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09-17-2003, 10:22 AM

I've gotta say that, in general, GT40FIED is speaking for me as well.

The real Lesson #1: Don't believe that everything you learn in school or read in a book is the whole story or wholly true.

I'm not going to really get into the Iraq thing here. Everybody believes they know what's really going on and, in all actuality, I doubt that anybody really knows what's going on.....Bush included. But as for Saddam.....we funded him heavily, as we did with bin Laden, and Noriega.....interesting, isn't it? Now we're funding the Kurds and Pakistan......let's just hope that part of history doesn't repeat itself.....again.

I personally don't think we should have gone there in the first place (and Afghanistan), but I feel deeply for the men and women of our Armed Forces who are there and hope they all return safely. I have my reasons for believing we shouldn't have gone in. I don't think it has served our best interests....

I think Democrats and Republicans are both, in general, very smart people. They're also both, in general, stupid as hell. They're smart in their abilities to lie, cheat, steal, screw, and sway opinion. They're stupid in that they rarely ever truly benefit the American public.

Clinton did some very good things for the country. He also did some bad things and he lacks certain morals. But what is funny about it is that he's not really any different than many other people currently in offices of the federal government, you just don't hear about them. I have yet to see much good (in my opinion) come out of Bush, but I realize that many people like his policies, no matter how unfortunate I find it sometimes.

Foreign affairs are also domestic affairs, yes. It is naive to believe that what goes on in the world doesn't affect the US. But it's also naive to think you can just neglect domestic affairs as well. A good leader balances the internal and external affairs to best serve the interests of the country without ever ignoring either.

The economy is a mix of past and present. It can go down in an instant or decline as a result of the last few years. The bursting of the "dot com" bubble was inevitable, growth like that cannot be sustained for very long. It had roots that spidered all throughout the US economy, so it's no surprise that its crash affected so much. That's an example of how the previous years affected the current. It's hard to blame that on any president. Clinton didn't create the "dot com" bubble any more than Bush popped it.

9/11 is an obvious example of how present affects the economy. Of course 9/11 is the culmination of many years of poor US foreign policy, but economically speaking it's an instant influence of the present (present being when the markets dove). It's tough to say that's Bush's fault unless you subscribe to the belief that it may not have happened if Bush weren't in office....but that's an entirely different discussion I'll leave to Scorch.

b

09-17-2003, 10:22 AM	#26
spoogenet Posts: n/a	I've gotta say that, in general, GT40FIED is speaking for me as well. The real Lesson #1: Don't believe that everything you learn in school or read in a book is the whole story or wholly true. I'm not going to really get into the Iraq thing here. Everybody believes they know what's really going on and, in all actuality, I doubt that anybody really knows what's going on.....Bush included. But as for Saddam.....we funded him heavily, as we did with bin Laden, and Noriega.....interesting, isn't it? Now we're funding the Kurds and Pakistan......let's just hope that part of history doesn't repeat itself.....again. I personally don't think we should have gone there in the first place (and Afghanistan), but I feel deeply for the men and women of our Armed Forces who are there and hope they all return safely. I have my reasons for believing we shouldn't have gone in. I don't think it has served our best interests.... I think Democrats and Republicans are both, in general, very smart people. They're also both, in general, stupid as hell. They're smart in their abilities to lie, cheat, steal, screw, and sway opinion. They're stupid in that they rarely ever truly benefit the American public. Clinton did some very good things for the country. He also did some bad things and he lacks certain morals. But what is funny about it is that he's not really any different than many other people currently in offices of the federal government, you just don't hear about them. I have yet to see much good (in my opinion) come out of Bush, but I realize that many people like his policies, no matter how unfortunate I find it sometimes. Foreign affairs are also domestic affairs, yes. It is naive to believe that what goes on in the world doesn't affect the US. But it's also naive to think you can just neglect domestic affairs as well. A good leader balances the internal and external affairs to best serve the interests of the country without ever ignoring either. The economy is a mix of past and present. It can go down in an instant or decline as a result of the last few years. The bursting of the "dot com" bubble was inevitable, growth like that cannot be sustained for very long. It had roots that spidered all throughout the US economy, so it's no surprise that its crash affected so much. That's an example of how the previous years affected the current. It's hard to blame that on any president. Clinton didn't create the "dot com" bubble any more than Bush popped it. 9/11 is an obvious example of how present affects the economy. Of course 9/11 is the culmination of many years of poor US foreign policy, but economically speaking it's an instant influence of the present (present being when the markets dove). It's tough to say that's Bush's fault unless you subscribe to the belief that it may not have happened if Bush weren't in office....but that's an entirely different discussion I'll leave to Scorch. b