Everyone Who Dislikes/Likes George W. Bush, Tell Us Why In Your Own Words (1 Viewer)

[ra]

work it

 

[Neekie2212]

Young people know more than you think.
I remember the Clinton affair vividly. I was in the 4th grade, and we as a class were discussing it. (we were a mature few)
I remember the 2000 election vividly. I know Bush didn't win, with the whole Florida mess.
I remember the 9/11 attacks vividly.
I remember seeing people in the Middle East dancing in the streets after the attacks. Trust me, that image never leaves my head.

I knew there were NO WMDs in Iraq, from what I can tell. We took a computer class at school so I knew they were computer images.
I remember the U.N. inspections, finding NOTHING.
I couldn't believe we were invading Iraq, when the true enemy was in Afghanistan/Pakistan.

I knew enemy #1 was Bin Laden NOT Hussein(sp?)
I know this administration has done absolutely NOTHING to find the guy. Give me a break, the guy's got kidney disease. He has to have dialysis to live.

I believe, If they wanted to find that guy the would have, a LONG time ago.
________
So to get to my point, young people know more than you give us credit for. We're your future...don't make us mad...L0L

 

[ra]

Happy Birthday Neekie2212!

 

[Neekie2212]

Happy Birthday Neekie2212!

It's not my birthday... :dunno:

 

[DadsDream]

LOL, Neekie2212, the fact that I've got four daughters and only one of them is younger than you doesn't mean that I don't respect you or your opinion.

It's America, everybody can have an opinion.

I thank you for taking the time to read mine and respond.

 

[nolazach]

Actually I didn't know you had such along military exp. I didn't major in history but sometimes I wish I did. I love hearing my grandparents and neighors ww2 stories. My dads war stories aren't as good. He is the same age as you and volunteered to the Army yet spent four years in Gemany and never Vietnam. I guess it was luck, or the war was winding down.

I do belive you know more than me on many of these issues. Again youlived them I read abou them. and history can be HIStory.

 

[Neekie2212]

My dad's 53. He went to Germany. My Granny said he left a boy and came back a man.

I love history. I read it for fun. Especially, 20th century history.

 

[ra]

Nobody should leave a boy... anywhere....
That's child abandonment.

 

[DadsDream]

Zach, I signed up January 20, 1975, several months before the embassy fell in Saigon.

The Marines were big on absentee voting, so I registered as a Louisiana Democrat. In Novmeber that year, I voted for Jimmy Carter.

In 1978, by presidential directive, I got to fly the 3-mile limit along the coast of Beruit, Lebanon, as a show-of-force (guns but no bullets, Carter's orders) against the PLO. They had shells for their 20mm Borfors cannons. I know they did. They "test fired" them in our direction several times. You know, just to keep us awake.

So, like your dad, I never served in Vietnam, but I'm classified as a Vietnam Era Veteran.

I've never been in a combat zone. See, at the time when I was there, Beruit wasn't a declared combat zone. Besides, I never got within three miles of the place. Now, the range of the PLO's truck-mounted 20mm Borfors cannons exceeded 3 miles, but that's beside the point.

 

[nolazach]

Thats what I was thinking of "vietnam era veteran"


Yeah though I do think you have more experience though like I said. I just dislike the president. I think he made key mistakes.

He could have been a hero to all if he would have just made some bette desions. I magine how different the Katrina legacy would be, if the military made a hge rescue effort on Aug, 30th? So many things he did wrong, I could live with many of them. The war, the storm and giving up on Afghanastan was too much

 

[DadsDream]

Zach, way back at the starting pages of this thread, I gave Bush a big fat NO GO on Katrina response.

But, the simple fact is that the entire Louisiana Army National Guard's 225th Engineer Group was mobilized and stood ready to respond, but our governor did not give the order for them to move south for three days and she refused to relinquish control of them either.

In the end, she retained control of that huge unit and all other Guard units sent from all the other states.

Why did she wait three days? It was a matter of who was going to maintain control and who was going to pick up the tab and pay for it.

In the end, the governor retained control of all Guard units and the Feds picked up the entire tab...that was a first in U.S. history.

We've had some rather long threads about that in the past.

Again, I give Bush a NO GO on Katrina response, but there's plenty of blame to go around there at all levels.

 

[RebSaint]

Zach, way back at the starting pages of this thread, I gave Bush a big fat NO GO on Katrina response.

But, the simple fact is that the entire Louisiana Army National Guard's 225th Engineer Group was mobilized and stood ready to respond, but our governor did not give the order for three days and she refused to relinquesh control of them either.

In the end, she retained control of that huge unit and all other Guard units from all the other states.

Why did she wait three days? It was a matter of who was going to maintain control and who was going to pick up the tab and pay for it.

In the end, the governor retained control of all Guard units and the Feds picked up the entire tab...that was a first in U.S. history.

So ultimately, Blanco waited three days but so did Bush. And don't give me this crap about posse comitatus and the fear of usurping federal authority. If Bush had good people surrounding him, and had any inkling of how a precedent was established to send in federal troops when civilian law enforcement and state national guard is unable or unwilling to restore order--things could have been much different.

We've had some rather long threads about that in the past.

Again, I give Bush a NO GO on Katrina response, but there's plenty of blame to go around there at all levels.

I know we disagree on this issue. But one. more. time. Katrina was NOT a political priority for Bush. I have no earthly idea why you continue to defend him on this issue. The guy was strumming a guitar at a birthday party a few days before the storm hit.

Blanco could have released all of the NG and it STILL would not have been enough.

Bush, and only GWBush, had the authority to send FEDERAL troops. And he did....on FRIDAY, after too many people suffered for too long. The 225th could not have handled the magnitude of the disaster that faced the city.

You like to feature your experience in the guard, well I'm going to share something I haven't yet. A colleague of mine at LSU-A flies in the Civil Air Patrol. He told me about flying into the city after the 882nd finally was sent in to clean up the city. He talked to some of the regular military guys as well as those in the guard who were there. Needless to say, the military [state and fed] killed many more people than the media has reported.

The city was in a state of anarchy nearly a FULL WEEK, which I think is unexcusable when American soldiers are fighting and dying to prop a democracy for a people who arguably don't want or deserve it.

And let's not forget that it was GWBush who rolled FEMA into Homeland Security--these are not "long term" evolutions of bureacracy which you claim, but flat out incompetency which is unexcusable.

Yes, we can blame Blanco too. She shares the blame, but the LA national guard was not up to the task to re-take a city which was flooded and burning while displaced drug gangs, looters, and desperate hungry people had free reign of the city for days on end.

It's exactly why things got demonstrably better on Friday when the regular army rolled in.

 

[DadsDream]

OK, Reb, one more time, from Page 2 of this thread:

In one of the most crucial moments in American history, Bush failed to lead from the front.

I don't like his initial response to Katrina. Total abdication of the power at his disposal. He kept up fluff piece meetings with political groups and remained technically "on vacation" in Crawford. Horrible, horrible symbolic message to send to the American public.

He sat there in Crawford for three days with the most expensive and elaborate mobile command post in the history of man at his disposal. He should have parked Air Force One at the New Orleans airport, invited Blanco to join him and led the efforts from the front.

My wife takes it one step futher and says he should have flown to Baton Rouge, picked up Blanco, set up a couple of folding chairs with her at the Superdome and sat there...waiting. He should have then insisted on being the last person to be evacuated. Stuff would have happened instantly. It would have sent a strong message too.

But, as TPS has noted, Bush has since caused money and aid to flow into people who need it, often despite the bungling and obstruction of the state and city government.

He doesn't get much credit for that on a national level. The image of him looking out the window of Air Force One when he should have been on the ground, leading from the front, is etched in everyone's mind.

 

[DadsDream]

Hey, Reb, you didn't mean to insert this paragraph in my quote, did you? It's your words, not mine.

So ultimately, Blanco waited three days but so did Bush. And don't give me this crap about posse comitatus and the fear of usurping federal authority. If Bush had good people surrounding him, and had any inkling of how a precedent was established to send in federal troops when civilian law enforcement and state national guard is unable or unwilling to restore order--things could have been much different.

 

[DadsDream]

You like to feature your experience in the guard, well I'm going to share something I haven't yet. A colleague of mine at LSU-A flies in the Civil Air Patrol.

I joined the Louisiana Army National Guard in December, 1979, and served with them until August 2001.

My friends, former collegues and former students were at the Superdome during and after the storm, they were at Jackson Barracks when the water rose, they were there when the national press was saying they weren't there.

I will not betray their confidence and discuss anything they've told me, so I won't discuss it here.

If someone felt that the 225th Engineer Group, composed of five battalions of Iraq War veterans, would have been overwhelmed...well, I'd love to see that assessment.

There's no way you're going to convince me that five armed battalions of Combat Engineers couldn't have established order in the CDB, the Superdome and the Convention Center.