Sand Trap

Bush's Mideast trip has little chance of success, and risks being overshadowed by Iran

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  • Posted By: St. Germain @ 01/14/2008 9:00:04 PM

    GOD is real.....ALL religions are corrupt, and prey upon everyones fear of the unknown "DEATH". God lives in all living things on our planet . One thing I'm sure of is that mankind is judged by a group of the wisest soals. Much like a dream we have in our physical form is DEATH and believe me this group of wise soals can put you into any situation they want right down to getting your throat slit. Beyond the judgement of our soals has not been revieled to me. The bottom line is god is real and expects us to respect each other nothing more just follow your instincts as every other living thing on this planet does.

  • Posted By: guntis @ 01/14/2008 6:04:30 PM

    some thing that needs a discussion is the arms deal being offered by bush. Why are we in the business of supplying the world with munitions that can and probably will be used against us in a few years? How much of this deal will the U.S. tax payers pay for? Are the arms being offered in return for extending our rights to man garrisons?

  • Posted By: randy986 @ 01/14/2008 4:49:29 PM

    Bill clinton tried this at the end of his term. Let us hope that this president has better luck at not making a mess of things.

  • Posted By: randy986 @ 01/14/2008 4:47:41 PM

    Bill Clinton tried this at the end of his term. Let us hope things do not go as bad with this president.

  • Posted By: dickdeadwood @ 01/11/2008 10:12:01 AM

    Comment: 'to whom shall we fear', I believe in GOD as did the founding fathers but unlike YOU they were alos students of history which as shown time and again theaocries invaribly lead to abuse and that allowing personal relgious freedoms within a secular govt works best. Whom shall we fear you ask? We should fear anti-evolution, flat-earth society, the world is only 5,000 yrs old believing, rattlesnake handling , Isreali-indentured, homophobic, evangelical idiots like you!

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:30:00 PM

      Brother, you say that like you want a bar fight. I got your back.

      • Posted By: Mr.Jack @ 01/14/2008 2:51:34 PM

        Sounds like the typical idiot Yankee

      • Posted By: Mr.Jack @ 01/14/2008 2:50:47 PM

        Sounds like the typical ediot Yankee

  • Posted By: paimute @ 01/14/2008 7:57:49 AM

    One is American and Indian and love our beautiful country so poor Bush is going for raw peace a little late but one can see the Arabs doing peace but its not cloths Iran woman want but the right for equality its like rice prancing around on the presidental jet nothing gets done. So a lame duck maybe once a president of our country can really say peace and means it for the bushes one cannot tell but see Americans in the old world still. Katherine.

  • Posted By: PGelsman @ 01/10/2008 1:22:25 PM

    He (Bush) has some nerve to tell Israel it must stop 'occupying' Arab territories when he's got 150,000 troops in Iraq occupying their country for it's oil. I am fed up with the US Policy to dominate the world. The US is building permanent housing for US troops to stay in Iraq forever!
    I think Bush AND Cheny oughta be impeached!

  • Posted By: leodelaney @ 01/10/2008 10:50:25 AM

    I just wish we had some way to keep this man at home and to stop his embarrassing blather and the self aggrandizing nonsense he constantly spouts even in the light of the total failure of everything he has tried to do. It is evident from the comments of the Israeli and Palistinian people and their leaders that they regard his presence as part of an ongoing farce and he himself as a clown. He has now reached the point where everything he says will point to success before the end of his term even though the world knows that after seven years of wars, bombing, terror, death and destruction at his hands it is highly unlikely anything positive towards peace can be accomplished. The only possible pact, a pact that will thanks to George W. Bush's acts inevitably come about, will be the agreement of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Pakistan to unite in common opposition to the Uniterd States. And all the Biblical Babble notwithstanding these Arab nations are today united in their goal of destroying Israel and even the intervention of God himself will not change that, however deplorable it may be, as they forge stronger political alliances.

    The time of the Monarchy has past, the time of the Oligarcy has past, the time of the Military Dictatorship has passed, the time of Colonialism has past, the time of the Christian Religous state has past, the time of the Socialist state has passed, the time of Democracy has past and we are entering upon the time of the Islamic Republic. Iran is one, Iraq will be one shortly, Syria will become one, Pakistan will be one within a few years and the same for Malaysia and many African states. The United States had better look to a future in which the dominent political format will be the Islamic Republic. At this point we are arguably doing everything in our power to prevent the formation of these states, and by extension making them iminical to us. We would be far better served to seek some form of accomodation with them starting with Iran, and get off the self serving nonsense of "threat to the world' and spreading of Democracy with threats of war and branding of certain states as an "Axis of Terror." People and nations get testy about this meaningless rhetoric and it would be far more in our interests to seek to be at least acceptable to the coming world leaders rather than an enemy to be destroyed.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:03:56 PM

      Democracy will survive until we have to use our top weapons to defend it. Then there will be no models remaining.

      • Posted By: Waxetheloquent @ 01/12/2008 5:25:14 AM

        What you said in spade's. Why do so any Americans not see that Bush is the last person we need representing us anywhere. Especially as a lame duck, But he has been that from the start. How is it, so many Americans accept anything the government hands out? I am now ashamed to call this country home.

      • Posted By: Waxetheloquent @ 01/12/2008 5:11:15 AM

        What you said in spade's. Why do so any Americans not see that Bush is the last person we need representing us anywhere. Especially as a lame duck, But he has been that from the start. How is it, so many Americans accept anything the government hands out? I am now ashamed to call this country home.

  • Posted By: william Delameter @ 01/12/2008 3:57:25 AM

    I suppose Bush could bring peace to Middle East by offering 20 billion dollars a year for ten years to each of the disputing parties. Hmmm, might actually be cheap. And dollar would only be worth about 5 cents after ten years anyway.

  • Posted By: chongyeeyap @ 01/08/2008 8:36:13 PM

    Actualiy, we really need an honest broker, who has no "profit in mind, an honest broker like the Peaple's Republic of China. I do really believe that such an approach is best for world peace. China has no interest, political nor commercial whatsoever, while the USA wants to control the middle East, the Europeans are obsessed with handing the Middle east to the USA who in turn wants to protect the interests of Isreal.

    Having China as the mediator works like the 6 party talks and there as well China has proved herself as the honest broker. In the 21st cenruty the world has to veer away from Eu-USA cenrerism; it is result that counts. I nominate China as the honest broker !


    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:49:10 PM

      China doesn't want to be the broker of anything other than the energy resources. I also do not see say 3-4 million PLA troops forming a barrier between the parties. China wants into the Mid East Oil game as badly as Russia. Old Ivan chose Iran to peddle interest, a very shortsighted move, and I guess China can stake out Palestine where there is no oil.
      These people don't want peace or Chinese take-out. But go ahead and get a few million Chinese up in it and find out how easy it is to get killed handing out food. (Or maybe go back to murdering your own Muslims, the Uighurs.)

  • Posted By: vangogh61 @ 01/10/2008 11:55:28 PM

    This has to be the stupidest man on the planet. He is actually saying he will accomplish something by the time he leaves office? Gee, way to set high standards after 7 years. He calls for others to end their "occupation" whil announcing he will leave ours for whomever follows him.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:36:39 PM

      Hey, when you can only think one flash card at a time, context isn't all that important. Bush just reads what is written for him, usually poorly, and with the larger words spelled phonetically. You know, I have known some real dopers and burnouts and few of them suffer the language impairment that GW has. You really have to wonder exactly how much dope he did, and given this policy bent, when we expect his return to sobriety.

  • Posted By: Tanha @ 01/08/2008 11:26:24 PM

    An expert of war and bloodshed CAN NOT BE A PEACE MAKER .

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:22:07 PM

      He is no expert, anymore than the leader of the 3rd Reich was a military genius.

  • Posted By: carnabylane @ 01/09/2008 6:56:59 AM

    Equating Bush with peace is an oxymoron. He is a murdering thug and should be on trial with Taylor at the Hague for crimes against humanity not jet setting around the world. Rice should go back to being a college dean or whatever it was she did before. Her constant "demends" are getting old.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:19:10 PM

      Rice is a fully discredited neo-con. She should go with Rumsfield Cheney and others to the Hague.

  • Posted By: ConstitutionalSupporter @ 01/09/2008 11:19:31 AM

    How naive of G.W...He has no legacy to speak of and will probably go down as one of the worst presidents of both 20 and 21st centuries. Now that his pesidency is winding down Americans can see him for the pathetic figurehead he really was. Now that his string pullers have left the White House he's taken up Quixotic deeds to save his place in histry. Imagine the history books writing G.W. saves teh middle east when others have failed for thousands of years. It's a great idea: even if he fails he gets credit for trying. The problem si that we Americans and the rest of the world have seen his act once to many times. I am not going to chastise the president! We should look at this as a learning lesson. We can no longer accept one party as having the higher moral ground. Every candidate needs to be scrutinized for their humanity. Religion does not make you a moral person. It just makes you a person with a schedule: A place where you know Mr. Bush will be every Sunday. It's ugly how he treated Americans by not being truthful and forthright. Let's watch his presidency wind down and see him become the "Lost President". He will never have a say in American politics again. He will be apologizing to the nation for the rest of his life as did Richard Nixon.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:17:47 PM

      Perfect except for the apologizing part. Bush has no humility and believes his own lies.

  • Posted By: Bluestone @ 01/10/2008 9:36:23 AM

    First of all, I would like to say that I am a Bush supporter who realizes that he has made mistakes, as all of us have. I do think this trip he is on now is completely wrong. I know I will be labeled one of the religious fanatics, but my Bible tells me that that land belongs to Israel and there should be no division of it. That is my personal opinion and I hope I won't be made fun of or called unnecessary things for my belief. I am not trying to force anything on anybody.

    • Posted By: Braes @ 01/11/2008 8:01:33 PM

      Look, about 2000 years ago, Rome put the smackdown on Judea. The jews as a people were scattered all over the known world as a religious minority. They never integrated successfully anywhere. When the Nazis came close to exterminating them, the young UN let them have the British mandate of Palestine. The Zionists fought their way in. As it is now, the fighting has gone on since 1948. As a nation, since Truman, we have recognized Israel. That has placed us up against nearly 1 Billion Muslims, over an area of land claimed by 3 religions, about the size of any small New England state.
      Neither side wants peace, especially when their leadership each uses the existence of the other as a fundraiser for more war and hate. The US contributes billions a year to this folly. We give aid to Israel and they sell our secrets. We give aid to the Palestinians and Arafat flew the cash off to Europe.
      Bush went to the region and sold another $20bln in Arms. That whole peace process? Side trip. The Arab States have time on their side. Bush has 370 or so days left, in a region where most are born to rule or born to die for a ruler.
      I do not hate Bush, I just find him the least competent, least engaged, least qualified person to occupy our executive mansion since Coolidge. There have been worse, but remember Bush does have 370 days to surpass them.
      I was born and raised a Republican. I left the Party after Bush 41's 1st term. As far as now, I am a Southern Conservative Democrat. I do not see my nations interests furthered by any deal or meddling in the region. Every American President since Carter has walked away diminished, by dealing with these intractable issues. If we cut off the aid to both sides, and let them work it out, they will work it out. Israel has no defense issues they can not solve, all the way to nuclear.
      It should no longer be United States Policy to pump billions into a loser.

  • Posted By: Bluestone @ 01/10/2008 10:59:32 AM

    I honestly believe that God should be put in everything, even public policy. Some of the first people that migrated here came for religious reasons. Our country was founded with God in mind. I am not trying to make you believe like I do, but I firmly believe that unless we put God back into our society, we will be in trouble. He put us here and He has a part in every decision that we make.

    • Posted By: Saltydog_0 @ 01/10/2008 11:11:15 AM

      Who's God? Yours? Mine? Islam's?

      You can't put God in the human arena without first defining God in human terms. I think we would agree that God is beyond human understanding. Would you have someone else's deity imposed on you? Would you do the same to someone else and expect them to accept it? What would you do when they refused your God? Chastise? Threaten? Persecute? Imprison? Kill? Where does it end?

      Live and let live. God is by definition omnipotent. He can take care of himself.

      • Posted By: Whom shall I fear? @ 01/11/2008 9:44:54 AM

        The United States was founded on Christian beliefs, unfortunately in our secular society Mr. Salty dog (appropriate name) people like you forget your freedom is the fruit of founding fathers of our country. SHAME on you! I will pray for you that God will soften your heart and open your closed mind, To bad you dont know your history. God is omnipotent and he is watching you too.

        • Posted By: Saltydog_0 @ 01/11/2008 1:01:43 PM

          Wow. I hardly know where to start. You're saying that because our founding fathers were Christian I should be too? Would our founding fathers agree with that? They certainly didn't think that way when writing the Decleration of Independance or the Constitution.

          I should be ashamed?! Should all of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bhudist, Sikh, Baha'i, Shinto, Rastas, Pagans, etc., etc., etc., also be ashamed because they don't show allegiance to our founding fathers religion? Are they "close minded" because they have the audacity to exercise the religous freedom our founding fathers guaranteed them in the Constitution. If our founding fathers happened to have been, let's say, Hindu; would you now be ashamed because you are a Christian?

          I'm not sure that you understand the meaining of the term "close minded". After all, I'm open to everybody's religion being equally respected (including atheists), while you would heap shame and scorn on those who believe differently than you. You seem a little confused. I hope you are able to find some clarity in the future regarding the meaning of words like Freedom, Acceptance, Tolerance and yes "Closed Minded". Good luck to you.

  • Posted By: danaugust @ 01/09/2008 1:45:34 PM

    Bush will go down in the history books as one of the nations worst and most ineffective presidents, he is right up there with Grant, Harding and Carter. This is a total waste of time. Bush has NO collateral in foreign policy at all. He is a joke to the Israelies becuase they believe they own him and the face of the devil to the Muslim world. He didn't get this reputation from propoganda either ,he earned it. The so called "Islamic fascists" that Bush has been so worried about for the past 6 and 1 half years are not like the USSR. They don't want to negotiate.They are not trying to run a huge bloated totalitarian system. The USSR was more like the Mafia than a real government. If you put alot of pressure on its "bosses" they would make concessions if they thought it was their "best deal". There is no one to negotiate w/ like this in the Middle East. There are alot of legitimate complaints and grievances that the Arabs and palestinians have and since the British and US have such slavish devotion to Isreal they can't really offer anything to the Arab states. Isreal should never have been allowed to exist in the middle east . This was a profound error by the west , mostly Britian and the USA, who made enemies out of one fifth of the worlds population to appease a tiny minority. The Israelies will never be a true partner to the west, they are hyper- xenophobic and mistrusting of all none jews, they see the western powers as useful tools no more.They are like a pet cobra, no matter how kind and loving you are to him he will always bite you when you don't expect it . He cannot do anything else, becuase that is the cobras nature.

    • Posted By: dickdeadwood @ 01/11/2008 7:27:48 AM

      Comment to danaugust: ditto! exactly the U.S. and England in a misguided effort to appease thier conscience for the holocaust which was NOT thier fault to begin with created a bigger one by the displacement of the arab people in the mid-east to appease the jews. And yes Isreal OWNS bush, hell the war in Iraq was started for them by him. He's only their to get his final set of 'orders' before leaving office.

  • Posted By: William Charnock @ 01/10/2008 4:28:59 PM

    And somehow we're all supposed to go back to our 7th century lands (even if we haven't lived there since) and make the people who live there leave? That sounds kind of unworkable, but I guess if it's alright with the Jews it must be good enough for the rest of us? Personally, I loved visiting England, but I didn't ask the people who lived in our old town to move so I could have their house. Maybe I wasn't greedy enough? You guys should be ashamed of yourselves.

    • Posted By: Saltydog_0 @ 01/10/2008 5:44:04 PM

      I like your plan William! I'm going to have estates in England, Ireland, Africa, Germany and Egypt!!! And those are only the ones I know of. Time for me to crack the genealogy books. With a little research I'm pretty sure I'll have a villa on every continent.

  • Posted By: mwendler @ 01/10/2008 3:59:35 PM

    Ditto to P Gelsman's comments. This position is ludicrous!

  • Posted By: William Charnock @ 01/10/2008 3:33:48 PM

    This land is ours? And Manhattan belongs to the Indians, you silly person. Please don't make baseless land claims on something you thought you read out of a book that is thousands of years old (unless it is a government issued deed book). And please don't expect the rest of us to take your silly thousands of years old views seriously. All you're doing is causing war by bringing up such nonsense. And worst of all, you want America to do your fighting for you. No thanks!

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