Subject:
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Why Shrub is a Radical, or Don't Listen to Me -- Pay Attention to What Bush Sr. Has Done...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 4 Nov 2003 17:02:23 GMT
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Viewed:
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194 times
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For those that think the neo-con takeover is just business as usual, I give you
this opinion piece:
BUSH SR. SENDS NOT-SO-SUBTLE MESSAGE WITH AWARD TO KENNEDY
http://www.uexpress.com/printable/print.html?uc_full_date=20031016&uc_comic=gg
When it was announced (with amazingly little fanfare) that the pugnaciously
anti-Iraq war Democrat Kennedy had been awarded the 2003 George Bush Award for
Excellence in Public Service, so many jaws dropped all over Washington that
usually voluble politicians were only heard swallowing their real thoughts.
Since the current President Bush veered away from the real war against terrorism
in Afghanistan and went a’venturing in Iraq, much to his father’s dismay, just
about everybody close to Washington politics has known of the policy schism
between father and son.
edit: snip
The ideological rift between father and son has been growing ever since George
W. began focusing on Iraq and, with that obsession, proposed “theories” of
unilateralism (America needs room in the world) and pre-emption (kill even your
perceived enemy before he kills you). But while family friends say Father Bush
has made his disagreements known to his son, they clearly have not found fertile
soil in this White House.
More curious, and in many ways depressing, is the fact that this President Bush
has embarked upon a policy designed to counter, or even to wipe out, his
father’s entire political legacy.
The father lived his life in the service of moderate and intelligent
internationalism. His manners were always meticulously courteous, as he wooed
even critics overseas to see the American position. He was even-handed in the
Middle East and thus brought the area to the verge of peace for the first time
in history; he was capable of using force but preferred to do it supported by
coalitions of friendly states, thus cementing international cooperation.
The son seems to have made posturing against his father’s accomplishments and
beliefs his life’s work. W has given way to a radical right that abhors
international coalitions and manners; he mocks the world and denies any need for
its help. He has led the Middle East to the nadir of its hope and possibilities,
and he has led the United States to a moment in history in which we face
asymmetric warfare from one end of the globe to another. And above all, he has
replaced his father’s courtesy and good graces with an almost proud rudeness and
scorn for others.
I’ve actually posted about this rift before, I just think it’s interesting to
see the unified front collapse like this. In my estimation we have something
very different in the current Republican party -- something bolder, more
extreme, more vicious, and more virulent than anything we have seen before. The
extremists that once hid away in the shadows are more brash than ever. But is
this the U.S. you really want?
What can I say? If you supported the father, should you really be supporting his
son? The award going to Ted Kennedy is really and truly bizarre.
-- Hop-Frog
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