GOP To Americans, Your Safe!!!

Have you just about had enough of Bush and the GOP crap line about how safe they’ve made us? So, Rudy, the republicans are in charge, try to spin that! The GOP and the Bush administration have said, ad nauseam, “if we don’t fight them there, we will be fighting the here”.  Well folk, we’re still there and they’re still here. The GOP sound bites aren’t working.

Five men – all foreign-born and described as “radical Islamists” by federal authorities — allegedly trained at a shooting range in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains to kill “as many soldiers as possible” at the historic Army base 25 miles east of Philadelphia. A sixth man was charged with helping them obtain illegal weapons.

I suppose in some weird GOP way, this will be the democrats fault for sending Bush an Iraq bill with timetables. Bush, and the GOP, will take any chance they get to point the finger to deflect the reality of their failures. They have lied and they will continue to lie. They will spin this one and brag how they have had their eye on these guys all along

The FBI  first got wind of the alleged plot in January 2006, after an unidentified store clerk alerted police to a video that showed the men firing assault weapons, calling for jihad and yelling “God is great” in Arabic, officials said. The men had submitted the video file to the store so that it could be copied onto a DVD, authorities said.

If it wasn’t for the store clerk, our government wouldn’t have found out about the group. Maybe we should put the store clerk in charge since he/she seems to be more observant then the Feds.

By the way the arrested group has no connection to Al Qaeda, but we all know Cheney will raise his evil head and say they are Al Qaeda with WMD’s.

We Don’t Want To Think About This

Thanks to: David Cloud of the New York Times for describing important events that must be addressed by all candidates. I have paraphrased and quoted some issues in his article, so I can comment.

“We made official apologies on the part of the U.S. government” and paid $2,000 for each death.But in this case, Colonel Nicholson went further than usual in acknowledging that the civilians were “innocent Afghans.”“This is a terrible, terrible mistake, and my nation grieves with you for your loss and suffering. We humbly and respectfully ask for your forgiveness,” he said in his statement to the families. Offering payments to relatives of victims is considered by the American military as vital in allaying anger among civilians in both Afghanistan and Iraq, where the military regularly makes payments when it kills noncombatants.

I am so glad the US Military has procedures in place to assure the families of collateral victims are paid off. We are generous to a fault, $2,000 should fix everything. Maybe a sympathy card would smooth things over, too.

Anger among Afghans at American tactics has seemed to only intensify since the March 4 incident. After a separate incident in western Afghanistan earlier this month, President Hamid Karzai warned at a news conference that continuing civilian casualties would not be tolerated.
Afghan officials assert that in the May incident, dozens of civilians were killed after a joint American and Afghan Army patrol was ambushed near the town of Shindand and called in air strikes. About 40 civilians, including women and children, were killed and 50 more were wounded in the attacks, officials from the province of Herat have told reporters.

So, tell me, how would Americans react if Bin Laden said, “I am so sorry for this terrible mistake on 9/11, here is a check for $2,000.00, please, find it in you heart to forgive us.” (Oh, don’t forget the card).

Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, the commander of Special Operations troops in the Middle East and Central Asia, ordered the unit out of Afghanistan after concluding the killings had damaged the unit’s ability to be effective.

Could it be that our soldiers are in such a PTSD (PostTraumatic Stress Disorder) state, that instant revenge for death and casualties among their comrades is common. If you have one or ten bad guys, it’s so much easier to call air strike on the whole village.

Overkill by frustrated soldiers seems to be the norm. Our soldiers are either pumped up with adrenaline and just want to kill somebody, or, they become depressed zombies making fatal mistakes. Being targets of convenience by a frustrated populace who are being squeezed three ways. Mental injuries are deciding these wars.

Iraqis and Afghanistanis have to become chameleons. They have to behave one way so the Americans don’t mistake them for combatants, then another when the Shi’a Militia checks their neighborhood out, and change again when the Sunni gangs sweep through looking for revenge killings. I cannot even guess what they go through when the immigrant warriors pass through trying to recruit.

The Iraqis and Afghanis are indeed ‘Chicken Little’ and their sky has fallen.

Look Toto Its Another Bush Failure

In light of the recent disaster in Kansas, can Bush or the GOP actually convince us that we are protected? Governors have been complaining for several years that their states are vulnerable because their guard and equipment are in Iraq and Afghanistan.  But those concerns and complaints have fallen on deaf ears. So, I find it very insulting that Tony Snow would blame the problems with Kansas preparedness and clean up on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. She’s available, so it must be her fault.

It’s so typical of this administration to attack a person instead of fixing the problem. It’s obvious to me that the lessons of Katrina and Rita have yet to be learned by this administration. Instead they stand by and play the blame game. 

Why does Kansas have to bring in private contractors cleanup? Shouldn’t Homeland Security send resources to any governor when they need it? Doesn’t Homeland Security have equipment strategically placed, like they said they did? Probably not, because their trying to figure out what to if their blackberries go down again.

Lets not forget FEMA who is Johnny on the spot; they’re sending trailers to tornado alley. Brilliant idea! I guess the kind people of Louisiana, who are still waiting for their trailers, will understand especially when the next tornado flies those trailers over their state.   

The GOP is constantly telling us how safe we are, how ready we are for an attack or a disaster. I think not. The tornado in Kansas once again shows the incompetence and arrogance of Bush and his administration.