Port debacle reminds me of Papa Bush's decision to let Saddam live

[yurbud]

In both the Papa Bush and Baby Bush cases, they waged very successful campaigns to demonize someone, in one case, Saddam, the other Osama and anyone who supported him.

Both father and some decided to make what would seem like pragmatic decisions to themselves, but that conflicted with their prior propaganda.

The irony is, the public still believed the propaganda in both cases, and the result will be the same: Baby Bush has just pissed away the only issue people mistakenly believed he was doing well at just as his dad pissed away popularity after the Gulf War.

It couldn't happen to a nicer family.

Maybe George P. will get it right.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. "I don't care about Bin Laden...He's marginalized"

[Bucky]

2. Actually, leaving Saddam in power wasn't all that dumb, considering...

The real problem in the Gulf was always Iran. We left Saddam in because Saudi Arabia didn't want to have any neighbors with the first name "Ayatollah." So we stopped the war and let the bastard drop mustard gas on all those Kurds we'd told to rise up. Fucked adn fucked again. This showed the Middle East that we couldn't be trusted as allies. If you fear Iran, you're smarter to cut a deal with them.

The thing is, after 9/11 we actually had Iran on our side. They're loony over there, but the Talibani are fuckin' nuts and tended to scare the wits out of relative moderate conservatives like most Shiites. Iran's intelligence helped us take out the Taliban in Afghanistan and were willing to talk about a lot of issues.

Of course Dubya and the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight fucked up that historic opportunity to pacify the Middle East by just a few months later adding Iran to its idiotic Axis of Evil list. Again, we're unreliable deal makers, double crossers. Don't get me wrong; I don't trust Iran at all. But they are more than justified in not trusting us. They'd be insane to do otherwise.

[yurbud]

3. My point wasn't whether it was smart to leave Saddam but only

that his propaganda bit Papa Bush on the ass--just as Baby Bush's is biting him.