pissing match

[cellio]

So let me see if I have this right. Bush demands that the Taliban turn over bin Laden (presumably for trial), the Taliban says they want to see evidence first, and Bush says that's not good enough? It sounds like a perfectly reasonable expectation to me: show us what you have on him and we'll give him to you, and if not, not. After all, weren't we going to go through at least the pretence of a trial if we got him? Wouldn't that require evidence?

I expected a long, protracted argument about what was considered good-enough evidence. But Bush is bypassing that question entirely. This reminds me so much of the schoolyard bully whose only argument was "because I say so". Hmpf.

What he's doing is making the validity of our grievances against various folks completely irrelevant by his bad behavior. It will end up not mattering if bin Laden was behind it; we'll go after him the wrong way and the world will judge against us for it. The whole "turn over bin Laden" thing is just a ruse to set up a fight Bush wants to have regardless. I resent that.

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

So, presidents deliberately starting conflicts to make themselves look good or to further their own interests is unfortunately not new with Bush II.

Mike was arguing last night (forgive me for misremembering exactly what) that there's no way that they would do something to get the country destroyed (I presume either physically or in terms of international influence) because that would get them destroyed as well. I am not so sure about this. This seems to be another thing like the greenhouse effect where the bad outcome is not immediate or personal, so everyone ignores it.

Bleh. I found bush's speech remarkably inoffensive, although he did say a few things that scared me in terms of "The government now has a justification to do _anything_".

[cellio]

Yeah, it's nothing new -- just disappointing. People don't have to be that way, after all. The optimist in me keeps hoping for better.

The "justification" for the government to do anything it wants now scares me.