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Pres. Carter's opinions on Iraq, and other policies
Okay, we've all heard the "we were misled" comments thrown around rather regularly. I personally disagree with the use of "misled" because it suggests it was done intentionally. I don't think it was done intentionally, at least not by the Commander-in-Chief himself. (potentially by the CIA and other intelligence gathering agencies...but that's another matter altogether)
With that said, I am sick of everyone in the media and various others in the public eye acting as everything we are going through currently overseas was going to happen and that there was a 'spin' put on it going in to get 'approval' from the people.
Sure, there was a 'spin' put on it in the beginning -- but we all know what that was... it was called September 11th. That fateful day changed everything as we knew it and continues to change things even today.
Mr. Carter claims that Pres. Bush (Jr.) policies are a "radical departure" from any other President in the last 100 years or so - Republican or Democrat. Well, realistically speaking no other President had a "radical departure" like September 11th occur during their presidency. Yes, there were things like Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, 1993 WTC Bombing, etc... but none of those had the impact on the entire nation the way September 11th did. Ok, so maybe with the exception of Pearl Harbor - but that was under different circumstances and we took care of that rather quickly and almost single-handedly ended WWII by dropping those two atomic bombs on Japan. We're still paying for that one, despite the great relations between U.S. and Japan today.
My bet is that any other President having to deal with the events of September 11th would have been forced to make a great deal of the same choices we have made to this point. We needed to go after Osama in the mountains of Afghanistan. We needed to go to into Iraq to flush out an evil dictator who killed his own citizens at will for no reason other than they disagreed with his policies and overall rule of the country. Part of that is flushing out Al Queda and other terrorist cells and keeping the extremist minorities in check. Part of that also is giving the Iraqi people a chance to shape their own future by helping them create a democratic form of government complete with voting and even introducing womens' rights - something countries in that region do not believe in.
Have we been 100% successful? No. Have we done a great deal of good for Iraq and the Middle Eastern region in general? Yes. Have we solved all of the world's problems? No. Can that even be done? No, probably not.
Anyone who believes we were in it for the oil obviously didn't notice gas prices sky rocket to over $3.00 in regions of the country where $2.00 was a high price already. Sure, those spikes occurred after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita... but if we were really in it for the oil, we could have easily subsidized those increases at the pumps.
Two countries that have always been in it for the oil and for monetary gain are France and Germany. Both of these countries had very good deals going with ol' Saddam and stood to profit greatly from the U.S. and Coalition Forces NOT going into Iraq and flushing Saddam out of power. Am I criticizing these two countries? No. Politics and Macroeconomics are very complex and often frustrating games that all nations worldwide dabble in. I think it was wrong for them to put their pocketbooks in front of helping the Iraqi people liberate themselves from a tyrant... but prior to the war in Iraq they were just doing what any country would have done if presented the opportunity.
Now, with all of the above said there is one other thing that bothers me about President Carter's remarks regarding our war(s) in the Middle East. He might have a problem with the policies of today under President Bush -- but that didn't stop him and other previous presidents from having other policies which sparked the hatred for the United States by countries/people of the Middle East in the first place. That very hatred is what caused September 11th. It was a long time coming... just so happened it happened in 2001, just short of a year after President Bush took office.
I believe people, especially past Presidents, should think before they open their mouths. What we are dealing with today took many years to come to be... it didn't just happen overnight because President Bush is in the White House.
Afterall, who's to say we aren't just being misled into believing we have been misled?
Okay, we've all heard the "we were misled" comments thrown around rather regularly. I personally disagree with the use of "misled" because it suggests it was done intentionally. I don't think it was done intentionally, at least not by the Commander-in-Chief himself. (potentially by the CIA and other intelligence gathering agencies...but that's another matter altogether)
With that said, I am sick of everyone in the media and various others in the public eye acting as everything we are going through currently overseas was going to happen and that there was a 'spin' put on it going in to get 'approval' from the people.
Sure, there was a 'spin' put on it in the beginning -- but we all know what that was... it was called September 11th. That fateful day changed everything as we knew it and continues to change things even today.
Mr. Carter claims that Pres. Bush (Jr.) policies are a "radical departure" from any other President in the last 100 years or so - Republican or Democrat. Well, realistically speaking no other President had a "radical departure" like September 11th occur during their presidency. Yes, there were things like Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, 1993 WTC Bombing, etc... but none of those had the impact on the entire nation the way September 11th did. Ok, so maybe with the exception of Pearl Harbor - but that was under different circumstances and we took care of that rather quickly and almost single-handedly ended WWII by dropping those two atomic bombs on Japan. We're still paying for that one, despite the great relations between U.S. and Japan today.
My bet is that any other President having to deal with the events of September 11th would have been forced to make a great deal of the same choices we have made to this point. We needed to go after Osama in the mountains of Afghanistan. We needed to go to into Iraq to flush out an evil dictator who killed his own citizens at will for no reason other than they disagreed with his policies and overall rule of the country. Part of that is flushing out Al Queda and other terrorist cells and keeping the extremist minorities in check. Part of that also is giving the Iraqi people a chance to shape their own future by helping them create a democratic form of government complete with voting and even introducing womens' rights - something countries in that region do not believe in.
Have we been 100% successful? No. Have we done a great deal of good for Iraq and the Middle Eastern region in general? Yes. Have we solved all of the world's problems? No. Can that even be done? No, probably not.
Anyone who believes we were in it for the oil obviously didn't notice gas prices sky rocket to over $3.00 in regions of the country where $2.00 was a high price already. Sure, those spikes occurred after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita... but if we were really in it for the oil, we could have easily subsidized those increases at the pumps.
Two countries that have always been in it for the oil and for monetary gain are France and Germany. Both of these countries had very good deals going with ol' Saddam and stood to profit greatly from the U.S. and Coalition Forces NOT going into Iraq and flushing Saddam out of power. Am I criticizing these two countries? No. Politics and Macroeconomics are very complex and often frustrating games that all nations worldwide dabble in. I think it was wrong for them to put their pocketbooks in front of helping the Iraqi people liberate themselves from a tyrant... but prior to the war in Iraq they were just doing what any country would have done if presented the opportunity.
Now, with all of the above said there is one other thing that bothers me about President Carter's remarks regarding our war(s) in the Middle East. He might have a problem with the policies of today under President Bush -- but that didn't stop him and other previous presidents from having other policies which sparked the hatred for the United States by countries/people of the Middle East in the first place. That very hatred is what caused September 11th. It was a long time coming... just so happened it happened in 2001, just short of a year after President Bush took office.
I believe people, especially past Presidents, should think before they open their mouths. What we are dealing with today took many years to come to be... it didn't just happen overnight because President Bush is in the White House.
Afterall, who's to say we aren't just being misled into believing we have been misled?