[lit-ideas] Re: Priorities
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:55:24 -0800
You should get out more often and see what's really happening. I just read
Timothy Ash's Free World. The EU is doing some soul searching about why the
US is able to do so much better than they in regard to unemployment. When
an EU rep challenged Clinton on the unfairness of American unemployment
benefits, Clinton said that being out of work is unfair also. We are doing
better than the EU in regard to employment. 5% is a very good number.
The war? We?ve removed Saddam Hussein and his army at the expense of a
casualty rate lower than in any major war in history. We are on schedule
for elections. The Shiites (60% of Iraq) are happy with the progress as are
the Kurds (20% of Iraq). A small percentage of the Sunnis (20% of Iraq),
the Baathists, who have no hope in a Democratic Iraq, continue in an
insurgency but Iraqi troops are being trained to handle them. There is no
reason to think that elections won?t be held. There is no reason to think
that the Islamists will hammer Iraq any harder after the elections than they
hammer any other Middle Eastern nation. If you watch only the Leftist Media
you won?t know this. If you talked to Marines coming back from Iraq you
might get a hint. They are amazed and appalled at what they see on TV:
Media selection distorts what?s actually happening.
The environment? I suppose.
Cabinet positions? Read John Lewis Gaddis article in the current issue of
Foreign Affairs. A year or so ago he described Bush as being the third
president to have created a Grand Strategy. He is critical of some of the
things Bush did in the last four years but unlike the Leftists he doesn?t
hate Bush. He makes a number of recommendations for what he thinks Bush
should do in the next four years. Bush?s actions were on target. His
explanations and diplomatic efforts were poor. I look for Rice to improve
the US posture diplomatically. Timothy Ash is a British Leftist who
believes that the US and the EU need to learn to work together. Tony Blair
has attempted to create a Bridge between Europe and the US. Gaulist and
Atlanticist Europeans have the same conflicts as Red and Blue States,
Liberals and Conservatives. Nothing is one way or the other unless you
would rather fight than reach agreement.
If you paint a worst case scenario, the Gaulist creation of the EU as the
superpower antithesis to the US; then you end up laughing. There aren?t any
differences worth fighting over and the EU isn?t willing to give up enough
of its entitlements to build a military comparable to that of the US.
Also, the EU couldn?t come together on an issue like opposing the US. Also,
many in the EU resent the French trying to lead the EU in that direction.
The inauguration? Who cares whether demonstrators turn their back on Bush?
The president of the US is the most powerful person in the world whoever he
is. That a group of Leftists would turn their back on Bush is something
that is truly irrelevant. You have things backwards.
Ash?s book was very interesting. Unlike our home-grown Leftists, some
European Leftists are trying to take some positive steps to bring the EU and
the US closer together. They recognize that it is naïve to think that the
EU and the US can only work together when the US has a Democrat in the Oval
Office. We have different ways of doing things but primarily the same
goals. It is an absurd waste of time to demonize Bush and an equally absurd
waste of time to read such demonizations.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andreas Ramos
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2004 6:00 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Priorities
> To paraphrase and reapply Nixon's famous exit line, you're going to have
> Bush to kick around for four more years!
Actually, no.
Have you noticed nobody seems to care anymore about the White House? Nobody
discusses the
issues anymore: the environment, unemployment, the deficit, the wars, the
lack of foreign
policy, etc. Nobody cares, because we know it's a waste of time.
Bush is putting lightweights into the cabinet: Rice, Gonzales, and others.
Whatever. The
cabinet positions have become so irrelevant that it doesn't matter if a
nobody is in that
position. The cabinet is irrelevant because Bush insists on loyalty.
As for foreign relations, the Bush White House has essentially abandoned the
global
leadership role of the USA. Nobody took it away; the Bushies simply walked
away from it.
China and the ASEAN countries are busy at setting up a European Union
structure for Asia;
the USA has no part whatsoever in this. One can quite seriously say that the
USA has no
foreign policy whatsoever now. Even Denmark has a foreign policy. But not
the USA. Bush's
first reaction to the tsunami? He didn't care, and he didn't see why he
should care.
So, will we kick Bush around for four more years? Like, who cares? He's
irrelevant. He made
himself irrelevant.
Will Hillary be president afterwards? Of what? In the next few years, the
Bushies will have
demolished so much that the next president, if we even have a next
president, will preside
over very little.
Let's see what happens at the inauguration. Last time, the Bushies sent out
tens of
thousands of invitations, and perhaps a quarter of the seats were
embarrassingly empty.
Those had to be covered up, to prevent TV cameras from showing empty stands.
Meanwhile there
were massive demonstrations and his limosine was pelted with eggs. Bush was
unable to walk
down Pennsylvania Avenue.
This time, the demonstrators plan to line the path and turn their backs on
Bush.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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