Friday, March 07, 2008

"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry..."

Things have really been bothering me, politically. I hate how people can vote for our current president but be too chicken sh't to either enlist in the armed forces themselves or send their kids over. They'll support him and his administration, but let others go over to fight him and his fight. If people REALLY support Bush, let them prove it by enlisting. Everything linked or quoted below is the copywrite of their respective owners or writers. My text is mine, and I've explicitly quoted non-biased sources. Or at least, supposed to be non-biased.

Barbara Bush:
Jenna and I are really not very political, but we love our Dad too much to stand back and watch from the sidelines. We realized that this would be his last campaign, and we wanted to be a part of it. Besides, since we've graduated from college, we're looking around for something to do for the next few years ... kind of like Dad.

While Jenna says this concerning whether she and her twin should enlist for Iraq. "Obviously I understand that question and see what the point of that question is for sure. I think there are many ways to serve your country. I think ... what's most appropriate for me to do is to teach or to work in UNICEF and represent our country in Latin America."

The article linked above goes on to say, "But, Jenna is a kid barely out of her teens and is just trying to talk about her pending marriage and helping kids." Poor girl! Barely out of her teens at 25 years old! Like these guys and girls:
Casualty List
After importing this to a Word document, tabling the names, then sorting by age, I counted up the casualties from age 18 to 25. According to this list, almost 2400 young men and women the same age or younger than our President's offspring have died in Iraq alone.

When we went to war in Iraq, Great Britain was and is our ally. I don't know their motivation for sure. Is Tony Blair in Big Oil? I don't know, but what is sure is he has big bollocks for saying "Iraq is a 'disaster' admits Blair" Still, I don't see how he personally profits as much as Bush for this war. In fact, Bush brings up Iraq in their first meeting.
"It got off to a very good start, almost from the first syllable uttered, because Bush said to Blair, 'Welcome to Camp David, Tony. May I call you Tony?' And Blair said, 'Well, thank you for this warm welcome, George. May I call you George?' Then the president said to Blair, without any sort of ceremony or farce or some kind of grandiloquent statement, 'Well, what shall we talk about?' Blair said, 'We might as well start with the Middle East,' and Bush said, 'Good idea. Shall we do Iraq first?' "


Surely Tony didn't just jump into a war for no reason? But wait! What's this?
Tony Blair will be paid £2.5m a year for his post at US investment bank JP Morgan, it was revealed today.
It is the first of a series of posts that could see the former prime minister rake in a staggering £40million.
...
Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said: "It will be viewed with some contempt by the armed forces that he picks up this large cheque when he was happy to send British troops into battle ill-equipped and in insufficient numbers."
JPMorgan is heading a consortium set to make billions as Iraq's economy recovers from the war spearheaded by Mr Blair and U.S. President George Bush.
It was chosen to run the new Trade Bank of Iraq, which has raised billions in trade guarantees by mortgaging future oil production and will make huge profits from the deals.


No matter if Bush pushed Blair into, sob! going into a very profitable war, I have to ask why are we in Iraq? Could it be money?
Even before the first shots were fired in Iraq, the Pentagon had secretly awarded Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root a two-year, no-bid contract to put out oil well fires and to handle other unspecified duties involving war damage to the country’s petroleum industry. It is worth up to $7 billion.


I think so!
In charitable contributions alone, the Saudis gave at least $3.5 million to Bush charities -- $1 million by Prince Bandar to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, $1 million by King Fahd to Barbara Bush's campaign against illiteracy, $500,000 by Prince Al Waleed to Philips Academy, Andover, to finance a newly created George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund, and a $1 million painting from Prince Bandar to George W. Bush's White House.

Then there were the corporate transactions. In 1987, a Swiss bank linked to BCCI and a Saudi investor bailed out Harken Energy, where George W. Bush was a director, with $25 million in financing. At the Carlyle Group, investors from the House of Saud and their allies put at least $80 million into Carlyle funds. While it was owned by Carlyle, BDM and its subsidiary Vinnell received at least $1.188 billion in contracts from the Saudis. Finally, Halliburton inked at least $180 million in deals with the Saudis in November 2000, just after Dick Cheney began collecting a lucrative severance package there.

In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions. It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate -- much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president -- been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's personal fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.


Ooo, sounds like Blair is much more the patsy than Bush. Ah well, not as many Britons died as Americans, so maybe he didn't earn the money like our President did, hm?

Whatever you want to say about the Royal Family Windsor and the publicity stunt of Prince Harry in Afghanistan... At least Harry went.

He might have had a security detail, but the British media kept the tour quiet, and Harry IS in the Royal Army. Not only that, but Prince William is slated to fight in the war as well. Wherever the two men are sent, at least as leaders, they have courage. Even with security, no one is really safe. I think the assassination of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto proves that.

I think we can guess what the current administration's attitude is.

3 comments:

ChelleC said...

You and I are in the same place on politics. I miss you!

Laura said...

I miss you, too! Between Easter, classes, and activities, Saturdays are crazy this month.

ChelleC said...

I know, it's a nutsy month, but hopefully all that will wrap up soon so we can get together. Yikes.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race