...it's pure republican spam, sent to me by an aquaintance who knows my politics. (She has sent me s**t like this before, and I've called her on it). Here is the email, and my response to it. Warning: quite long.
Get the facts straight.
The Facts
The following appeared in a local paper as a letter to the editor. Please forward to all on your list as this will put things in perspective:
Some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One person recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history.
Let's clear up one point: We didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember. It was started by terrorists on 9/11. Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims.
FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.
John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Lybia, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
We lost 600 soldiers, an average of 300 a year. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.
Worst president in history? Come on!
Here is my response:
I urge you not to buy into this propaganda, think for yourself, and reconsider your position when I give you the REAL facts.
- It is true we did not start the war on terror. But neither did Saddam Hussein. As a matter of fact, Iraq and Hussein played no role in 9/11, nor do they have any significant ties to Al Qaeda. Most importantly, invading Iraq actually took strategic, tactical, and intelligence resources away from the true war on terror. The war in Iraq has not made America any safer; in fact our invasion and occupation has created a whole new generation of Muslim men who hate the United States and want to take up arms against us. Iraq is now less safe, and has become a breeding ground for Islamic extremists intent on killing Americans. Capturing Saddam Hussein has not diminished the attacks on our troops in Iraq, either.
- Let's clear up one thing about WWII. Japan ruthlessly attacked Pearl Harbor, forcing us into the war. I will leave out the fact that Japan and Germany were actually allies in the war, because it may not be clear that an act of war by one ally is considered an act of war by all. Never mind that. What's important is that Germany was in fact attacking the US, and had been for several years. German U-boats were sinking US ships in the Atlantic ocean as they attempted to bring supplies to OUR ally, Britain.
- The conflict in Korea was a direct consequence of the Truman doctrine. This doctrine was what fought and won the cold war, the same cold war that many Republicans claim THEY won. Truman stood in front of a joint session of congress and said basically that the US was the only country on earth that could stand in the way of communist aggression throughout East Asia and the Middle East. Korea was the first stand against the Chinese in the cold war. Nobody can argue that Chinese and Soviet containment was not worth it.
- The Vietnam conflict was also a result of the Truman doctrine. Although I have proven the importance of the Truman doctrine in winning the cold war in #3 above, the prosecution of the war in Vietnam certainly was a failure. However, assuming that President Kennedy would've allowed this to happen is up for debate. The fact that your email brings up Johnson's quagmire in Vietnam only serves to highlight the comparisons that are currently being made between Vietnam and Bush's war in Iraq.
- Numerous Republican presidents during the cold war assassinated or forcibly removed leaders of many democratically elected governments in Central and South America. They also actively sold arms to "friendly" rebels like the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan (later to become the Taliban), the Baathist party in Iraq against Iran (Saddam Hussein sound familiar?), and supported dictators like Noriega in Panama. In fact, how do we know how Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? Reagan and Bush, Sr. sold them to him. Most of these "alliances" came back to haunt us. That's called blowback. Anyway, Kennedy and Johnson versus this example? We'll call it a wash.
- Clinton went to war in Bosnia to prevent an ongoing genocide. He prevented Milosevic from continuing to slaughter Bosnian Muslims. This military action, and the one in Kosovo, had a total of ZERO combat deaths. Genocide is currently the Bush Administration's "new" reason for going to war in Iraq. Unfortunately, it isn't mentioned that the genocide they refer to happened thirteen years ago, right after the first gulf war, when the Shia'a and the Kurds rose up against Hussein, with the encouragement of the George Bush, Sr. That administration then stood by as Saddam slaughtered those who revolted, using chemical weapons Bush and Reagan had previously supplied.
- Clinton was never offered Osama Bin Laden by the Sudan. There was a single Islamic man who approached the US government with this offer, presumably in order to make a profit. Since the USA does not deal with non-governmental entities, it approached the government of the Sudan to confirm this offer. The Sudan told us there was no such offer. The man was lying.
- There are numerous dictators throughout the world who murder and maim, or otherwise mistreat their citizens. We are not invading their countries. We are, in fact, doing business with them. Uzbeckistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are some of the worst, Iran and North Korea sure are getting off easy, considering they are closer to having weapons of mass destruction than Iraq was.
- In the two years since 9/11, Bush has occupied two countries, and sacrificed almost 600 soldiers. He vanquished the Taliban, only to have them come back since he has been ignoring the Afghan reconstruction. He vanquished Al Qaeda, only to spawn a whole generation of Muslims who hate us. His doctrine of preemption is taking credit for disarming Libya, Iran, and North Korea. In fact Great Britain and the UN led the way in Libya (for many years), UN led the way to write the agreement that Iran signed, and the Bush Administration has refused to have direct talks with North Korea. Quite a doctrine.
- Al Queda did indeed attack us many times before 9/11, including the embassies in Kenya and Tunisia, the WTC in '93, and the USS Cole attack. I could send you a whole different email with the terrorist attacks that were prevented while Clinton was president. But most importantly, 9/11 could've been prevented. In fact, the Clinton administration had a plan to attack Al Qaeda and kill Bin Laden, in December 2000, shortly after the Cole attack and right after the 2000 presidential election. Since they didn't want to start a war right before leaving office less than a month later, they briefed the incoming Bush Administration several times about the plan, and told many senior members this: that they would deal with Al Qaeda specifically, and terrorism in general, more than any other problem.
After a year and a half of ignoring Clinton's plan to wage war on terrorism, the Bush Administration finally decided to slowly implement to plan, in stages. The date of that decision? September 10, 2001.
Please send this to everyone who sent you the previous email, and to everyone you sent it to. Note that this is not spam, this is typed entirely by me, from memory, to answer the specific allegations in your email. Read this, then make your own decisions. Thanks, pauldean.