Read This Post Re: Bush and His War (Long)

[Comicstripper]

A friend recently posted a pro-war piece on his Xanga site. Now, that's obviously no big deal,as it's readership base consisists of about seven nerds in Maryland somewhere, but it got me heated up so I fired off this piece and posted it on his site. There are a few spelling and punctuation errors, which I have decided not to correct on account of a)I didn't want to edit anything, so you can be sure you're reading it word for word, and b) I'm lazy.

Sorry it's so long, but if I sent you the link you wouldn't be able to find it, plus my name appears there (I've replaced my name and his with *s. The number of *s match the number of letters,so you can try to guess my name! A thousand golden camels to the one who discovers it first).
Here we go:

" *** ********* here.

OK, let me just say that I am not anti- war, anti- Bush, etc. I am anti-bullshit. *****, I can tell that you're being sincere, and I agree with the basic statement that it's better to fight terrorists overseas than at home.

However, I'm afraid that was not the case in this war. The September 11th Commision ( the establishment of which was opposed by the Bush administration) released a report. It is the definitive report of what happened.

I am going to state this quite plainly. This is not opinion. This is absolute, definitive fact:

Saddam Hussein, and by extension Iraq, were in no way involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11th. There was not a shred of evidence supporting this theory at the time, and in fact, BIN LADEN AND HUSSEIN WERE ENEMIES. They had common ideas, but bin Laden had called Hussein (QUOTE) "an infidel". Saddam Hussein was a secularist, and a socialist. Bin Laden was a theocrat and completely ANTI-communism, which is WHY he fought the Soviet Union when they invaded Afghanistan (with $3 billion in US assistance and CIA TRAINING). They were like the KKK and the Black Panthers. Not great pals.

OK, so that was wrong. Bush continues to link the two (without directly saying it), although everyone now knows no link existed.

Moving on. I'm going to assume that you never saw Fahrenheit 9/11, or you would know that it never even IMPLIED that Bush knew what was going to happen. I'm not Michael Moore's biggest fan, but the facts that he mentioned in the film are valid. Which brings me to my next point:
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS DONE NOTHING SUBSTANTIAL TO COMBAT TERRORISM. They continue to dodge the 9/11 Commision suggestions, they refuse to address Iran (whose government DID have a role in the attacks) and his family has long-standing business ties with the Saudi Royal family. The Saudis have a terrible human rights record, with regular beheadings and capital punishment for homosexuality, but more importantly have long been supporting bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists.

There's a lot more. I won't go into it now. But I want to make my most important point now. You were wrong about this war not being about money. It is. The idea for a war with Iraq has been floating around Washington for years, and it's biggest proponents have consistently been those who made their money in the oil industry. Dick Cheney. George W. Bush. Consider this (if you really follow politics, you should know this): Dick Cheney was the CEO of an energy company called Halliburton. The company, and it's CEO Dick Cheney, made enormous sums of money from oil. That's what energy companies do; that's fine. But is it a coincidence that the ONLY company allowed to deal with post-war Iraqi oil was HALLIBURTON? Dick Cheney still owns significant stock in the company, and he makes more money from his Halliburton position than he does from being Vice President. Since the war, Halliburton's stock values have exploded. Coincidence?
The election in Florida, the one that decided the entire election of 2000 (the ONE STATE that would have given the presidency to either man), was run by George W. Bush's BROTHER (Gov. Jeb Bush) and the Florida Secretary of State (Katherine Harris), who was also the MANAGER of George W. Bush's FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN! Coincidence? Or fraud?
The 2004 Republican Convention, which officially re-nominated George W. Bush for president a few weeks ago, was held in NEW YORK CITY only DAYS before September 11th, BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. Coincidence? Or exploitation?
The Bush administration is made up of former oil executives and weapons manufacturers. So, it stands to reason that their biggest concerns would be OIL and WAR, both of which they would profit from. The "poorest" millionaire in the Bush administration, COndoleeza Rice, has a CHEVRON OIL TANKER NAMED AFTER HER. Coincidence? Or war profiteering?
There is not a single person under 21 who should support George W. Bush. He has turned the LARGEST SURPLUS IN HISTORY (and the only surplus since World War II) into the LARGEST DEFECIT IN HISTORY. Do you realize that our generation will have to pay for this? Bush has started two wars already without a clear exit strategy and without any measure of success. Our generation will have to die in those wars, which John McCain recently predicted would last ten years at least. The Bush administration has supported over 400 environmental rollbacks. These rollbacks benefit the corporations, and our generation will be the one which suffers from them. Mercury levels are so high in New England that a pregnant mother now has a 1-in-6 chance of giving birth to a child with siginifcantly reduced IQ. Asthma levels are at an all-time high among inner-city kids, and it's going to be our generation which suffers from the failures of the Bush administration.
You have no right to tell me that I'm just "attacking the president", or that I "want to be a Michael Moore." No right. Sorry, this whole belief that patriotism emans supporting your president is NONSENSE. If that were true, EVERY president would be re-elected! They're not!
This is something I'm passionate about. Not because politics is "fun" for me. It affects people. And in the case of this president, it HURTS people.
Don't you 9/11 me.
I've already been 9/11-ed.
Not by bin Laden or Hussein, but by George W. Bush.
God help America. "