When Neo is meeting with the Oracle, the music playing in the background in her apartment is Duke Ellington\'s \"I\'m Beginning to See the Light\".

Watch this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkKbE9qCzQo


America is a great force for freedom and prosperity. Yet our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another. So we strive to be a compassionate, decent, hopeful society.

In recent years, America has become a more hopeful nation. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half over the past decade. Drug use among youth is down 19 percent since 2001. There are fewer abortions in America than at any point in the last three decades, and the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row.

These gains are evidence of a quiet transformation -- a revolution of conscience, in which a rising generation is finding that a life of personal responsibility is a life of fulfilment. Government has played a role. Wise policies, such as welfare reform and drug education and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country. And everyone here tonight, Democrat and Republican, has a right to be proud of this record.

Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions. They\'re concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage. They worry about children in our society who need direction and love, and about fellow citizens still displaced by natural disaster, and about suffering caused by treatable diseases.

As we look at these challenges, we must never give in to the belief that America is in decline, or that our culture is doomed to unravel. The American people know better than that. We have proven the pessimists wrong before -- and we will do it again.

-- GWB


Gods of Metal Worship:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR-XmoVAoD0

my basic message is, after hearing all the arguments (and non-arguments, )so far, is that there may be a better option in this War on Terror other than"staying the course". After all that's happened, I don't think anybody, even those in the highest levels of government, remains satisfied with the disastrous results of the Iraq invasion, much less, after the years of effort
of trying to stabilize the country. After all those years and the bloody outcome, haven't we come to the conclusion that the method we have chosen to fight this war is not working ?We're clearly doing something wrong here. It's so easy to churn out motherhood statements and rally everyone to the flag and that's in everyone's hearts, but dear God, this is a fiasco we're doing. We have to examine whether scorching the(Iraqis') house is the best way to get rid of the termites. If we were to use Parated's analogy of bacteria, the more we can't use a scorch-earth policy because the Nurse and the doctors get burned together with the patient. Remember throwing out the baby with bath water?I think I've been consistent about this in my previous posts which deals with the value of unconventional strategies in dealing with this war. We do, in fact need Muslim allies to win this War. Oh, well. I've said my piece.

Def, Ted, I think you guys have your hearts (and guts ) in the right place., but try chilling it out and talk issues, ok?

Def, Ted, I think you guys have your hearts (and guts ) in the right place., but try chilling it out and talk issues, ok?

Yeah, Scatter, I admit to getting a bit extreme there, but to me there isn't much difference between Americans calling for us to abandon the people of Iraq to the bacteria and me calling for them to put their money where their rhetoric is and go be the guests of the bacteria themselves.

P.S. Just for the record, I never wished for Deference.. or anyone else... to be killed by terrorists. ;~D

"The war we fight today is more than a military conflict,\" the president said. \"It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century." - Obsession

-Tell me what concrete steps have we done to address the problem of ideology? Have we organized Americans to look into this? Have we encouraged ,supported and funded them to work with allied Muslims to counteract the twisted rhetoric the imams are giving the potential terrorists? -coordinated these efforts with our military operations instead of making conventional warfare the centerpiece of the War? No, we just rely on tanks, troops,and bombs and say, we'll have everything under control, maybe in a few years and we should just stay the course, even if the battle statistics and set goals of the war become unmeasurable. So, why pursue something that's not working? If this is indeed the decisive ideological struggle it's suppose to be, then we don't seem to be addressing it., sadly.

Oh, and Obsession, we'd certainly like to hear your own thoughts about this, instead of Pres. Bush's. You do have some of your own, don't you?

"Which is another reason we aren't at war with Islam, but with people who have decided that the only people who should be allowed to live are Muslims." - ParaTed2k

Exactly. The ideological war is actually between Islam and Terrorists villifying Islam. True Muslims actually have a duty to confront this terrorist ideology destroying their own religion.
It is a problem actually to be resolved between and among Muslims while we ,as the targeted "infidels" should focus on our intelligence and unconventional (covert /open) operations for our defense, rather than relying on open conventional fighting against suspected Muslim nations.
My beef is: In this ideological warfare, this contradiction, which offers us a good window to win this war , has not only been ignored but is being confusedly defined (deliberately/indeliberately) as a war between the West and Islamic countries under a broader "Freedom vs. Terrorism( now, Islamo-fascism)"war cry. This call has politically justified the Iraqi invasion by US forces which now (plus Afghanistan) may even lead into a 3 front war if Iran is included in the equation. We are exactly playing into the Terrorists' hands.
The strategy and tactics of the enemy has shown that a protracted people's war is being employed on a global basis. In such a protracted war, the enemy's number one asset, is ideology, hardware is secondary, and its aim is to weaken our resources - militarily and politically ,like bees could weaken a maddened bull. Therefore, it is this ideology we should start to address.The catchphrase, "if we don't fight them in Iraq, we'll be fighting them here in US streets" is also misleading since our best defense lies really in securing our borders annd ports and coordinating well with police and intelligence counterparts in the rest of the world. Invading another suspected Muslim country will only increase the ranks of terrorists

"Is it about Hillary's presidency during the 90s?" - Rightwinger

Huh?!!? Just what has this comment got to do with our options in this war? It's just unfortunate that my post should come at a time when elections are again nearing, and people reading may probably get tempted to insert something politically partisan instead of trying to study the issues. When people start inserting argumentum ad hominems, we will never get anywhere.
Anyway, all things considered, I think the point of this post has been well ventilated. Thank you all for participating.

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