Chris, I am tired of the labels and "catch phrases" that are being used continually by the Neo-conservative Republicans. The worst phrases are "cut and run" and "slow bleed." The Bush administration and their supporters want to use a label like "cut and run" for Dems when it comes to planning an exit from Iraq? What did they do with Afghanistan? They left a minimal presence in Afghanistan, to "cut and run" over to Iraq and kick an already failing nation state that had no posibility of having WMDs...the proof is in the pudding, there are no WMDs...no matter what Cheney or any other war "groupie" says. The UN inspectors suspected as much before the war...NATO leaders asked for more troops in Afghanistan just within the last year...WHY??? And now the new label is "slow bleed?" Chris, the only slow bleed that is happening is coming from this current administration. They are slowly bleeding our resources; they are slowly bleeding our faith; they are bleeding our reputation; they are slowly bleeding our hope; they are bleeding our troops and brave soldiers; they are bleeding our confidence in their politics; and they are bleeding hope from the masses of Iraqis that are fleeing into other countries with the hopes to find peace, or to be allowed asylum. By the way, how many Iraqis have been allowed temporary asylum in the USA? Why? Chris, I have turned my back on the "Extremist" Republicans...after the false hope that they preach. They preach morals and then label and attack the opposing party, and it's ridiculous. I have been a conservative, but even I know that war kills more innocent lives than abortion. Both are wrong...they should stop making an issue for one if the other is worse... I am really looking towards Obama and even towards Gore if he should run, what do you think? Most of the Dems at least seem logical, without using the scare tactics and labels...

In America, it's okey dokey to chemcially bomb innocents to steal Iraq's oil in a country with no air force, navy, aerial defenses or army. Repubicans disbanded the enemey army. Maybe they wanted more of our soldiers killed or maybe it's just an American slam dunk, with the head of a dead Iraqi child who never lifted a finger against us. Certainly, there are enemy there now. We invaded and bombed the crap out of them for four years. Why wouldn't Iran send in troops. You can't make democracies by murdering folks from 40,000 feet, you make enemies and piles of dead people like carpet bombing Laos, Cambodia and Nam. Then a Republican Junior Oil Boy sells the pc division of IBM to the Commies. That's why we died, so a redneck can sell IBM to the Commies. Oh, lucky day. Go kill Bin Laden Republicans and give the oil you stole this week back to its rightful owners, the dead Barbarians, One Nation Under God phosphorized for Jesus and the American Way. How's the New Oil Law taste? Does it taste like dead Fallujah babies in the two hospitals we bombed just before Christmas in December of 2004 to drive away the doctors so we could occupy them and control the civilian body count never released to the Iraqi nationals and the world. I'm a Vietnam War veteran, Air Force and investigative reporter. Stop murdering people for oil and try to walk upright Republicans. Fat chance!!

Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney today for war crimes against humanity and ship them to The Hague to stand trail for bombing two Fallujah hospitals just before Christmas in 2004. War Crime. Occupying the hospitals to control the civilian body count after making the doctors flee is a war crime. Murdering and raping civilians is a war crime and by the way, murdering the residents in cold blood who hate America's guts for invading their country and stealing their oil is a war crime. America doesn't get to kill whoever we want because a lot of Southern white people like me are racist illiterate thugs. Judgement Day is riding into town and you lying, oil stealing, Repubican murderers are going to swing from live oaks in the honey-suckle breeze for chemically bombing innocent people who never fired a bullet at us. Tick-Tock.

Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney today for war crimes against humanity and ship them to The Hague to stand trail for bombing two Fallujah hospitals just before Christmas in 2004. War Crime. Occupying the hospitals to control the civilian body count after making the doctors flee is a war crime. Murdering and raping civilians is a war crime and by the way, murdering the residents in cold blood who hate America's guts for invading their country and stealing their oil is a war crime. America doesn't get to kill whoever we want because a lot of Southern white people like me are racist illiterate thugs. Judgement Day is riding into town and you lying, oil stealing, Repubican murderers are going to swing from live oaks in the honey-suckle breeze for chemically bombing innocent people who never fired a bullet at us. Tick-Tock.

Unfortunately as China goes our economy will go. They know this. They need no aggressive military policy to kick our rears. All they have to do is continue opening their doors to the US businesses who move their companys overseas for cheap labor, who lay off American workers, and who place China in the lead of the world economy. Regarding the bombing at the gates of the American base in Afghanistan, the Taliban would have had to disappear in order to make a resurgence. They never disappeared, they just hid out, regrouped, watched us erroneously concentrate our forces and blunder in Iraq.

Chris: Philip Grizwell in Coeur d'Alene, your first respondent, has hit the nail on the head.

Chris and Kramer: Japan yes, China no.

The '9/11 Good News' was and is: 1. Iraq was 're-invaded' after violating Desert Storm 'truce provisions and weapons restrictions' and the 4 or 5 largest Army in the World was defeated again. 2. The Sunni/Shia Moslem factions are in a 'civil war' which hopefully will spread through the ME and 'keep them busy' killing each other's 'terrorists' among the Muslims thus keeping them away from American and European borders. And, lastly, we are not 'responsible' for any Arab/Muslim political fiascos of the kind where the Palestinian Hams and Fatah can't get together to form their 'Palestinian State'. The Hams/Fatah and Sunni/Shia Muslim conflicts are harbingers of how the Muslim World operates politically while trying to keep the public relations image going of the Muslim Brotherhood. Europe had its Protestant/Catholic religious war 400 years ago and Islam is 'catching up' to have their religious war between the Sunni/Shia factions. Only DEMs think that Muslim political failures are somehow 'failed policies of the administration' instead of failed policies of Muslims.

The first response above was great. I think we really need to take a close look at the language of the Bush administration. They are masters at changing the subject. For example, in 9/11, we were told by Bush that we were attacked because the "terrorists" "hate freedom". Let's think about that for a second. Does that even make sense? Do we really believe that? I wanna know the real reason we were attacked. Not to say the 9/11 attack was in any way justified or humane, but I imagine the reasons our eniemies attacked us are a little more in depth than that. The justification Bush gave seemed to instill racial prejeduce, and hatred toward all Muslims. My point is, until we really understand the facts, how in the world can measure our progress? If we don't know where we started, how could we possibly know where we're going? I think the Taliban still exists because Bush is chasing the wrong objectives, and there no way we can know any better because we're misinformed.

Dear Chris Afghanistan has no oil Iraq does.We seem to have lost track of that in the years of the debate on Iraq.When you can find no philosophical reason that makes sense look for the money and isn't it amazing there it is oil.I know we Americans would never involve ourselves in blood for oil just as we would never kill Alende in Chile for copper of in South America cause the death of thousands for United Fruit.Whether the motive of oil is real or not it deserves much more coverage than it is getting.I am sick of finding out my governments real motives 20 years later.J'accuse the media.Is Dreyfuss still in jail?I mean Richard Dreyfuss.

The future of America in the global economy is bleak at best and horribly short sighted In a consumer driven economy for every job sent overseas you lose or at least disadvantage a consumer and we all know there have been 100’s of thousands of jobs lost forever. But the loss of Americas manufacturing capacity has far greater consequences, this countries success in WW2 was based solely on the fact we could produced the armament needed in great quantity in a very short time. Now we read, troops are being consistently sent into war ill equipped. Are we waiting for a loan from China or waiting for China to produce the armament and ship it to us or both?? But having given the manufacturing base away Americas corporations become little more than brokers for merchandise manufactured elsewhere America will in due course start to look more like Hong Kong where all the brokers of merchandise put “made in Hong Kong stickers” on the product (that was actually made in China) added their broker markup and became fabulously wealthy while the majority of the population lived in poverty, The broker markup thankfully kept the smaller US manufactures competitive but has now been eliminated with companies dealing direct with the Chinese mainland. On the broader scale as our consumer base declines these new manufacturers are looking for new markets, Iran for instance has an appetite for computers, (all made in China) and China with an increasing demand for oil has a very handy trading partner both simply thumbing their nose at the US. The same is happening all over the world particularly in Africa and South America where China is actively pursuing markets. This administrations answer is to tell a 40 year old auto worker with a wife and two kids to get a PHD if he wants to survive in this “new” economy. In the future there will still be only one super power but it will not be the USA An economy that has only unemployed consumers to offer in trade with other countries is in serious trouble.

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