[Superman]

Respectfully, it is my position that Mule is spewing canned, false and useless ****. First of all, and I recognize this as the conservative "party line," I wonder how in the world we liberals are being painted as pessimists when the conservatives are basically saying there are no Mulsims who might be reasonable. That trying to create or salvage international relations, and trying to actually fix this problem, is a waste of time. That'd be convenient if it were true, and if the spewers just wanted to be at war. But it's not true. And it's not the answer. The only way this can be true, and be the answer to the problem, is if we are prepared to exercise genocide. And this seems to be our foreighn policy. Now, if anyone in the ME notices, as I have, that this "administration" seems to regard our relations with the Muslim world as insalvagable, and that the US is treating this as a fight to the death, then what do you suppose their reaction is going to be. Let me put it another way. What if Iraq was THE world power, and the US was a third-world country floating on a lake of oil, and we were getting bombed with no discernible diplomatic efforts to improve relations? What if you got the idea that the World Bully was coming after you, with the presumption that this is a fight to the death? One of us will survive but not both. So, that's the foregin policy, the world view, that you're buying when you cast your vicious, hatred, scared and desperate vote for Dubya in November.

Now, tell me again about Dubya's optimism, and his "leadership" skills. We're entering into an era where the most powerful person in the world is "taking it personal" (a Dubya quote I've heard twice already this morning) and exacting revenge, pure and simple, upon a group of people because their faces are the same color as some terrorists. And he smiles proudly and shakes his sabre in the air, showing the blood of people he tells us are "enemies." And millions of you are shouting chants of "Yeah, go get 'em, George," and "Kill them all, teach them a lesson." If you think this is good, or even potentially effective foreign policy in the long run, then "gubmint" for you must be similar to pro wrestling, and less complex than NASCAR.

Again, Mule, I say this respectfully. I don't mean to pick on you specifically, but Dubya seems to be telling American citizens exactly what you're saying, and that is FAR more frightening than the terrorist threat itself.

And by the way, it is hard enough to exterminate all the crane flies in someone's yard. It will be FAR more difficult to exterminate all Muslims. Some will survive. And what is Dubya's plan then? I guess his followers assume that the survivors will be so stunned and intimidated by our great military power that they will just commit suicide? Or go to work at convenience stores and forget who killed the other members of their families and their race.

Now, some of you are going to accuse me of exaggerating. but I notice that Dubya seems COMPLETELY incompetent at foreign relations, or at least the kind that is not handled by the military, and I see remarks like above that clearly suggest "the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim." C'mon guys. My twelve year-old daughter knows better than this. Do you think we could use a president who can read? Who can pronounce words? Who can consider alternatives? Who can quit scaring the **** out of the American people? Yeah, I'm pissed off about the 9/11 thing. But I'm nto so ignorant as to believe that the solution is simple. Some of you think that, but I don't.