OT: Who said this?

Presidential candidate George W. Bush.

You do know what the date of that statement was, don't you?

Year 2000, day unknown. Why do you ask?

9/11/2001 changed everything. Business as usual was not working and something different had to be done.

Seems like it was 'business as usual' with Saudi Arabia, although fifteen of the nineteen aerial murderers were from Saudi land. Instead, we went after Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. good thinking.

Too bad you're you. I was about to ask you something interesting, but I'm absolutely positive you'd refuse to respond.

Suit yourself. You ask too many questions anyway. This is an improvement.

Too many for whom? You? You dump simplistic bullshit here, and when anyone asks you to elaborate, you faint. You're a pansy. I know 6 year old kids who could argue you into a corner.

Why should 9/11 change "everything?" Terrorists had been after us, with varying degrees of success, for years. This was just the one plan that happened to work. Not only that, it a plan that could never work again. Witness the flight that crashed in PA; they knew the score. Hijackers will never again reach the cockpit unopposed. Everybody is watching what their seatmates do.

It also turned *some* Arab and Muslim sentiment *towards* us.

And, it bankrupted Al-Qaeda. A link was posted some week ago, letters from one A-Q leader to another pointing out that they were on the ropes.

One thing *did* change; the Bush administration felt that they could use the fears generated by 9/11 as cover to hit an innocent bystander.

What have they done to secure a stable Pakistan? Nothing. Secure ex-Soviet weapons? Reduced the budget. What about North Korea? Little (and look what they NK's have been up to since).

What have they done to piss away a lot of goodwill? Invaded Iraq.

Bush's statement in 2000 was correct. He had no intention of following that rule, however.

Right on all counts. I would just add that a key element in this "Fiasco" which no one seems to *get* but is the only one that explains the dedication and the lies put forth to justify the invasion of Iraq and the bastard child we brought to life in the process.

It was never about WMD's or terrorists, but but rather economics. Trying to ram free market economic theory down the throats of 28 million unsuspecting people. *That's* what "Shock and Awe" is really all about. Former CEO and Friedman apprentice Rumsfeld was the perfect candidate not only to believe in this policy but to try and implement it on the cheap.

"Disaster capitalism", impose it while they are stunned and confused ("shocked"). What was the first thing we did after "mission accomplished"? Bremer gave citizenship and immunity from laws to corporations and the oil rights to Shell and BP.

It's zealots for free market ideology that led us to devastate Iraq and unleash murderous forces, leaving 4 million homeless, half of whom fled their country not to mention a financial obligation that will last for decades. And the people they continue to undermine, the American working class, are supposed to patriotically pick up the tab while friends of the administration continue profiteering.

Now that we have privatized police, a reasonable question is, how long before they come to *our* neighborhood to "shock" *us*.

You SHOULD. They will be the same 6 year old kids who argue you into a corner all the time. I'll bet you turn to personal attacks and vulgarities, just as you are want to do in this NG, when they do as well LOL

mike