Well said.
Remember, we've come full circle from the alarming "he's a puppet in the hands of his gang" to the equally alarming "he's taking no notice of anyone".
As I've said, he seems to have done reasonably well at college. He has been in the business world without particular distinction, but so have many. He became a jet pilot - something that requires skill and intelligence.
He has shown himself to be not a bad politician in spite of being a late starter. He was re-elected with a landslide for his second term in Texas. He also took Texas comfortably during the Presidential election. (Both Clinton and Gore lost their states - which may mean something.) The states came back to the Democrats at the mid-terms when Clinton and Gore weren't an issue.
He got past the close vote situation - apparently very well. Learned the ropes, which every President must do. (He's under the control of his ultra-right wing Cabinet. Whatever happened to "ultra-left wing"?)
Took control. (He's a loose cannon who never listens to advice.)
Has mostly played a cool game. The Demos haven't been able to lay a glove on him. The Iraqi situation is cool, but may be getting out of control. In spite of world-wide antipathy to war - there probably isn't a country that wouldn't be glad to get rid of Saddam. also North Korea's continual threat of war. (More than a million soldiers at the border of North Korea.)
Should we do nothing about Saddam, nothing about North Korea?
What should we do other than go to war?
You'll recall that the Europeans were twittering away and asking for American help in 1935 when Mussolini was introducing the Abyssinians to the delights of Mustard Gas. Europe said US failure to join a League of Nations action against this clear aggression nullified the League - made it useless. Yet, the Europeans should have taken action anyway.
But, no-one wanted to fight. More British were lost in the resulting war than Americans - from a country with one fifth the population. An additional 100,000 were lost from the Commonwealth - all to stop something that perhaps could have been better stamped on early on.
Could the enormous slaughter - wasn't it 65 million - have been stopped by a resolute resistance to Hitler's occupation of the Rhineland - or the Sudetenland, though that is more iffy.
Well, no-one really wants war - not even the hawks. But could a firm denial of the Rhineland by Britain, France, and the US - backed by force - have averted the later catastrophe? Maybe it would have merely delayed it.
Could a firm stand against Suddam perhaps removing him - with force - prevent a later catastrophe? Maybe it would merely delay it.
Problem now is that with support falling away, the only direction may be war.
A US that said sorry and brought the armies home would probably send those million North Koreans across the border.
A Saddam that is buoyed by the apparent breaking up of the coalition might get uppity - and the war is on.
One hope is that the inspectors will find a smoking gun, or that an uppity Saddam will refuse an entry to Blix's Boys. That will bring the uncertains back and strangely enough make war less likely and allow Bush to breathe a little easier.
Now, can our Bush baby handle all this? I think it's possible, because I haven't written him off as a spoiled child, a dumbo, an alcoholic, an addict, an egomaniac, or a gun slinging cowboy who uses comic books for serious reading.
He is, however, a conservative.
Harry
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Ray wrote:
I've thought Bush a fool and an ignoramus but never a child. I've known too many adults that were of the same opinions and who made a mess of things including the lives of their children and everyone else around them. Some of them were rich and famous and never divorced and their children weren't drunks but evil they were and narrow in their rigidity in such a way as to create monstrous situations.Bush is typical not unusual. He's the Boss. REH
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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