Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Don Rua" <rua AT mindspring.com>]

 

 

Disclaimer: I have no intention of voting for Bush, but I'm continually pushed away from the left by the arguments that reek of political agendas and emotionalism over reason. I have seen all the available tv spots.

 

My case: Bush including the images and themes of tragedy in his ads make perfect sense, and are entirely appropriate as quick reminders of the situation he led our country through.

 

A) The attacks on WTC and the Pentagon were easily one of the top five most shocking moments in US History. I remember well watching as the first plane had just hit the building, and no one knew what to think of it. I called work and said "Something important is happening, I'll be in later." Then, as I watched the news and the talking head babbled, I saw the second plane fly right into the other tower, and I turned to my wife and said "Honey, that was no accident. America is under attack." Then, we heard the Pentagon was attacked, and there was a plane down in PA. Somebody was throwing down on the US bigtime.

    At that moment, we, (and I assume many of those responsible for protecting our country and managing mass emotion), did not know if we were going to be hit by 30 more such attacks in 30 different cities. They didn't know if they would be punctuated with a nuclear blast smuggled into the Lincoln Tunnel, and a release of gas from the Seattle skyscrapers. It was an incredible event, which shocked the world, not just us. Imagine the Eiffel Tower, or Big Ben, or the Aussie Opera house being flattened. Remember the images of, not hundreds, but thousands of New Yorkers walking dazed through the streets, their faces covered in ash. Those creepy photos from across the harbor, NY skyline covered in smoke.

 

    And Bush had to take that call. He had to deal with something that almost no other president has had to wake up to. And he made his choices, and immediately went to work. He made appearances that gave confidence to many. He made huge changes to address the new reality that we may need more dedicated homeland security. He made bold and dangerous moves to deal with terrorism. Now, Bush-critics, put aside your thoughts that every move he made was wrong, and that he has done more harm than good, that's not the issue of the ads. The fact is, those events are HUGE in our history, and he's running for re-election based partly on his handling of such a unique situation. For people to lambaste him for such an sensible platform piece makes his opposition appear silly and trite in my book.

    There were a few rednecks who mistreated middle easterners, there are certainly many decisions which can be debated or shown as unfortunate, but he acted, and it makes sense for him to show that as his case for re-election. The company remained relatively calm, the country and NY rebounded, etc. I believe he has to take credit for that, and I think he should continue running those ads as a reasonable evidence of action under fire. Hell, most candidates don't have any evidence of handling something similar, but should show it if they do. I don't see Kerry avoiding the VietNamHero chant, despite that fact that more lives were lost there than at WTC. If you don't like the job Bush did in response, don't vote for him, but to run around boo-hooing about how offensive and repugnant the ads are, give me a break.

 

Additionally, arguing against Tony's use of actual examples and evidence from previous points in history, such as Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor, makes no sense to me. Heck, at least he's trying to lay out an evidence based argument instead of a "it offends me, so change" victimology. I heard people making comments something like "I guess we should just go back to slavery like in the 40's" yuk, yuk. Has the Left become Hee Haw? One of the first steps to defeat reason, is to disallow the use of valid examples. Then it's your opinion vs mine, no evidence sold here, bub. Why stop at condemning the use of lessons from the 40's, we can go much farther back. I supposed we shouldn't use anything we learned from the Greeks and Romans, because of their support of slavery and other brutal practices, so forget Democracy, forget the Republic, we're only supposed to judge the world by what happened today, and whether it offends someone or not. I don't know of a handful of people who have sat in the situation that Bush did the day and two years following WTC, so if we have to look back 40 years, or back to Marc Anthony, to compare how some other world leader handled a national tragedy. Remember, this was no accident, this was a big freaking exclamation point on the sentiment "America Must Die", which seems to be shared by numbers of people. Handling that is definitely something Bush should list on his re-election resume, whether it hurts or not.

 

Somebody said they'd rather elect Hussein than Bush? Yea, I want to vote alongside that. The degree that Americans have been spoiled with freedom seems belong comprehension at times. Let's all shoot off our rifles, stomp on a few pictures of the US Olympic team, then have our bodyguards pull some nameless teenage girl from the Baghdad streets so our son can beat her while dancing to black-market Commodores tapes.

 

 

“When he became 30, he started to look to women who are 11, 12,” says Janabi. “Believe me, believe me. I know what I’m talking about.”
Some of the young girls, Janabi says, were daughters of cabinet ministers and government officials. Just as Saddam himself used to do, Janabi says, Uday raped them and videotaped his actions so he could terrorize and control their parents." -from 60 Minutes http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/17/60II/main600705.shtml

----- Original Message -----

From: James Dasher

To: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:40 AM

Subject: Re: [internetworkers] fury over WTC ads