He was okay on Sudan — on how, short of a large-scale U.S. military deployment, he would end the genocide in Darfur. To be fair, though, Bush has been in the forefront of the issue.
But on Iraq, which dominated the debate and on which Kerry differed in most respects, the challenger failed to demolish Bush's central hypothesis that the illegal invasion and botched occupation of Iraq is all part of the war on terror — from Kabul to Baghdad to Beslan in Russia.
Kerry's comeback — that "Iraq was not even close to the war on terror before the president invaded it" and that "Saddam Hussein didn't attack us, Osama bin Laden attacked us" — did not quite do the job.
If Iraq was "a grave threat" and the world is safer without Saddam, as Bush kept saying, Kerry never asked him: How so, sir?
Is Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi really a "brave, brave man" and "a strong, courageous leader" and a harbinger of democracy, as Bush said, rather than an ex-CIA agent living up to his reputation as a bully?
If America is as liked by the world as Bush claimed, why is it so universally unpopular, and every American embassy and consulate a fortress?
Granted, Kerry did call the Iraq venture "a colossal error of judgment," the result of which is that America is bearing "90 per cent of the casualties and 90 per cent of the cost."
But to win, Kerry has to fully expose the fraud the president has perpetrated on a scared American public whose fears he keeps fanning.
It was my feling that Kerry was aiming his statements at those voters are are leaning toward Bush. for them it might be too harsh a message to tell the whole truth about Bush's adventurism. They, after all, have to some extent bought the Bush line, and to denounce it utterly would be to make fools of them. Would you vote for a guy who makes you look like a fool? No; the most effective way to win hearts and minds is to start from where your listener IS, not where you'd like him to get to.
Palema
5:26 AM
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Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
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