Point: Think before you act, Mr. President
With the war on Iraq having no end in sight, President Bush's worst quality is on display again: impulsiveness. Bush, who has channeled John Wayne during the war on terror, likes to act first and defend his actions later. This gunslinger attitude has gotten him, and us as a country, into trouble with the rest of the world as we charged into Iraq without just cause.
It's not just the war that Bush has made ill-advised decisions on. Once hearing about the 2004 Tsunami disaster, President Bush immediately pledged $15 million toward the relief effort. The problem is that we're the richest nation in the world, and it made us look indifferent towards the plight. The President should have waited until all the damage had been assessed, and then made a decision; that's what Australia and Germany did. The world is fast become more and more anti-America and we blew a change for some good PR. Instead the world thought us to be unsympathic toward the tragedy.
Now, $15 million is a lot of money, so it's helpful to get some perspective. $15 million would fund a whopping 2 hours fighting the war on Iraq, according to John Aravosis, former policy advisor to the World Bank. Defending freedom doesn't come cheap. If only that's what we were doing there: According to MSNBC, CIA inspectors came home shortly before Christmas still not having found any WMDs. But hey, we're the United States, and we liberate other countries on a need basis. It's freelance work, really, and we do it ONLY when we need to divert attention from national issues, like a weak dollar, appointing judges to abolish abortion or freedom of speech, and reforming Medicare.
After widespread criticism from both liberal and conservative news outlets, President Bush upped the pledge to $35 million (4 hours in either Iraq or on the set of "Waterworld"; your choice) and then to $350 million. Caving into pressure; if that's not leadership I don't know what is. Our pledge is still far less than countries like Australia ($764 million) and Germany ($674 million).
President Bush needs to start thinking about our reputation around the world, and to realize that we are the world's leader, for right or wrong. Let's start acting like it.
paul.
It's not just the war that Bush has made ill-advised decisions on. Once hearing about the 2004 Tsunami disaster, President Bush immediately pledged $15 million toward the relief effort. The problem is that we're the richest nation in the world, and it made us look indifferent towards the plight. The President should have waited until all the damage had been assessed, and then made a decision; that's what Australia and Germany did. The world is fast become more and more anti-America and we blew a change for some good PR. Instead the world thought us to be unsympathic toward the tragedy.
Now, $15 million is a lot of money, so it's helpful to get some perspective. $15 million would fund a whopping 2 hours fighting the war on Iraq, according to John Aravosis, former policy advisor to the World Bank. Defending freedom doesn't come cheap. If only that's what we were doing there: According to MSNBC, CIA inspectors came home shortly before Christmas still not having found any WMDs. But hey, we're the United States, and we liberate other countries on a need basis. It's freelance work, really, and we do it ONLY when we need to divert attention from national issues, like a weak dollar, appointing judges to abolish abortion or freedom of speech, and reforming Medicare.
After widespread criticism from both liberal and conservative news outlets, President Bush upped the pledge to $35 million (4 hours in either Iraq or on the set of "Waterworld"; your choice) and then to $350 million. Caving into pressure; if that's not leadership I don't know what is. Our pledge is still far less than countries like Australia ($764 million) and Germany ($674 million).
President Bush needs to start thinking about our reputation around the world, and to realize that we are the world's leader, for right or wrong. Let's start acting like it.
paul.
posted by paul at 9:40 AM
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