The Trust Factor...(from March 2003)

[SoCalDem]

You know, when you lose someone's trust you are never thought of the same again.. Can any wife who knows that her husband had an affair (or husband whose wife cheated on him) ever really trust them again.. ??

I fear that the US will be thought of the same way.. We have always presented ourselves to the world (even though it was not always true) as the peaceful giant.. The friend to any that needs one..

Our image has often been better than deserved, but it was positive, nonetheless..


After "George & Rummy's Excellent Adventure", who in the world will ever trust us again?.. We already lost whatever credibility we ever had when it came to overseeing elections.. We claimed that democracies were dependent on fair and open elections, and then we had Florida,2000. We have become a laughingstock of the world as far as voting goes..

We pretended to care about the poor,and hungry of the world, because we could brag about all the money we sent as aid.. Lately I have seen more and more articles that point out that by PERCENTAGE, we rank near the bottom.. The dollar amount may be higher than the other nations, but it's not what we should be giving.. A rich man who puts a $20 in the collection plate at church is not as generous as the poor person who puts in a wrinkled dollar.. This used to be overlooked, because we were , after all, the "Good Guys".. It's not being overlooked anymore..

We claim to care about AIDS in Africa, but can we be believed on that one either.. Funding is not what it should be and the aid seems targeted at enriching the drug companies instead of education and prevention.. An Africa devoid of 25-50 year olds will leave no one to educate and care for the orphaned young people who will have to raise themselves in abject poverty.. We can only wonder what they will think of the US, as they see us (and other nations, to be fair) pillaging the resources of their countries..

The phony attempts at middle east peace are more apparent than ever.. A disrupted middle east is a pivotal part of the world domination scheme. The cavalier language that Bush used as he "assumed" power set the tone, and naturally the violence escalated. It was more important to Bush, that Clinton's efforts at peace be knocked down, than continuing to press both sides to an agreement.


Our military is being sent all over the world, insinuating our rancid foreign policy wherever we go.. Would we tolerate having the Russian army set up camp just outside Cincinnati?? Military people are trained to accept orders and not to question authority, but deep down, don't they start to wonder why we seems to be fighting everyone? As we round up "suspected Al Qaeda all over Pakistan , doesn't anyone wonder why we let them all escape in the first place? The Taliban were supposedly concentrated in Afghanistan. We went there to eradicate them, and instead we ended up dispersing them. Even as they are rounded up, it appears that Pakistan who is harboring them, is the one who is catching them. We seem to be spending as much time protecting Karzai, as anything else..

Where is the "rebuilding" that Afghanistan was promised. Is there an influx of American (other than oil companies and the ever-present Halliburton) companies headed over there to rebuild schools , hospitals, bridges, roads, waters sytems and an actual economy? We have been down this path before..

Remember Russia, after the fall? We were supposedly going to modernize and democratize them. Credit is given to Reagan for ending the Cold War, when in actuality, Russia just "ran out of steam" and quit. The US made promises, but what financial aid we sent was not properly administered and the people today are actually worse off than when it was the USSR.. A few became capitalists and are rich, but the majority of people there are poorer than they were before we "saved" them..

Bush has squandered our fortune and our reputation. Our 21st Century allies are Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia and we are actively courting Chile and Cameroon.. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

9/11 was our come-uppance, and even though we were the most envied nation on earth, every single country in the world (even the evil ones)professed sympathy, and pledged their support. Instead of taking the opportunity to nurture that goodwill, Bush used it to pit country against country, people against people. Everyone working together would not serve his purpose.

He is a fear-inducing warmonger. The only way the plan would work was to terrorize and intimidate. Anyone with half a brain knows that Saddam was not able to launch a scud missile across the ocean and into downtown DC.

Partisan politics and greed are the only things that Bush understands.. Revenge and mayhem are the driving forces in his life. At the core of his administration , it's about looting the treasury, stacking the courts, eliminating social programs and then there's the world domination thing. He has told us in the plainest language possible, that he does not care what we think. If he does not care what WE think, why would he care what the rest of the world thinks? The militaristic, empirical nature of his administration will set in motion, antagonism that we have never known before. Our children and grandchildren will inherit a very dangerous world, thanks to Bush.

In his strange little world, if one does not agree with him, they are irrelevant. The UN, NATO, Congress, states, countries..it does not matter to him.

So he will have his war .. Forty nine percent of the "enemy" are under 15 years old.. They have rusted and degraded weapons.. They are malnourished from 12 years of sanctions.. Saddam will probably survive.. Any "weapons of mass destruction" were most likely provided by US, and probably destroyed long ago..Will we "win"?? Militarily, yes... In every other way?..NO.. Ideas and philosophies are not killed with bombs and bullets. They are intensified. We are throwing gasoline on a brush fire and there are not enough "firemen" in the world to put out the coming fire.

We are trading our goodwill and the future safety of our descendants, so that Georgie-Boy can play war.. Who will be the first to die from a suicide bomber at a mall or a school or a PizzaHut?? It will not be one of his family.. How will we like our new lifestyle, when we will be suspecting every person carrying a package in their arms? We will trust no one and the world will not trust us.

Will the next President be able to repair the damage done? Or do we just have to accept the cards he has dealt us, and look over our shoulders forever?

It's all so damned discouraging.