The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Once again you fail to see the uniqueness of this situation.

I understand you agree with the decision, and you clearly stated so. I think you are misreading what happened. There was an election. We have not gone in and overthrown the government and installed a different one. We have simply said "OK, you've made you choice. We don't support terrorist governments." It is most certainly holding to two of our foreign policy philosophies, being the pursuit of democratically elected governments and not dealing with terrorists. It is completely consistent with our stated foreign policy goals.

I understand all that. But from the perspective of the citizens of the countries we've invaded and have threatened to invade, that's not the message. When we spend 3 years spewing rhetoric about freedom, this looks like complete undermining of what we're spouting.

Madeningly, so much can be fixed simply with a change of attitude, not a change of action. If Bush had focused on the situation at hand, rather than going on and on about the spread of freedom across the world, it wouldn't look nearly as bad. But all of his posturing has set us up to look like bullies.