George Bush: Worst American president in history

[Carlene 12]

Yeah, Charlene. Carlene. Go get another job! That's the answer!

I'm thinking of running for public office.

[BJean 16]

OMG. I l leave for a few days and you all go berserk!

People here have talked over and over (including me) about the inaccuracy and political bias in news reporting today. After reading what some of the pro-Bush people have said here, I can only guess that they have been taken in because they want and need to believe it! I don't blame them, believing that their president and his cabinet are working in this country's best interests, is a much more comfortable place for our heads and hearts to live than it is to accept the horror of today's reality!

For someone to blame Clinton for the deaths of firemen at the World Trade Center is someone in complete denial. If it makes you more comfortable who am I to give you a hard time? But things can't get much clearer right now, who was right and who was wrong, and if you still don't see it, it is because you don't WANT to see it. You've been probably been brought up by conservative parents, you read conservative and maybe even right wing publications, and you can't face the reality of how Bush has corrupted our freedom in this country and how much more he wants to do in the next couple of years that will infringe on our personal freedom.

If it makes you all feel better to think that he's doing these things for you, I won't argue with you because you've proven you don't get it. But please stop accusing others of needing their mouths banded. Hang on...you're going to hear more and more Americans being vocal about regaining some of what we have lost under President Bush because some of us have lost more than 2 of our family members and some of us are smart enough to know exactly what this President is doing to this country, and as Green has pointed out, to many other countries in the process.

[BJean 16]

Carlene you go girl!

[Betsyjane 2]

Dear Green

I don't believe any nation acts in isolation anymore. We are all interdependent. The bulk of our debt is currently held by China. How bizarre is that?

Criticize all you want. We should all be listening to as many thoughtful points of view as we can.

Open discussions like this one best stay open when there is no name calling and opinions are voiced respectfully, just as you have done.

[DrewsLou 3]

PRESIDENT BUSH A WONDERFUL SMART MAN. A GREAT PRESIDENT.

Whoa... talk about a battle of wit's with an unarmed person. :girl_hug:

[lisah25 3]

Charlene, Now I have a PRESIDENT who is here to protect me and our country! 911 fell 8 miles from my home TWIN TOWERS you know the World Trade Center due to terriorists..TERRISTS .OUR PRESIDENT IS TAKING THE BLAME FOR THESE PEOPLE THAT HARMED close to 4,000 innocent lives. I

NOW SOME PEOPLE NEED BANDS ON THEIR MOUTHS..

I'm sorry you lost people you care about. I'm sorry you were so close to the twin towers.

But I don't understand how invading Iraq is making us safer, since there was no link between that country and 9/11.

[BJean 16]

Carlene: I take back my encouraging words for your thoughts of running for office. I'm afraid you're way too honest and plain spoken to ever make it in politics! Lord knows I'm guilty of that.

[Betsyjane 2]

I think George Bush has devastated this counbtry in ways we will discover over many years. I also know I'd never want to be President....especially during and after 911! So I have some empathy for his position.

[BJean 16]

BetsyJane: I have empathy for the position too. It is an enormous responsibility. One that most of us can hardly imagine, much less relate to.

George W. Bush, however, did get into this job with his eyes wide open. He lived through his father being president, something most people will never experience. He knew exactly what was expected of him and he has gone about doing it. Even when any reasonable person would cave from the pressure of outside intelligence and the lack of support from the citizens of the United States, he has made choices that have been to the detriment of many, many people worldwide.

The thing that has us so riled up, those of us who disagree with his actions and decisions, is that he hasn't tried to represent this country in a way that is beneficial to its' citizens or in a way that is beneficial to the world at large. Some presidents have failed in similar fashion in the past, but haven't we learned from their mistakes? Bush has not had an agenda that sincerely included any efforts to make the world a better place. He has chosen to do whatever is in his and his party's best interests. It is an embarrassment to the United States and not only will we learn about much of it after he leaves office but more importantly, we will need to work very hard to repair the damage that his choices have caused.

That's why I can't feel empathy for the man. For heavens sakes, he thinks his election to office is his divine right! Doesn't that speak for itself?

[Betsyjane 2]

BJean: I agree with your assessment. It was interesting for me...Early on in his presidency, I disagreed with just about everything that came out of his mouth. I tried hard to say that

I admired a man who was decisive and stuck to his plan. But I couldn't convince myself. I believe history will show that he has weakened the country for years to come, and in some cases, permanently.

[Betsyjane 2]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The religious factions in Iraq have been at odds since 636 AD. The country was held together temporarily by Saddam, through terror and fear. We removed that glue, so now they are back to the familiar again...the status quo of fighting each other. That much was predictable by anyone in Bush's confidence who read any history. It was a bonehead move.

[Carlene 12]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The religious factions in Iraq have been at odds since 636 AD. The country was held together temporarily by Saddam, through terror and fear. We removed that glue, so now they are back to the familiar again...the status quo of fighting each other. That much was predictable by anyone in Bush's confidence who read any history. It was a bonehead move.

Absolutely a no-brainer. And the only thing the warring factions of Muslims hate worse than each other is US....dirty non-believing infidels that we are.

[missy4gordon 0]

Hi everybody!

Last night I was watching a program that showed clips of the Kurds thanking the US for all that they've done in freeing them. They also showed clips of some guys in our military saying that the media only shows the bad things that happen over in Iraq, but never the good and they wished they would show more of the good.

Just thought that I would throw this in for some good 'ole flaming!! LOL!

[lisah25 3]

Hi everybody!

Last night I was watching a program that showed clips of the Kurds thanking the US for all that they've done in freeing them. They also showed clips of some guys in our military saying that the media only shows the bad things that happen over in Iraq, but never the good and they wished they would show more of the good.

Just thought that I would throw this in for some good 'ole flaming!! LOL!

Had we gone into Iraq under a banner of freeing the people, I might feel differently then I do about it.

[Carlene 12]

Hi everybody!

Last night I was watching a program that showed clips of the Kurds thanking the US for all that they've done in freeing them.

Not all Kurds are "thankful" for what the US has done in Iraq. This was published in April, 2006 and as you can see, is quite bi-partisan.

Hillary Clinton and George Bush: No Friends of the Kurds

by Sureya Sayadi

When Hillary Clinton was at Brown University on April 8 giving a speech on “Women Leaders,” I accepted an invitation from students to join their protest. Why would I, a Kurdish woman, protest Hillary Clinton? Hillary Clinton is a great supporter of the war in Iraq, and like many others in the U.S. government, has used the suffering of the Kurdish people to prove the moral righteousness of the occupation. But Clinton, like Bush, is really using the Kurds to justify her own political ends, and refuses to address our real problems—lack of adequate services, corruption, continued human rights abuses in the region, and the fact that our refugees cannot yet return home. And all of these problems are exacerbated by the violence raging throughout the rest of Iraq that is due, in large part, to the presence of US troops.

I was born in Kirkuk, the major Kurdish city in Iraq. In 1974, when I was twelve, the U.S. government encouraged the Kurdish people to rise up against Saddam Hussein. My family joined the struggle against Saddam, but the United States betrayed us by signing the Algiers treaty with Saddam and Kissinger. My people were brutally massacred by the Baathist government, while the United States and other European countries helped Saddam procure the weapons and chemicals he used on us. The helicopters that bombed us while we were fleeing Kirkuk were US helicopters.

My family fled Iraq and like most Kurdish people, they are now scattered around the Middle East, repressed by Iranian and Turkish governments that kill refugees on a whim, living in ghettos but forced to pay money to the governments that refuse to uphold their rights. Being a Kurd is very hard. We have no country; our homes have been bombed; our leaders have been assassinated; our people, millions of them, are living as refugees in countries that show them no kindness.

Many people, including George Bush and Hillary Clinton, have said that the Kurds are the big winners in the war in Iraq, the great success story. And while we are thankful to be free of Saddam and the Kurdish areas are more tranquil than the rest of Iraq, I think the recent unrest in Halabja exemplifies the betrayal many Kurds feel. Halabja was the city in which Saddam Hussein gassed more than 5,000 of my people in 1988. In a protest on March 16, 2006 against the corruption of the current government, demonstrators burned down a museum dedicated to the victims of the gassing. Though this may seem strange at first, the protesters were making the point that the city has never been properly rebuilt, that most of the people living there are still poor. The survivors, many of whom are coping with genetic mutations and psychological trauma, have inadequate access to health care, housing and other basic services.

The Kurdish government, portraying this incident as the work of fundamentalists, is trying to divert attention from the real problems—that the occupation of Iraq and the ensuing violence has left no time or money to concentrate on peoples’ needs. The 17-year-old Kurdish student who was shot in the chest point-blank by Kurdish guards was not a fundamentalist but a young man who cared about the well-being of his people. His name, by the way, was Kurdistan, and we should honor his death.

Kurds are also upset by one of the fundamental contradictions in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East: the U.S. propensity to condemn one country's human rights abuses while turning a blind eye to others. While the U.S. government supposedly supports Kurdish rights by deposing Saddam, it still gives millions of dollars in aid to Turkey, a country actively repressing its own Kurdish population.

No one embodies this paradox more than Hillary Clinton. I remember watching Clinton on Kurdish TV as she visited my hometown of Kirkuk in February 2005. She arrived surrounded by Kurdish guards and helicopters, and she sounded very concerned about the fate of my people. Yet, she also visited Turkey and expressed her admiration for Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, for his great contribution to humanity and praised Turkey for preserving cultures. That is like praising the American founding fathers for exterminating the Native Americans. Ataturk was the first person who banned the Kurdish language in Turkey, cutting out the tongues of those who spoke it in public.

In 1991 Leyla Zana, a Kurdish member of the Turkish Parliament, committed the act that Ataturk made criminal. She dared to speak Kurdish during her inauguration. For that, she was called a terrorist, and later jailed for sedition. Leyla Zana was sentenced to 15 years in prison for merely speaking up for Kurdish rights. Amnesty International called for her release and in 1998 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We, the Kurds, had asked Hillary Clinton to sign a petition for Zana’s freedom, and to cancel her trip to Turkey in March of 1996 on the basis of this egregious violation of Kurdish rights by the Turkish government. Clinton refused to sign, and went to Turkey anyway. That’s why I say that Clinton is no friend of the Kurds. (By the way, George Bush helped free Leyla Zana after 11 years in prison, but only because he wanted to help Turkey in its bid to enter the European Union. And the “freed” Zana was still not allowed to promote Kurdish rights and her labor organization was disbanded!)

So when I saw Clinton visit my hometown of Kirkuk, I thought, what are you doing there? You, who are just like the Bush administration in supporting the war and using the Kurds for political gain, you go to Kirkuk when I'm still displaced and my entire family is still scattered around the Middle East and around the world. Clinton goes to my home pretending there is great progress, but we Kurds can't go home because there are no jobs, no money, no policies to help the refugees return in any sort of orderly fashion.

And with the fighting and violence throughout the rest of Iraq, we refugees are afraid to come home. Who wants to go back to a country that is chaotic and violent and occupied by 150,000 foreign troops? And if it were up to Hillary Clinton, there would be even MORE foreign troops in Iraq.

This US occupation has also exacerbated ethnic tensions. Before, it was Saddam’s government that killed the Kurds, not common Iraqis. Now the US is producing hatred between Kurds and Arabs, and each are trying to get control of the oil wealth. We need to come together as Kurds and Arabs, as people of all ethnicities and faiths, to find solutions ourselves. As long as there are foreign troops in Iraq, there will be armed resistance, and the cycle of violence will not end. That’s why we need the US troops to leave. And we need the American people to stand up to those politicians like George Bush and Hillary Clinton who are responsible for this war. We need to tell them, loud and clear, to say End the Occupation of Iraq, Bring the Troops Home Now, No Military Bases in Iraq, and No War with Iran. And we need to rebuild Iraq and establish conditions for Kurds in the diaspora to return home. Then and only then should politicians like Hillary Clinton and George Bush talk about the Kurdish success story. Sureya Sayadi is a Kurdish refugee living in California. She was a member of the CODEPINK Iraqi Women’s Delegation that toured the country in March and will be part of the CODEPINK Mother’s Day vigil in front of the White House on May 13-14.