ESSAY

The Dilemma of Dissent

You try to make the best of an executive decision you think is wrong. But there's a limit. A former Bush aide looks back.

By Richard N. Haass | NEWSWEEK
Published May 2, 2009
From the magazine issue dated May 18, 2009

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  • Posted By: eddiewhere @ 10/14/2009 7:54:53 PM


    THis is 30 year war. The question how can we fight it with little presence. The answer; By training Afghan special forces. Use drones and special forces and withdraw over 85% of the military presence in Afghanistan by 2012.

    THis is a "moving war", a global war. We have to use intellignece and specilal forces in conjuction with drones and spies to track these terrorist all across the globe. The five muslim states that seperated from Russia is where these terrorists will regroup and where the war will continue. These five states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will then form an alliance with the Russian underworld and drop a bomb on us. We have to think ahead of the enemy. This information can change human history and prevent a catastorphe if we get our special forces into these five states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan from now. Let's not wait for the enemy. That is how we will catch Bin Laden. We have to anticipate where are the 25 most probable place Bin Laden will be in or contact in the future. Start setting up shop and the prey will walk straight in unannounced and we will nab him. i think it is vital that we take Osama bin laden alive, so we can destroy this god like figure to the muslim radicals infront of them. If Osama Bin Laden dies a martyr his teaching will be followed and he will be worshipped as a God. Obama is doing an amazing job as President. Once the American people know what the objective is and when our troops are being pulled out they will support our President. Remember we fought the cold war for decades with millions of people we just did not use troops.

  • Posted By: eddiewhere @ 10/14/2009 7:54:12 PM

    Health Care is coming around and Barak is about to do what no one thought he could ever do and that is reform the practices of insurance companies. He has played is hand magnificiently. THe dow Jones has hit 10000 in recent days. It is amazing how the right government policies can have such an impact on our society. AND THIs IS WHAT THE DEMOCRAtS HAVE to DRIVE HOME. THAT GOVERNMENT CAN DO GOOD AND IMPROVE OUR EXISTING INFASTRUCTURE. THE REPUBLICANS ARE CRAZY. THERE ONE LINERS WE DO NOT TRUST GOVERNMENT, PUT US IN POWER MUST BE EXPOSED FOR WHAT IT IS, MADNESS.
    NEVER MUST THE REPUBLICANS TAKE CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT AGAIN. WE WERE SINKING DEEP AND DETERIORATING AT A RAPID RATE. ECONOMICALLY AND SOCIALLY. OBAMA HAS BROUGH HOPE AND IS SLOWLY RESTORING THE TRUST OF OUR GREAT GOVERNMENT. I NEVER TRUSTED CHENEY RUMSFEILD OR BUSH TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION FOR THE COMMON PERSON. THEIR INTEREST WAS TO MAKE SURE THEIR KIND GOT AS RICH AS POSSIBLE. THE GOOD OLD BOYS NETWORK. THESE PEOPLE USED GOVERNMENT TO STRENGHTEN CORPORATIONS, CREDIT CARD COMPANIES, PRIVATE DEFENSE CONTRATORS LIKE HALIBURTON, PRIVATE SECURITY FIRMS LIKE BLACK WATER, AND INSURANCE COMPANIES.
    WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO RIGHT A BOOK ON THE CRIMES OF THE BUSH ERA STARRING BUSH, CHENEY HALIBURTON. THE MUNIPULATION OF EVERY BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT INCLUDING THE WERE ASTOINISHING. THE RACISM AND THE BAD BEHAVIOUR BY OUR TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN. OUR FAILED UNILATERAL POLICIES THE LIST GOES ON AN ON. AT SOME POINT WE MUST ASSES THE DAMAGE THAT WAS DONE UNDER THE BUSH REGIME.

    WE MUST NEVER FORGET AND NEVER VOTE THE REPUBLICANS BACK INTO POWER FOR AT LEAST 20 YEARS.

  • Posted By: TommuR @ 05/10/2009 7:35:18 PM

    the line of defectors is growing.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 3:24:35 PM

    Except when they are tea baggers of course, who magically become not ''dissenting Americans'' but ''racists'' and ''rednecks'' whose wires are pulled by a ''FOX''. [Remember however,that those white college students at STANFORD now calling for African American Condie Rices outster are not racists. They are ''progressive dissenters''].

    Line of hypocrites forms to the Left.

    • Posted By: basedrum777 @ 05/04/2009 5:26:41 PM

      I've been called everything from unpatriotic to a commie for dissenting from this war from the start. Don't give me that BS. Arguing you shouldn't pay taxes is not dissent, its hannity being an idiot. Arguing that American lives should not be sacrificed at the whim of the inkling that there might be some distant chance that maybe there are weapons in a country is Dissent. The IRaq war sheep line formed strongly to the right...

      • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 5:36:36 PM

        Garbage. If you cannot back your play with identified instance, then I cannot take your claim of being called a ''commie''seriously,as all I have to go on is your word. Talk is cheap. The above instances all appeared on national television being advanced by what is supposed to be a ''mainstream'' media.[Apr. 18,2009 for MSNBC and Apr.15,2009 for CNN, whose idiot reporter Susan Rosegen labeled these protesters ''rightwinged'' without bothering to ask for ideological alliance]. The point here is that the media is not a neutral bystander but is complicit in advancing ''dissent as rightwinged/redneck/racist'', rather than what it is. A historically American exercise.

        • Posted By: basedrum777 @ 05/04/2009 5:42:19 PM

          Are you really going to argue that Republicans did not during the build up and advancement of the war in Iraq did not label dissenters as unamerican and commies? Are you serious? What rock have you been living under? GWB's middle initial stands for "well if you're not with us, you're against us".

          • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 7:15:24 PM

            Without citation, yes. Merely handing us instances of the rightist bombthrowers on talk radio or FOX will not cut it. Bush never,not once in his eight years,lashed out specifically at the American people for being against his policies. In less than one week, Obama has gone from personally disparaging these ''tea party''protesters [Americans], to cracking jokes on Leno regarding ''Special Olympics'' [ Downs Syndrome Americans], to calling investors ''speculators''[more Americans].

            This is not the ''post-partisan''America he promised........

            • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:31:20 PM

              I can't think of a time that Bush called dissenters "traitors" or "commies".

              That's what he had Fox News and Ari Fleischer for.

              • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 3:29:08 PM

                Ari called diisidents ''commies''?


                Where? And does Obama now ''have'' MSNBC,CNN and the entire Washington Press Corps any more than Bush ''had'' FOX?

                No dice. It is the height of hypocrisy to observe that one form of ideological press moves in ''lockstep'' while the other,does not. [ The press may now rise for the POTUS]. News is ''fixed'' just as wretchedly in the MSM as it is on ''FOX''. ''Faux''news regarding everything from Sarah Palin to the 2006 Lebanese War has been a dependable staple for Americas news services, with or without a ''FOX''. The too, even if you are correct regarding Bushs example with FOX, this man never once found it neccesary to single out individual critics, while Obama, for his portion and having all but FOX on his side, routinely disparages Americans collectively [ ''tea baggers'', ''speculators''] or individually [ citing ''Hannity'' over and over again]. Bush never pulled these stunts.

                • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 4:44:58 PM

                  "Ari called diisidents ''commies''?"

                  Naw. He said they (dissenters) had to "be careful what they think and say". Fleischer was arguably the most un-American spokesman ever to slime up the Whitehouse press room.

                  • Posted By: LDS2484 @ 05/07/2009 11:24:01 PM

                    Valerie Plame. OWNED. And if you want some of these examples you keep crying for, turn off boss limbaugh and faux news and turn on any of the real news. Why would anyone here waste their time pulling up any of the hundreds of links for you when everyone knows that like a good repube troll you don't really care anyway.

                  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 7:05:16 PM



                    But he did not call them ''commies'' [and neither did anyone else in that administration]. Now we are ''tea bagging speculators'', instead of Americans, and this,from our own strangely Nixon-like POTUS.

                    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/06/2009 10:06:09 AM

                      False comparison. Obama isn't as competent as Nixon was.

        • Posted By: basedrum777 @ 05/04/2009 5:43:34 PM

          And if i recall those "teabagger" protests were formed using conservative republican media as their driving force. No one was disillusioned as to who was running those "parties".

          • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 7:10:04 PM

            ''If you recall''?


            Garbage. Over 1000 locations from Rhode Island to California,including hundreds of these where there was no ''FOX''in evidence. More hypocrisy. Liberals can create sudden ''grassroots'' protests yet decked out in NARAL ANSWER,and NAACP paraphenalia and bankrolled by a HALLIBURTON -rich George Soros, but other Americans are so stupid that they must pick up the phone to FOX and get these to organize their protests for them. You forget that GALLUP displays a ''56%'' majority of Americans who backed these protests. This is only five points less than Obamas total popularity now. Thus can all of these people be gulled by the same FOX? No way. [and as a postscript, todays RASMUSSEN shows a measly 18% of Americans who support these government interventions into CHRYSLER and GM]. For now,Obama is liked as a person. Not for his policies.

            • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:33:17 PM

              Lee, while the Tea Parties started as non-partisan tax protests, by April 14/15, they were a Fox News anti-Obama product. No surprise, though...by the time you've heard of these things, they are a pre-packaged product of one interest or another.

              • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 3:22:13 PM

                There is no proof of this. To be sure, FOX made its presence known in key large urban areas, with Beck staked out in Austin and Hannity in Atlanta. This makes no case whatever for a ''FOX''hegemony over the entire tea party protests as these played out in Salem Oregon, Elko,Nevada, Wichita Ks, Tupelo Miss, Joilet,Ill, Binghampton NY, or thousands of other towns and cities large and small.

                • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 4:49:17 PM

                  "To be sure, FOX made its presence known in key large urban areas, with Beck staked out in Austin and Hannity in Atlanta. "

                  And there you have it. The Tea Party organizers (such as they were) allowed their protest to be co-opted. Regardless of their aims, the appearance went from a grassroots demonstation to what a certain 1980s senator called "astroturf" (Pelosi, of course, was more than happy to plagiarize the term).

                  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 7:09:55 PM

                    And used this falsely,as unlike Soros with MOVEON , no money ever changed hands. There is no proof of Pelosis accuasation,any more than there is a scintilla of proof that her Democrats are the ''most ethical''. And no, Austin and Atlanta are not the ''United States'' so there,we have, nothing.[except for the fact that an Apr.20 GALLUP Poll finds that 56% of Americans backed these protests, which in your book, shows that their lawns are sown with ''astroturf''as well]. So much for Pelosis ''mainstream''.

                    • Posted By: bosmith @ 05/07/2009 4:06:25 PM

                      I wonder if this jibberish means this guy now thinks the American electorate wants Republicans to govern? I have not seen that conclusion from anybody but Conservatives that have been rejected by the American electorate two elections in a row. Why should anybody believe these imaginations?Did Conservative Republicans gain support from the American electorate and I missed it? This comment reminds me when the rapper EMINEM referrred to another rapper as speaking jibberish.

                    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/06/2009 10:05:06 AM

                      "And used this falsely,as unlike Soros with MOVEON , no money ever changed hands. "

                      What difference does that make?

                      • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/06/2009 12:08:54 PM

                        Plenty. It puts to rest Pelosis BS regarding ''astroturfing''



                        www.instapundit.com for the full roundup of NON-FOX,non-anybody, homegrown tea parties that are occurring across the nation.

                        • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/06/2009 2:02:49 PM

                          "Plenty. "

                          Nonsense. No payment is required for the connection to exist.

    • Posted By: richsob @ 05/05/2009 4:19:30 PM

      As John Stewart so aptly stated a couple of weeks ago on his show, being in the minority is supposed to taste like a sh*t taco, get used to it.

      After all, during the Bush administration, your kind questioned the patriotism of anyone who doubted the premises of precipitating a war in Iraq, or anyone who took issue with compromising our civil liberties through the ironically named "Patriot Act." One thing I have found interesting is that I hear no Republicans/Conservatives/Teabaggers calling into question Rick Perry's endorsement of TX seceding from the Union. Hell, under Bush's execution of the Patriot Act, any political foe suggesting such a thing would likely have earned themselves a beach side room at Gitmo. It is an unfortunate reality that those who are in power rarely accept your dissent premised on principals that led to the defeat of leaders who share your views. They do not want to hear your carping because the majority of voters held that your principals no longer serve. Dissent is only appreciated in historical hindsight.

      So, chew slowly, and come to acquire the taste of your taco. I had to.

      • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 7:02:21 PM

        I ,on the other hand, have heard dozens. You will find them, in among other places, here.


        www.pajamasmedia.com

        www.hotair.com

        www.instapundit.com

        Not one single liberal critic of the Bush administration was ever jailed or sent to ''GTMO''.Not one was ever even censured.


        Not one.

        Heres a ''taco''that you can all ''chew on'', if you can afford it.


        AP May 04,2009:''Californias Unemployment Rises To 11.4%''

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:29:39 PM

      I am unaware of this attempted ouster of Condoleeza Rice from Stanford. What on Earth for? I didn't like her as the National Security Advisor or as SecState, but she IS qualified to teach, and has a solid background.

      WTF?

      • Posted By: svendrake @ 05/05/2009 2:38:12 PM

        I think being a war criminal could be seen as detriment by some employers.

        • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 4:50:50 PM

          And she was convicted of war crimes...when, exactly? I can't stand the woman either, but since when is it acceptable to punish people based on an accusation?

    • Posted By: Vigilance @ 05/05/2009 12:19:44 PM

      It forms at both sides, Lee. I'm sorry you're too myopic to see that bias is present everywhere. And as far as I can tell, you're absolutely not to be trusted yourself, or have you forgotten how royally you crapped all over me for being a secular humanist a few weeks ago? How you apparently don't believe in religious tolerance or religious freedom?

      • Posted By: Vigilance @ 05/05/2009 12:24:31 PM

        Perhaps that's unfair. Perhaps you don't actually believe that I ought to believe any other way than I do, but you're still willing to mock, demean, and disparage my beliefs - either way, you have no defensible moral platform with which to shout "Hypocrisy!" Look at your own hands first, Lee.

        • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 3:34:46 PM

          I have and do not share this taint. I called for no ''silencing'' of liberal dissent during the Bush years. I demanded that justice be meted out to the Abramoff Republicans and now call for it to be meted out to a coterie of crooked Democrats who called for the ''most ethical Congress in history''. I heaped scorn upon the anti-gay ''Rev'' Phelps and now heap it upon jackbooted gays who are having a conniption,again,hypocritically, over a singular Miss America finalist,who shared precisely the same views on gay marriage as does Obama,who escapes their wrath. Lott pulled a dumb stunt with Thurmond. Dodd did it with Byrd. Guess which controversy gets the most GOOGLE/LEXIS hits,however. This goes on and on, with the present party in power, displaying the most of Lincolns ''base alloy''.

          • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 4:43:12 PM

            "I called for no ''silencing'' of liberal dissent during the Bush years."

            I rather suspect you are telling the truth, Lee. You don't seem like the type that would. Unfortunately, a lot of people on the right get tarred with the same Brush as Hannity, O'Rielly, and Limbaugh.

        • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 3:35:40 PM



          The Los Angeles Times May 05,2009:''Democrats Awash In ''Culture Of Corruption''.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/07/2009 12:02:48 PM



    OSAMA: How many people showed up at the tea parties, again? I'm fairly certain it wasn't 150,500,001.

    Irrelevant to the portion of the discussion previously offered by this poster. GALLUP and RASMUSSEN showed majoral polled Americans in support of the tea party philosophies regarding unchecked and unregulated spending. These do not address how many ''showed up''.[we will observe here that both of these polling organizations are routine devices used by Democrats in order to display support for 'an ''Obama'' or ''abortion'' or ''gay marriage'' or ''national healthcare''].








    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/07/2009 1:50:38 PM

      "Irrelevant to the portion of the discussion previously offered by this poster. GALLUP and RASMUSSEN showed majoral polled Americans in support of the tea party philosophies regarding unchecked and unregulated spending."

      Adding a qualifier, I see. How many approved of the tea parties with respect to them turning into Obama-bashing fests, which is of course what they were by tax day?

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/07/2009 11:52:14 AM

    OSAMA:

    The present-day membership of the JBS is at 48,000 members as of 1999,the last year that such figures were released.

    If you can offer prrof that these protests are less than this[ and there is none not already provided by the MSM] then we will discuss your comparison on its merits.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/06/2009 6:26:36 PM

    ''A good chunk of America'' but not the majority OSAMA. And it is this majority that backs these protests.Further,your ''died at birth''is nonsense. the below website specifically displays several of these protests that occurred as late as yesterday.

    www.instapundit.com

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/07/2009 10:08:07 AM

      "Further,your ''died at birth''is nonsense. the below website specifically displays several of these protests that occurred as late as yesterday."

      Yes, and they rocked the world, didn't they? There had to be DOZENS of people attending each one...pretty soon, you'll catch the John Birch Society in numbers!

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/07/2009 10:06:16 AM

      "''A good chunk of America'' but not the majority "

      How many people showed up at the tea parties, again? I'm fairly certain it wasn't 150,500,001.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/06/2009 3:02:15 PM

    OSAMA: Yet the ''connection''exists only in your mind and that of the partisan Pelosi. [ along with the usual leftwinged suspects who are rank hypocrites on this anyway]. You people have been trying to have it both ways. Dissent is ''patriotic'' when considering a Bush. It is ''astroturfing'' [without a scintilla of evidence] when it is Obama. The idea is to ''question authority'' rather than being led around by the nose by liars like Pelosi,crooks like Hoyer, and the already-increasingly unsteady administration in Washington. You have taken a Inside-the Beltway, rather than a more uniquely ordinary American viewpoint of these protests. If this were not so, GALLUP and RASMUSSEN would not have been able to observe the majoral support for these protests that these garnered.

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/06/2009 4:05:15 PM

      "OSAMA: Yet the ''connection''exists only in your mind and that of the partisan Pelosi. "

      And a good chunk of America. That's why the tea party movement died at birth.

  • Posted By: nvhorseman @ 05/04/2009 4:12:04 PM

    Mr. Haass you are not a dissenter. You are a man with a difference of opinion, whatever the intensity. In fact, I would go so far as to say you are a coward, the very type of political worker bees Cheney/Bush chose to surround themselves with, to include, McClelland, Snow, Rice, Powell and a host of others. People who cannot see a madman if they have a vested interest in his success. Real dissenters really dissent. They protest, they get beaten, water hosed, dragged by the hair, bitten by dogs, thrown into steel boxes and hauled off to jail. You are a whiner, trying to dissolve your guilt by opining on the pages of a major news publication. You are as guilty of the travesties perpetrated by Shrub as he and his cabinet are and should be investigated and prosecuted as such. You, even indirectly, are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, some of them loyal American military personnel, led to war by lies, lies which you could have investigated, exposed and perhaps stopped a carnage. I hope God has more sympathy for you on judgment day than the people you passively helped die an early death. Good riddance to you and your ilk and that means you too Holmes. Your discourse makes no more of a point than Mr. Haass

    • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 5:47:45 PM

      But it does make a point,as it is based upon accurate information. Yours is a screed unsupported by fact. Nowhere has it ever been proven that Bush ''lied'' to get us into this war,and as we see, more Americans are continuing to die there without your hypocritical outrage. You are a phony patriot, of which your ''ilk''come a dozen to the dime. Pass to Mr. Haass,and he is merely one in a line of MacNamera mea culpaists.

      • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:36:24 PM

        "Nowhere has it ever been proven that Bush ''lied'' to get us into this war"

        Okay. So where are those "tens of thousands of liters of anthrax" we were told about?

        • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 4:39:16 PM

          Precisely the same place they were three years before Bush even became president, and for reasons enunciated by the same people that would later turn on Bush,[who also included ''Anthrax'' in their estimations]

          The 1998 Iraq Liberation Act passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate [.i.e. every damned Democrat in that body] and signed by President William J. Clinton.

          Did these ''lie''also?

          • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 4:41:14 PM

            "Did these ''lie''also?"

            Apparently they did, and they're just as guilty.

            • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 6:56:25 PM

              Yet no-one is demanding that a Biden, or a Clinton,or a Lieberman, or a Boxer ,or a Reid face the bar of justice. Indeed, the inquisitors who now seek their own brand of grandstanding ''justice'',signed off themselves to these ''lies'' and while Bush was still a governor. Not a president.

              • Posted By: wilywascal @ 05/05/2009 9:58:02 PM

                Lee Holmes is being deliberately obtuse about the Iraqi invasion. Yes, there was ambiguous intelligence about Iraq's weapons capabilities and development among the world's nations. But it is also known that the Bush administration was relying heavily on Iraqi expat's who had already been discredited by our own CIA, playing upon their agenda to advance the administration's own. Among other things, there was also the Downing Street Memo, Wilson/Plame, and the UN inspections (which kept coming up empty despite the benefit of our best intelligence) held just prior to our hasty invasion. Despite good progress and unprecedented cooperation, UNSCOM was unceremoniously told to leave or be caught up in hostilities when their results didn't match Bush administration expectations and wishes. And let's not forget the numerous deceptive attempts by the Bush administration to falsely link Saddam with al-Qaeda in their push to convince an initially reluctant American public (and other nations) into war with Iraq. It's no secret the Bush administration cherry-picked intelligence and left out critical caveats in making their case for war, or that neocons had designs on invading Iraq long before 9/11, an event subsequently wrongly used to advance their agenda.

                The Clinton administration did not invade Iraq. The policy of containing Saddam was working, if not perfect.
                I don't want to believe Lee Holmes is one of those history revisionists of the far right, attempting to deny inconvenient, incontrovertible truths, but he appears to be a reasonably intelligent and informed person (although that information appears to come from mostly one side and reflects standard partisan talking points designed to mislead and deceive), and it is hard to escape a judgment of intellectual dishonesty.

                Tragically, America will likely be denied the impeachment process against Bush and Cheney for their high crimes, so things like torture, falsely leading our nation into war, and massive illegal surveillance will be more likely to occur and be tolerated again in the future. I suspect for many on the far-right, however, even multiple convictions wouldn't alter the denials.

                • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/06/2009 12:30:40 PM

                  No good. The Bush administration used precisely the same intelligence gleaned fro the Woolsey-Tenet-era CIA under the Clinton administration. There is no evidence whatever that there was ''unprecedented cooperation'' by the Iraqis with UNSCOM. [indeed, UNSCOM was having its hat handed to them by one regime after another, rebuffed by the nuclear North Korea, and the Pakistanis who were then cooperating with the AQ Khan network, a ''complete failure'' noted just yesterday by Obamas Pakistani diplomat Richard Holbrooke before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and kicked out of Iraq,not once,but several times,hence the 1998 Act].
                  There is no evidence extant that Bush originated the intelligence laid out by the CIA that ''al Qaeda'' was in league with Iraq. You have been unable to provide this proof,as has everyone else, culling your own sources from ''the standard partisan talking points'' which include works by Sy Hersh[ who lied to Americans when he stated flatly in a Sept. 2006 article for the NEW YORKER that ''we would be at war with Iran within the next month'' based upon ''White House sources''], Bob Woodward [ who relied upon ''anonymous'' and second-hand sources within the administration that create doubt,as Woodward also erroneously pushed the ''Iranian invasion'' meme, leaving his other contentions open to suspicion ] and the remainder of the Miller-chastised media. The stupidity of the CIA in providing Bush with worthless information was compounded by this agency becoming a leak factory which only assisted al Qaeda in their goals, which remain unchallenged to this minute.Obama,for his portion is having to now explain to the American people why ''bombing villages and civilians is wrong'' and then turning right around and bombing Afghan villages and civilians,killing dozens,if not more, while hundreds of thousands of Pak refugees flee before the jihadist onslaught. The ''neo-con designs on Iraq are left largely uncontested, yet the fact remains that at the end of the day,any case to try Bush for his own ''trumping up'' or ''fixing'' this war would not stand up in court for even a minute. Simply too many people over too many years [yes,including those such as Blix and Ritter],were as gulled as everyone else, including this species of Democrat inquisitors. Bear in mind that a GALLUP poll for April of 2003 showed an over 65% approval of the Iraq invasion, displaying that Bush did not have to exert energy in ''convincing an initially reluctant American public'' who were fooled by the same CIA that also fooled Clinton, Bush,lawmakers on both sides, UNSCOM, everyone.

      • Posted By: basedrum777 @ 05/04/2009 5:53:59 PM

        You just proved my point by calling nvhorseman a false patriot not knowing anything of him...he could be a WWII vet for all you know. Where's you proof since you like to ask of it so often? Typical Republican theory...you're either republican or you're a socialist, unamerican, unpatriotic idiot.

        • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 6:48:41 PM

          I know enough to observe that anecdotal garbage is all that the Bush critics have left to crank out. With wiretapping, rendition,''state secrets'' and all the rest including our continued presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, where is your BS ''fascist state'' now?

  • Posted By: Bryan078 @ 05/06/2009 10:15:35 AM

    I don't know that I've ever read an article that used the word "I", "me", or "we" as many times as this one. An arrogant piece of writing, and I don't care whether Richard Haass thinks he is smarter than Bush or not. Waste of time.

  • Posted By: ApostasyUSA @ 05/04/2009 1:54:35 PM

    dissent?

    There is no such thing in the Republican Party.....you agree or you are out.

    Which leaves the GOP as a party of "group think", or rubber stamp if you prefer.

    • Posted By: Vigilance @ 05/05/2009 12:28:34 PM

      It wasn't always that way. There was a streak of Reagan Republicanism for a good long time that was based on sound policy and principle, for the most part.

      This current batch, on the other hand, HAS become a party of groupthink and exclusionism and bullying (for instance, Laura Ingraham's treatment of Meaghan McCain, who didn't deserve that), and is a disgrace to Reagan's legacy.

      • Posted By: wilywascal @ 05/05/2009 9:15:11 PM

        Are you kidding? You're forgetting Lee Atwater, Reagan's first official campaign stop that catered to racists and bigots, bankrupt economic policies like "tinkle down", the same disdain for science seen in the "W" administration, the callous disregard for AIDS victims, Lebanon, and Iran-Contra. (Many conservatives don???t wish to admit it, but the whole insane Iran-Contra scandal, which included our CIA facilitating the running of Class I drugs into America, makes Monica Lewinski look like Shirley Temple.) There was one policy to admire Reagan for which you rarely see touted: his commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons. While I can respect moderate conservatives like the former author William Buckley, the last Republican leader deserving respect was Ike. I know Republicans want to idolize and create an iconic image for Reagan, but if you'll recall, him, his deficit, and his policies weren't very popular when he left office. Yes, Bush I was elected, but credit properly belongs to Atwater and a weak opponent, not Reagan. Furthermore, credit for the dissolution of the Soviet Union mostly belongs to the courageous, forward-thinking Gorbachev and the failed Soviet system of government, followed by long-standing U.S. policy towards Russia. The military buildup, suspended briefly under Carter to encourage peace negotiations, was renewed with vigor two years prior to Reagan when the Soviets proved intransigent. Who was president of the U.S. at the time actually had very little to do with it, providing there was no radical shift in existing policy toward Russia.

        I would wholeheartedly agree that the group-think, exclusionism and bullying have gotten worse. However, it seems the roots of these behaviors lay in the Reagan era. The question is; why is that behavior so rarely observed among moderates and liberals, but so prevalent on the far-right? Is it the thinking and mind-set that perpetrates these undesirable traits, or is it a by-product of right-wing demagogues and their propaganda which preys upon and cultivates ignorance???a kind of learned behavior? Perhaps it is best attributed to some combination thereof. Why doesn???t the left have a Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, or Rush Limbaugh (not that it would be desirable or they would tolerate it)?

      • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 4:54:45 PM

        Or Lopez' to Miss CALIFORNIA. Or Olbermanns to tea party protesters. Or Napolitano to veterans and Canadians. Or Murtha to Americans everywhere who pay taxes.

        You people forget that there were once giants who roamed the earth. They were known as Tip O'Neills and ''Scoop''Jacksons, and Mike Mansfields and they were all thinking,as opposed to ''rubber stamp'' Democrats. Why would a party now immersed in rank corruption ,pay-to-play and sown with ideologues claim any mantle to ''representing the American people''? [who are opposed to nearly all of their policies even by slight majoral numbers [bank bailouts, at 52% -GALLUP] with some, or vastly [ 82% of Americans opposed to the auto-bailouts-RASMUSSEN ] in others. Ironically enough,Americans who have laid at least some claims to the embrasure of old-style fiscal conservatism are hectored as ''Tools of FOX'' . Nothing can be allowed to get in the way of this strange idol worship now taking hold among Obamas minions,introducing, hubris.

        • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 5:57:30 PM

          "Or Lopez' to Miss CALIFORNIA. "

          Miss California pulled a Joe the Plumber, and now we're supposed to feel bad for her?

      • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:27:52 PM

        "It wasn't always that way. "

        And it doesn't have to be that way. Steele is the last gasp of the old guard in the GOP. They will change, or they will be replaced with a party that represents actual conservativism.

        At least I hope so. The nation is not served by a single ideology.

    • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 5:01:34 PM

      McCain is still around and fought his party on torture

      Graham is still around and fought his party on bailouts

      Tancredo is still here and fought his party on illegal immigration

      Hegel openly opposed the Iraq War

      So did Voinovich

      Snowe and Collins are consistantly trumpeted as Republican game-stoppers.


      Yet every single last member of the CBC votes precisely the same.All the time.

      So does the ''Progressive''Caucus

      Any questions?

      Go here.


      www.house.gov

      www.senate.gov

    • Posted By: lovedeedee @ 05/04/2009 3:18:56 PM

      The republican is the exact same as a communist party. Independant thinking is not allowed.
      It is a dead partyi if you ask me.

  • Posted By: wilywascal @ 05/05/2009 9:08:00 PM

    I couldn't help noticing the typical right-wingnut extremist reaction. Instead of attacking the argument, they prefer ad-hominem attacks, even against their own that aren't sufficiently dishonest or extreme enough to suit their agenda (if anyone can figure out what that exactly is). Cast baseless aspersions on your opponent at every opportunity. Create fictions that accuse the other side of that which they are guilty of engaging in. Does anyone seriously believe Obama is stifling debate or dissent? But isn't that exactly what happened in the previous Republican administration? The same holds true for attempting to apply the fascist label to Obama. At first one may be inclined to dismiss such absurd prater as a feeble joke, but then you realize these are the ravings of a delusional paranoid cultivated by right-wing propagandists.

    This is a prime example of why moderate Republicans feel alienated from their own party and are defecting. Sen. Arlen Specter may be getting more attention, but it is the many citizens disgusted by the same reprehensible Rove/Limbaugh/Coulter/Savage/Hannity/etc., etc. dirty tactics who are the ones causing Republican marginalization. The propaganda peddled by such demagogues may prove successful for a time, but eventually people wise up, and the repercussions can be more severe than the temporary gains.

    It shouldn't be this way. The loyal opposition should be valued, whichever party or parties that may be, but the far right's inability or unwillingness to engage in honest debate only hurts us all. One can only continue waiting and hoping for the grown-ups in the Republican Party to send the fanatics back to their corner where they belong. Unfortunately, that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon.

  • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 6:52:42 PM

    OSAMA: While Lopez pulled a DER STURMER Nazi schtick which makes me feel bad for gays, for having to put up with this ***, who is being roundly condemned for his actions by other gays.


    www.gaypatriot.com

  • Posted By: Loralee1000 @ 05/04/2009 3:58:19 PM

    So many dissenters now. Where was everyone then? The Dixie Chicks are the only ones who really spoke out publicly. Even Barack Obama barely mentioned the war when he spoke at the DNC in 2003. It's stange how at the time I had to keep my mouth shut with regard to my being agians tthe war, mainly with the thought that if it isn't a good enough reason to send my kids why would I sed soemone elses. Now, so few people will speak out against Barack Obama. While the decisions he is making aren't as permanent as the life and death decisions of war, they are close. Spending the amount we are to bail out companies and hiring executives who put us in this mess (Geithner and Summers supported keeping the derivatives market UN regulated) is a crap shoot. If this fails our entire country is bankrupt. Maybe we should pay attention to our current president and stop giving presidents carte blanche the first few years in office. Now is the time for dissention, NOT after the damage is done. We can't bring lives back and we taxpayers are never going to get back the billions spent to bail out failed corporations. Bush killed our diplomatic reputation. Is Barack going to kill our country's financial reputation?

    • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 5:42:46 PM

      This is incomprehensible.

      The AP just reported on Saturday that the month of April in Iraq was ''the deadliest in seven months for American soldiers''. Thus Obama is quite certainly, making these ''life and death''decisions as commander-in-chief. Worse, his supporters are being silent on this strange paradox,where one president is a ''murderer'' and the other, is supported for bearing the responsibility for having more people die. Afghanistan looks,walks,and acts like a ''quagmire'', with the American death toll there continuing to climb. Yet there are no plans other than troop-escalation for that country.

      • Posted By: basedrum777 @ 05/04/2009 5:45:41 PM

        The difference is that we have no business nor have we since Desert Storm had a business, being in Iraq. No one argues we shouldn't be hunting Osama in Afghanistan. As we shoul dhave been doing from the beginning until your boy Bush decided he had more important things to do in Iraq...

        • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/04/2009 7:01:39 PM

          Yet we are still in Iraq. What part of this do you not understand? It makes no damned differance to either administration where these came from [obviously. 16 of the 19 hijackers came from the Kingdom lead by a man that Obama bowed before just a few weeks ago]. Yet no screeching at all of Obama being a ''Saudi Stooge'' or any of the garbage leveled at Bush despite the fact that the fatcat lobbyists that once worked for such administrations as Clintons,and hold party affiliations such as ''Democrat'' continue to help forge policy aimed at currying favour with this nation.
          Face it. The hypocrisy we are seeing today from liberals is stacked ten feet thick. Waterboarding thugs who are still alive and continuing to use this practice on American Navy SEALS who accept this as a portion of their training is a horror. Pushing a button on a PREDATOR in order to vaporize an entire Afghan or Pak family is business-as-usual. The fact remains that Obama will utilize many of the very same policies that got Bush villified and be yet given a pass by these same hypocrites who keep making the stack ever higher.

          • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 05/05/2009 4:41:44 PM


            REUTERS May 05, 2009:''Afghans:Airstikes Killed Dozens Of People''.


            Theres another one to add to your stack.

    • Posted By: nvhorseman @ 05/04/2009 4:58:31 PM

      Not if you protest Loralee! How many town hall meetings have you attended on the local level and insisted on a real answer to your question? How many people have you got together to travel to your capital to talk to the governor? How many times a week do you make a call or write a letter to your elected officials and demand that they make common sense decisions on spending OUR taxpayer money? How much effort do you put into YOUR government Loralee? You ARE the government Loralee. If you don't do something, why do you think your elected representatives will? Get out and participate, protest, get arrested in a demonstration, make some waves Loralee. Don't just sit there and dash off a half dozen sentences of passive wondering. DO SOMETHING!!

  • Posted By: doctorfixit @ 05/05/2009 11:01:23 AM

    Obama's Hitlerian suppression of dissent is becoming tedious, from refusing to call on dissenting reporters in his propaganda conferences, to his campaign to control all media content , to the Napolitano Gestapo branding all dissenters as security threats, Obama's moves are transparently fascist. He will not succeed, because Americans are wisely stocking up on guns and ammunition in preparation for the coming civil war against totalitarian marxist liberal fascist feminazi eco-psychosis.

    • Posted By: Vigilance @ 05/05/2009 12:06:56 PM

      You're a liar and a cheat. Nobody's suppressing the media, it's just that nobody wants to listen to bullies and torturers with bad attitudes like you anymore. Quit crying about how unfair things are because your viewpoints are out of favor.

      And as far as guns and ammo goes - am I really hearing you advocate for stockpiling ammunition to use against your own countrymen? You might want to think about that one for awhile before you go any further with that...

      • Posted By: Vigilance @ 05/05/2009 12:14:31 PM

        Why don't you explain to me exactly what you meant by "the coming civil war against totalitarian marxist liberal fascist feminazi eco-psychosis"?

        • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:34:32 PM

          He means he ran out of tinfoil.

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 05/05/2009 1:34:08 PM

      "Obama's Hitlerian suppression of dissent "

      LOL what?

      How many right wingers have been shipped off to camps?

  • Posted By: svendrake @ 05/04/2009 2:52:36 PM

    "My opposition was not stronger because of my assumption (derived from the available intelligence) that Iraq possessed both biological and chemical weapons."

    Since even I knew there was no WMD, and I'm nobody, do you really want us to believe that you didn't know too? Even when Colin Powell was obviously lying to the UN? Please. Seems to me this is cheap ass-covering.

    • Posted By: sms29s66 @ 05/05/2009 12:25:49 PM

      I may not have known whether or not WMD existed, but I certainly knew that we would not be welcome in Iraq for long and that we would pay a big price on the world scene for our cowboy mentality.

  • Posted By: infidel01 @ 05/05/2009 9:27:17 AM

    Mr. Haas, would you like to explain to me, the mother of a soldier walking around with a piece of shrapnel in his head and damaged lower back why you felt more loyal to the Bushes and their butt lickers (and you knew they were butt lickers) required more loyalty than the children of America.....I would like to see you attend a funeral in Section 60 (like I did last September) of Arlington National Cemetary and explain to the families visiting their children there why you felt more loyalty to despicable people like W, Cheney, Condi Rice et al then their dead children? Your mea culpa makes me sick. True patriots and courageous people speak out when they know things are wrong......they don't stick around convincing themselves that they can change things from within when they won't even speak out about those changes. You are as pathetic as the ultra right wing fascist administration you enabled.

  • Posted By: doctorfixit @ 05/05/2009 10:51:21 AM

    Backstabbing for bucks. These slimebuckets didn't have the conviction of their beliefs to quit. I have to say, the Bush administration did have a significant number of weasels like this guy. HIs opinion os of no value at this point, the time for him to act on his loosely held principles has long since passed. The left is going to build a case based on weasel testimony like this?

  • Posted By: Bella's a Pug @ 05/05/2009 10:29:39 AM

    the line of defectors is growing.

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