a Repubblica (Rome)

[Mr. Bush] finally feels at peace with himself, is satisfied with himself and thus is even more disturbing. ... There is the sense of a man who now considers the entire world as his own parish.


Die Tageszeitung (Berlin)

If you take seriously what Bush said before and during his inaugural address, you will really dread this U.S. government. ...The message of yesterday's big - and many U.S. citizens thought too big - and carefully staged inauguration is clear: The continuity from his first term will remain, but at the same time this U.S. government will have more sense of mission and do whatever it thinks is right and won't have anybody else disturb it. ... The horror is justified.


El Mundo (Madrid)

The president has charged himself with nothing less than "ending tyranny in the world." If Bush decided to fully apply this maxim to the letter, he should immediately cut off relations with countries like China and Saudi Arabia, which are not exactly models of liberty.


Le Monde (Paris)

We can fear that, in the eyes of Mr. Bush, the criteria for tyranny would essentially be hostility toward the United States and that he would be inclined to close his eyes to the democratic failings of regimes that show cooperativeness. ... Bush 1 changed the foreign policy of the United States. Bush 2 wants to change the American social contract. The outcome of his activism abroad makes us fear similar traumas at home.

It just goes to show that "some people get it, some don't":

"Reports from across Iran are stating about the massive welcoming of President George W. Bush's inaugural speech and his promise of helping to bring down the last outposts of tyranny.
Millions of Iranians have been reported as having stayed home, on Thursday night which is their usual W.end and outgoing night, in order to see or hear the Presidential speech and the comments made by the Los Angeles based Iranian satellite TV and radio networks, such as, NITV or KRSI.

The speech and its package of hope have been, since late yesterday night and this morning, the main topics of most Iranians' conversations during their familial and friendly gatherings, in the collective taxis and buses, as well as, among groups of young Iranians who gather outside the cities on the Fridays.

Many were seen showing the " V " sign or their raised fists. Talks were focused on steps that need to be taken in order to use the first time ever favorable International condition."

RLTW

Many of whom have relatives or friends who are expatriates living in the US, including offspring of the deposed Shah of Iran (a daughter still living in Beverly Hills, last I knew).
No doubt there are many who would welcome a regime change to one less cemented to odious Islamist fanaticism.
But surely, RL, you recognize this as an aberration in the Arab world, not the prevailing atmosphere.

Just as an aside, don't you find it ironic that the Kuwaitis would have many statues of George H.W.Bush (The Great Liberator) honoring his liberating them from Husseins invasion (aka Desert Storm), and yet his son, George W. Bush, is reviled to almost the same level of fervor.

Ahmad Al-Jarallah, editor-in-chief of the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassah recently wrote an editorial in support of President Bush's election victory and what it means for the Arab world. The following is the article:

The World Has Changed, But Not the Arabs
"The world and relations between different countries have changed beyond recognition. In some cases even the countries have changed and a new order is controlling the world. What's more the United Nations is no longer able to control the relations between different countries. All this is happening in the outside world while nothing has changed for the Arab World. We are still living in the past steeped in our age old traditions. Our traditions are the source of our concepts, however old. This has always led us to conflicts with the outside world invariably ending in defeat for us. Such defeats in turn draw us back from the path of development. If there is anything which we have to do urgently it is to correct and remedy this situation.

"We had to give such a lengthy prologue because the U.S. administration - which is responsible for the changes that are sweeping through the world - has started criticizing the Middle East. The United States, which is criticizing the regimes in the region and the living conditions of their people, has succeeded in its efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. This U.S. administration has the strong backing of its people, who recently re-elected President George W. Bush for four more years.

We in the Middle East Were Moving Against Development
"Meanwhile, we in the Middle East were moving against the laws of development when the presidential elections in the United States were underway. Our thinking was wrong and we were using our media in the wrong way. We said Bush won't be able to win the elections and claimed Americans won't renew his term in the White House. Our thought process is still being conditioned by our old traditions... Unfortunately, we don't want to admit the truth and accept this fact. We thought President Bush won't win re-election because in our opinion he has led America to another Vietnam-like situation in Iraq. With such an ignorant way of thinking we brought on ourselves new defeats, proving to the whole world we are not from this planet. When Bush won the elections, we retreated to our comfort-zone looking for some new calculations which, we hoped, will be correct and bring back our old glory. We hoped our new calculations would lead the American administration to a bad defeat.

America Will Not Retreat
"We claimed President Bush will never be able to defeat Iraq and said the resistance will kick the U.S. forces out of that country. We described terrorism, which is killing innocent people in Iraq, as ' jihad ' and expected it to win in the end because it is supported by God. To support our calculations, we recalled how the U.S. troops were sent packing from Lebanon in the Eighties because of the resistance in that country. We fondly remembered how the Americans had to retreat from Somalia because of the resistance put up by Somalia warlords. By this way of thinking we forgot the United States has changed and the world has changed with it. The present circumstances in the world are not the same as they were during the days of the Cold War, when the U.S.S.R. was a superpower in its own right.

"All of our thoughts have been answered by the second term of President Bush. The mission in Iraq will continue as in Afghanistan. The American administration has stressed it won't pull out of Iraq, unlike in Somalia and Lebanon, until it achieves its objectives and completes its mission in that country. Changing the world, strengthening relations with other countries and bringing democracy and freedom to as many countries as possible is the strategic objective of the current American administration because from the perspective of its internal security, especially the 9/11 attacks in Washington and New York, this is more important for the United States.

The Culture and Way of Thinking of Arabs Became a Source of Danger for the U.S.
"Things were easy for the Americans until bin Laden arrived on the scene and threatened it from inside their homeland. But now everything has changed. The culture and way of thinking of Arabs, and [what is happening] in the Middle East have become a source of danger for the United States. If we fail to understand the changed situation of the U.S. administration, what is happening in Iraq will extend in one way or another to other countries in the region until the desired change is imposed. The second priority for President Bush is maintaining peace in Iraq and holding a free and fair general elections in Iraq.

"Bush considers the January elections very important. If one hopes the US will withdraw from Iraq in the same way as it did from Lebanon and Somalia, we must say it won't happen. The only thing left for Arab regimes, which are out of tune with the rest of the world, is to understand that standing against the United States is no longer the right way to show their patriotism, especially since they are the real enemies of their people and countries. They must understand the American Administration supports their people, for their freedom and human rights.

-end article

RLTW

... the people in the country are going to overwelmingly cheer the US actions.  After all, it was what happened in Iraq -- wasn't it?   We are having this massive show of support -- aren't we.  Young men, liberated into a democratic society, are eagerly joining the police and army and chasing down the few outside agitators -- aren't they.  Most of the people don't want to see their government develop WMDs -- I think.  

After all, if we are hearing about how we will be welcomed from expatriates. We can trust sources like this -- they certainly did not steer us wrong in Iraq.  Don't newspaper publishers have their fingers on the pulse of the people?

Lets be fucking careful out there before we get off again.  Hopefully, congress will have more sense this time.

Harry

Hopefully, congress will have more sense this time. -Harry

I hope you are right -- however I would not put anything past this neocon regime. They are truly nuts in the way they can convince themselves that black is white.

Call me crazy, but why does that memri.org website only site articles from right wing sources on thier media page?

http://memri.org/mediaall.html

"We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies. Yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty." - President George W. Bush

Iran is nothing like Iraq. Coordinated diplomatic pressure and external support of the growing reform movement inside Iran will be the catalyst for change there.

Hyperbolic claims that the Bush Admin is bent on invading Iran make sense only to those who aren't paying attention.

RLTW

-- Modified on 1/25/2005 12:22:02 PM

-- Modified on 1/25/2005 7:47:37 PM

... although others on the board seem to disagree with you.  In any case, I hope you are correct about this.

Come on, Harry. Of course there are military options for dealing with Iran. Does that mean exercising those options is inevitable, or even the preferred way of dealing with Iran? I don't think so.

RLTW

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassah, which the release cited, is a right wing source? Bring me some proof, please.

RLTW

-- Modified on 1/25/2005 6:46:14 PM

Just curious what your position was before the war in Iraq? Did you buy into the whole story about WMDs? Did you both change your reasons for why we should go into Iraq AFTER we found no WMD's?

How can any of us be expected to take your position seriously when it changes to something new when your orginal reasons have been proven wrong?

Your predictions about the future have no credibility anymore.

... I honestly believe you still think the tooth fairy is real.  I have attached your quoted post below.  The pentagon plans (which we agree exist) for going into Iran are going to be justified on trash like the stuff you quoted below.  The same process was used as part of the justification for the invasion of Iraq.  

People are going to die and the country is going to be put at risk if we go into Iran.  Today, we have NO formal diplomatic relations with this country and we have not since the Carter Administration.  So far, ignoring them hasn't hurt us at all (other than offend people like you).  Huge percentages of the population are unemployed.  The youth of the country are feeling very repressed.  The clerics are on very shaky grounds.  The place is falling apart of it's own weight   Now the bush administration is talking about MILITARY ACTION against the place.  All you are going to do is unite the people AGAINST THE US.  Why the fuck to you think that the people of the Iran don't love their country just as much as we love our country?   Remember, 9/11 united a very divided political climate in the US.  The same thing will happen there.

What the hell is wrong with just sitting and waiting for them to come to you?  You can always play guns and kill people later.
------------------------------------------------------  

"Reports from across Iran are stating about the massive welcoming of President George W. Bush's inaugural speech and his promise of helping to bring down the last outposts of tyranny.
Millions of Iranians have been reported as having stayed home, on Thursday night which is their usual W.end and outgoing night, in order to see or hear the Presidential speech and the comments made by the Los Angeles based Iranian satellite TV and radio networks, such as, NITV or KRSI.

The speech and its package of hope have been, since late yesterday night and this morning, the main topics of most Iranians' conversations during their familial and friendly gatherings, in the collective taxis and buses, as well as, among groups of young Iranians who gather outside the cities on the Fridays.

Many were seen showing the " V " sign or their raised fists. Talks were focused on steps that need to be taken in order to use the first time ever favorable International condition."

manner similar to your's. I'll try to keep it plain and simple:

I think that tired old Democrats who've convinced themselves that George Bush and his advisors are sitting in his office, chomping at the bit to invade Iran and Syria are fucking idiots.

I also believe that fools who reflexively assume that an invasion for OOOOIIILLL is inevitable, because the Pentagon has a set of military contingency plans, have their heads so far up their asses that they probably haven't seen daylight in years.

Finally, I wish that knuckle-heads who assume that I'm offended by a lack of military action against Iran would try to put a little more thought into their arguments.

/sarcasm -off

RLTW






-- Modified on 1/26/2005 7:39:21 AM

... when I saw your original post, I lost it.  Remember, we had lots of news stories about how the people in IraQ would welome us as liberators.   We can disagree about a lot of things and still treat each other with respect.  I did not.  Sorry.

Harry

-- Modified on 1/26/2005 6:35:12 PM

My positions have been consistent from the very beginning of this board. And, unlike blowhards who spout off assumptions as fact, I at least back my positions with a supporting argument.

How about you?

RLTW

Is that consistent?

I've always believed that removing an insanely murderous tyrant is a good idea.

RLTW

-- Modified on 1/27/2005 7:34:42 PM

And Independence Day

The scene in MA where the martians attacked congress and the old lady laughed as she said "they blew up congress".....THAT was a good one.

The scend in ID where DC was destroyed ranks up there as well.

Let's be honest, nobody in Washington cares about us, they care about remaining in political power as long as possible.