History Forum / General / General Topics / February 2005

I watched the first Presidential debate last night and was surprised at how
confused Bush seemed to be.  He kept confusing Osama bin Laden and Saddam
Hussein and seemed not to be aware of the 911 Committee Report.  In answer
to why he attacked Iraq, he said "they attacked us".  When Kerry picked him
up on it, his response was, "I know it was Osama bin Laden who attacked
us!!"  The President seemed confused and bewildered and on several
occasions didn't know what to say.  He also seemed visibly upset on two
occasions, which struck me as odd in that he has been the leader of the
country for four years and should be used to being under pressure.

Kerry made a few blunders as in suggesting that bin Laden is in Afghanistan,
but by and large seemed more comfortable all night.  To be fair to the
President, Kerry is a much more intelligent and well- educated man with much
more experience in this kind of thing.
Needless to say, the impressions of the viewing public will split along
party lines in true American partisan style.

The one point that struck me as disturbing was that Kerry promised to seal
Iraq's borders if elected.  When I look at a map of the Middle East I notice
that Iraq is bordered by Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Kurdish
part of Turkey.  And of course both Iran and western Turkey are just south
of that very volatile Caucasus region of southern Russia where the Chechens
are.  In other words, Iraq is right in the thick of it.  Last night Kerry
made reference to the non-elected leader of Iraq's comments that thousands
of terrorists are pouring across Iraq's borders every day.  The question
that came to mind was, "hasn't anyone thought about this before?"

Surely someone in the Pentagon or the White House must have realized, as
George Bush Sr. did, that Iraq could not be subjugated and controlled
without sealing off its borders.  15 of the 19 suicide bombers that took out
the World Trade Centre were Saudis and polls show that most Saudi males hate
the US.  Iran goes without saying and Syria is a well-known supporter of
terrorists.  The eastern and Kurdish part of Turkey is full of oppressed
people who are always ready to fight and who were persecuted by Churchill
(chemical weapons) and lied to by Bush Sr. The Kurds do not want a stable
Iraq, they want a fragmented Iraq and an independent Kurdistan and would
probably be more than willing to allow Chechens to cross their territory.
This is not to mention the close proximity to Jordan with it's predominantly
Palestinian population.  And we all know how much Palestinians love America
for all the support that Israel gets.

The US military has been there for a year and a half.  Aren't the borders
being monitored?  Wasn't this planned for?  Didn't anyone reckon that the
Iranians would begin preparations to defend themselves against an American
invasion as soon as the first marine landed in Iraq?  Can it be any accident
that they now seem hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons to defend
themselves against an American invasion?  Did the Bush administration
actually think that they were going to subdue the entire region?  Really?

Another thing that puzzled me was the fact that Pakistan will not allow the
US military to land on Pakistani soil.  Given Musharaff's former support for
the Taliban and Al Queda, is it not interesting that Osama is hiding in
northern Pakistan, near Pakistan's nuclear arsenal?  Since Musharaff's
support was bought with US$ 30 billion, can this man really be trusted to be
an ally of the US.  And this in a country where hatred of Americans exceeds
that in Saudi Arabia or Iran.

And finally it shocked me that the Bush administration cut taxes for rich
people when there isn't enough money to secure all of that spent nuclear
fuel in the former Soviet Union.  Who is in charge in the White House?

Ken