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Lest it be said that I never point to a positive Bush article, here's one by Edward Luttwak from the British magazine Prospect, which contends that history will one day see Bush as a "great president in the Truman mould." The author of this article sees Bush's foreign policy successes as the removal of Saddam Hussein, an effective counteroffensive against Islamic militancy (with his most telling success being in Pakistan), global denuclearization, and setting the table for continued US dominance in global affairs.
You may discuss...
You may discuss...
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"Effective counteroffensive against Islamic militancy (with his most telling success being in Pakistan)": Effective? Does that mean "scare them off for a little while, but then they come back"?
"Global denuclearization": Uh huh. Where? Name one. Iran, maybe? North Korea?
"Continued US dominance in global affairs": Yes, by completely undermining our moral authority and economic influence. Uh huh.
Luttwak has also claimed that Barack Obama is (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12luttwak.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin) an "apostate Muslim" and therefore electing him would increase conflict between the U.S. and Muslim nations.
That article is "wishful thinking". Between the lines, throughout, is "Or would be, if reality were what I want it to be."
He's 0 for 5.
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Truman was unpopular at the time largely because the conservatives and the conservative news media were unrelenting in their attacks on him. The single person most responsible for the West winning the Cold War, Gen. George Marshall, Truman's Secretary of State, was pilloried so heavily that Eisenhower didn't even defend him.
That W's approval ratings are as high as 27% is because the conservatives and the conservative news media have been unrelenting in their praise and support of him. They just rolled over when he refused to release pictures of flag draped coffins of our brave soldiers. The NYTimes waited more than a year after the 2004 elections to print their story about illegal torture. A Republican Congress has just rolled over, and Bush administration figures have refused to answer subpoenas and the highly politicized DoJ has refused to enforce the law.
Truman won the war he inherited (WWII) and fought Korea backed by China to a standstill in the conflict he handed off to his successor. W. failed in the war he was goaded into, Afghanistan, and the war he is handing off to his successor, Iraq, is a disaster.
Truman was a man of principle who was right at the time and took courageous stands. Bush has no moral compass whose first impulse is always to run away and whose second impulse is always to lie about it.
The two are not comparable, no matter how the right wingers want to spin it.
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Ho! Ho! Ho!
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"A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment."
--Harry S. Truman
( "In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first."
-- Harry S. Truman
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand."
-- Harry S. Truman
"I would rather have peace in the world than be President."
-- Harry S. Truman
"The buck stops here!"
-- Harry S. Truman )
(Edited 'cause your layout doesn't like blockquotes.)
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Must we?
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