An Alternative History...

[Tenbatsuzen]

Although it'll probably kill most of you, I encourage you to check this out from Gregg Easterbrook at The New Republic.

And yes, I know this is the same guy who made the comments to get him fired from ESPN, but irregardless, it's probably one of the best pieces I've ever read on this whole situation.

<a href="http://www.tnr.com/easterbrook.mhtml?pid=1545">Bush Convicted and Removed From Office</a>





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This message was edited by Tenbatsuzen on 4-10-04 @ 12:24 AM

[HBox]

I read that today, and while there is a point in there somewhere, this goes way too far in making it. Yes, I know it's a satire, but it is ridiulous. It misses an obvious point that the Bush administration has been making and I agree with: an attack in Afghanistan in the summer of 2001 would have been extremely unlikely to prevent 9/11.

Furthermore, this just goes to minimize more legitimate criticisms. One being that the FBI knew these terrorists were in the country, Tenet knew of suspicious activity going on in flight schools, and the White House knew of increased chatter, and no one was able to put the pieces together.

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[Tenbatsuzen]

That's not the point at all.

Draw the corrollaries between that article, and what Bush is enduring with Iraq.

It's a catch-22. It shows how hard it is to lead a country.



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[HBox]

Oh. But then it don't make any sense.

We knew bin Laden was in Afghanistan plotting against us. Not so with Iraq. We knew bin Laden had attacked us recently. Not so with Iraq. We knew bin Laden had agents plotting against us in the U.S. Not so with Iraq. I could go on and on.

I still read it as a satire of all the criticisms of pre-9/11 Bush. It's just he chose something nobody suggested. He's right that no one would have supported an Afghanistan invasion (although no one in the world would have the balls to do anything suggested in that article). People went apeshit over Clinton's cruise missiles. And, even if 9/11 was prevented, a wake up call would still be inevitable eventually.

And it is hard to lead a country. But its no excuse to fail. Bush better sort out his shit on Iraq, and soon.

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[Teenweek]

Can someone explain to me why now people are saying it is ok to do a preemptive strike against Afghanistan before 9/11 but it was utter horror when Bush did the exact same thing against Iraq. Face it if Bush attacked Afghanistan before 9/11, Bin Laden would be a hero in THIS country.

[Yerdaddy]

That thing is a nice mix of logical fallacies that adds up to: Never question the president. It's suggesting that if Bush would have preempively invaded Afghanistan 9-11 would have never happened, which is bullshit, (see Condolleeza Rice and Richard Clark's testimony to the 9-11 Commission, among others). It's assumes that there is no difference between Afghanistan and Iraq in terms of the intelligence picture we had at the time of our invasions. It makes a straw-man out of those anecdotal quotes to represent everyone who opposed Iraq. But most of all it says: "Don't question any war the president proposes because he must be preventing another 9-11." Which is a rationalization for giving the president authoritarian powers to make war wherever he chooses, even in, say... Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland...

It's worthless, the OP/ED equivalent of that stupid country song that criticized people against Iraq with :"Have you forgotten 9-11?"

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[zoom2457]

That was a really nice fairy tale. Now, back to reality.

"Excuse me, excuse me I believe you have my stapler"

[TheMojoPin]

Can someone explain to me why now people are saying it is ok to do a preemptive strike against Afghanistan before 9/11

Nobody is doing this.

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