Reply #11: You make some well thought out points...thank you!

[JANdad]

-first, we should not measure the correctness of what they did do solely on whether other courses they might have taken would have "stopped him." We shouldn't evaluate actions only based on "the ends."

I agree...then we need to let go of the IWR issue and realize that it was not the cause of the war to begin with.

-secondly, the problem we faced with the IWR and still face every bit as much today is that our "leadership class" is either a. complicit with the controlling corporations or b. so damned blind that they fail to see them as an enemy.

I do not see any of our candidates as being complicit or blind, but rather as calculating politicians. A large group of the American populace was blinded by fear at the time and there is nothing that the Congress could have done to stop this juggernaut. That I believe should have been apparent to anyone after two supreme court decisions early on: One: Awarding the election to Bush and second: Siding with Cheney on the Energy Task Force meetings. That our candidates at the time were forced to "play the game" and wait things out while letting this administration collapse under it's own weight, is quite frankly the only thing that could have been done.

the only way to "stop him", both then and now is to understand that 1. bush is transitory and that the enemy we face is not 2. we are engaged in a life and death struggle for the very survival of the republic 3. the US is being sucked try by multi-national corporations and will soon be discarded on the great empire scrapheap.

You'll get no argument from me here! I believe that it was Truman who upon leaving office warned us of the MIC and the dangers that it imposed. In John Edwards, I see someone who can salvage what is left of our country and return us to an age of serving others, rather than ourselves (read:materialism) and standing up to the Multi-Nationals. I would love to see NAFTA repealed as DK would do (or so he claims he would as one of his first acts as POTUS), but these things take time and consensus.

We have been a constitutional republic for over two-hundred years...and I believe that we will continue for a long time to come. Years from now, historians will judge Bush for what he truly is. But for now, it is our duty as citizens to look beyond one insignificant vote and seek out the candidates that can truly move the nation forward with a purpose.

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