I cant believe nobody has commented on the speech Tony Blair gave yesterday. It was the single best speech i have ever heard in my life. I may not agree with his political ideology but the man doesnt let politics get in the way of what he believes is right. He seems like a genuine person to me. Not one our own democrats who in 98 were saying that Iraq had run out of time and in 2002 voted for military force and then in 2003 wondered what the big hurry was. Liberals and conservatives alike can learn much from him.
It was the most demagogic, ass kissing piece of crap I ever heard a European politician regurgitate. It rivals with the idiotic pro-USA garbage we get from our prime minister all the time. I couldn’t bare it for more than a few minutes. It would be pretty normal material for Bush himself, though Bush could never do it without fucking it all up, but to hear this (the little I heard) from Blair is a trult scary thing.
I dont understand your thinking Restless. Can you tell us your ideal world please?
In the ideal world there be no Saddam Husseins, or Bushes, or any other type of religious fundamentalists for that matter. There would be no single nations to actually murder millions, like China, Nazi Germany, USA, JApan, etc…did.
In a less than ideial, but better world when politicians screwed up and killed a few thousands without any kind of valid reason the lider of a generally speaking educated country (Blair) would come and apologize, instead of apealling to the nationalistic patriotic blind fundamentalism of a nation which a significant number of it’s population follows whatever crap the media might feed them, and something would actually be learned and maybe it could save lives in the future.
The way things are, a country will get away with placing a puppet regime that will grant them what they want and need, even if it’s against the will of that same population. Freedom to impose by force into others your political beliefs in order to make a profit is such a great thing, isn’t it Goldberg?
God bless the American away and save those poor infidel degenerates.
I appreciated the distinction he made to Congress between deference to world opinion and acting on our values. I think Blair understands and supports the attitude we need to deal with global anti-Americanism. With our current president being who he is, Blair is definitely “the voice of the free world,” as some have described him. He actually has better ideas for American self-interest than Bush. I don’t know whether to be gratified or depressed.
Saddam was not a religious fundamentalist. Neither is Bush. Bush is a Christian. As a free man, that is his perogative. Saddam didnt even practice the muslim religion. You have no point.
I agree Goldberg, it was a fine speech.
Restless, so since we obviously don’t live in your ideal world, and our world has peeps like saddam in it, what do you suggest we do?
You do realize that leaders such as him tend to isolate and brainwash their slaves/subjects, and as such they really don’t know that much about the rest of the world or how to deal with it.
Sure we all agree on eliminating the baddies, the real tough part comes along when we have to figure out how to replace them. If we just off the baddies it won’t fix anything. Neither is installing a full puppet regime.
How do you suggest setting up a govt in a country such as afghanistan or iraq when you have such a diverse and varied population in terms of knowledge and beliefs?
I honestly think the only thing you can do is install a “puppet” so that you can keep control for a certain amount of years. During that time the people get into the modern world, learn what they need, and then can decide for themselves what govt setup suits them best.
Let’s look back at history and how this has worked in the past. Think of a country that has successfully been overthrown in the past 100 years and come out of it well. Not many will fit, japan though is one of them. And in japan we had military leadership for many years post war.
People didn’t like it, but you can’t say it turned out badly for sure.
Germany is another. WW2 was actually full of them.
Now look at many of the various gov’ts set up since that time by the UN. I don’t see any of them being all that much better than they were pre-wars. Most honestly are a mess still.
Goldberg,
Just a friendly word of advice. Do yourself a favor and ignore restless. That guy is the worst person on this forum. He calls the United States the worst possible names. He doesn’t even bother trying to be reasonable. He hates us with a pathological passion. I would be willing to bet that most of the bad guys don’t support his approach or his views.
restless,
I am happy that your government is behind our efforts. Thank your neighbors for their wise voting. It must really gall you that your own government thinks you are dead wrong. By the way, on your side of the argument, people would still be being put through the wood chipper. On my side of the ideological fence, Iraq is trying to become a legitimate democracy.
I thought of doing a quick rehash of some of restless’ posts. However, you can see by his last post, what a trully awful person he is. I don’t think I could read his threads again.
I thought it was great. My wife kept clapping and yelling at the T.V. His speaking skills dwarf Bush, especially when they were having their press conference after words.
Puh-lease…
It’s just a bit of public relations knob-polishing for both politicians. You’re the same guys who got all choked up and misty-eyed when Bush wore the flight suit on the aircraft carriers.
Maybe you don’t realize that Tony Blair has been getting absolutely POUNDED on a daily basis in his own country, and his career in plitics is essentially over, after this. The vast majority of Brits did not want to support the war, and Blair is getting ripped into by his own Parliament on a daily basis. He’s toast!
This was just a dog-and-pony show to try to boost morale and rally the public, while popular opinion continues to slide on Bush, the war, the credibility of the White House, etc. As well as a chance to given Tony Blair a round of applause for “taking one for the team” because he’s sacrificed his own career, to support an American war that most Brits see as a grab for oil and power by the oil industry, defense contractors, etc.
Blair claimed that Saddam could mount a nuclear strike with only 45 minutes of preparation, and now he’s getting torn to bits at home, and rightfully so. I hope he enjoyed the applause, because he hears only jeers at home.
Our prime minister is kind of the same in his ass kissing ways. But it’s good, at least we get you guys on our side in case we’re in any trouble.Yay.
Restless is the type of guy who dreams of an ideal world but doesn want to fight or work for it.
He’s also paranoid. Everything the Government does will always be for money, for power, and itll always be a lie - unless, possibly, if its a democrat White House.
Just ignore him. The Rosevelt fanatics claim there were little gray men in a spaceship and I dont give them a fuck either. New-age revolutionaries claim you can talk to the dead and I dont give em two shits either. Restless believes we are out to kill all civilians and destroy the whole world - guess what, I dont give a fuck either.
And for the record, I love Bush. He’s done a GREAT job and he HAS my vote for 2004. If anybody else is anything like me, we might be seeing Bush through 2008. See, Restless, we the people vote for Bush. With any luck , we THE PEOPLE will elect him once more. Not a machine. US.
Lumpy is right, 1/4 of the opposition for the Iraq aggression came FROM BLAIR’S OWN PARTY & people were even talking of a no-confidence vote. What Blair did was 100% PR all the way. At least he made Bush like a fool in his own country. I doubt (AUS PM) John Howard & Blair will beat (major brown noser PM) Brian Mulroney’s western-world approval-rating record of 8% though. That’s what happens when a leader kisses too much American ass.
I have heard that there have been a total of over 300,000 people found in mass graves in Iraq so far. Why should we have not stopped this psycho?
I also do not like war. But war is preferable to allowing genocide. The Mid-East is more stable then it was. A good example of this are the peace talks in Israel. Perfect? No, but peace has a better chance then it has had in years. It helps when a psycho nutcase isn’t paying the families of suicide bombers $25,000.
There is a lot of talk recently about how Bush “Lied to get us into the war.” Which is funny considering his speech was made after congress had already voted for the action. Plus the people who actually saw the same intel as Bush before the war suddenly think he should have known part of it was bad when they didn’t. Interesting that they are brining this up suddenly when they are running for president.
Also it is funny how people keep saying Bush is so stupid, and yet is suddenly supposed to be able to tell good intelligence from bad, especially when he gets a phone book size intelligence briefing every day. You can’t have it both ways.
Exactly how many innocent people died because of this war? (And don’t add the people Iraq pulled out of mortuaries and placed around bombed areas after the fact.) Was it greater then the 300,000 people found so far? Stopping this has made it worth it to me.
And what the hell is wrong with nationalistic pride? If you are trying to talk about a one world government, who would be in charge? Which country? What person or people? A worldwide democracy? Is that what you want?
The world is not ready for a single government yet. The way the UN acts is an example of that.
The idea of all governments putting down their weapons, and living in peace is great, but just a pipe dream. I have a better chance of leaving my bike unlocked and unattended in Canada, and not having it stolen.
Then there is the oil conspiracy theory. The Illuminati killed Kennedy so Vietnam could continue, to increase tensions with communists, so that Saddam could gain more power, and then be quickly overthrown in a short 13 years so Bush could get some oil. I’m sorry, I didn’t even mention ancient Egypt, and the freemasons, and the Trilateral Commission. NoT to mention the secret lizard people who run the Illuminati. Have I missed anything?
I have a great idea, lets deal with facts, and not fantasy.
Did I forget something? Oh yeah…PENIS.