Bush says US must prepare for preemptive action (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=7&u=/nm/20020602/ts_nm/bush_dc_12)

Is anyone surprised?In the face of concerns among European allies that an attack against Baghdad would be rash and destabilizing, Bush said last week he had "no war plans on my desk."

But in his address at West Point, Bush vowed to hold his ground. "In the world we have entered the only path to safety is the path of action and this nation will act," he said, adding that all Americans must be "ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives."

Bush brushed aside critics who accuse him of acting unilaterally, saying, "Some may worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree."I mentioned in a post to Adam the other day a bit from Steven Brust, which I will reproduce here, again:(Y)ou judge a war according to who is in the right as long as you have no interest in the outcome; if you're one of the participants, or if the result is going to have a major effect on you, then you have to create the moral principles that put you in the right--that's nothing new, everyone knows it.°For the record, to launch a wave of missiles at, say, Iraq, without direct provocation is called a preemptive defensive action. You know, of those silly political terms that helps create the moral principles that put us in the right. If we pretend we're defending ourselves, then it's okay to do what we need.

I just hope people realize that nothing ends when (if) we catch Bin Laden.

I wonder if we'll actually declare war before we invade.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

Notes:

° Brust, Steven. Dragon. New York: TOR, 1998

Is not that the rules of the game in a democracy is that the majority makes them? Why should this be any different?

Just get the poll - invade Iraq.....(just make sure you show the just cause, so that you win the poll)

Looks simple to me....philosophy be damned...

I'm just surprised you know that groovy song.

Adam

That's my childhood. In fact, a short list that's worth noting:

•*Unnamed Movie: I would like to find again a film I've seen once, when I was eight or nine. It was a dark fantasy about the US, that the Communists had won, and started with an old, kindly teacher being replaced by a youthful zealot who cuts up the American flag into small strips to commemorate the new reign while singing "Children of the World" by the Bee Gees.

•*The Day After: 'Nuff said.

• Threads: I would eventually see this while it was still relevant; chilling.

•*99 Luftballoons: Just feeding the paranoia.

• Silver Spoons: One episode starred Rick Schroeder in a fantasy that he was president, during which he let the world slip into a nuclear war. Contains two bad Yuri Andropov jokes.

• Amazing Grace and Chuck: I'm left speechless by this film.

• It's a Mistake: I can only guess that Australia got the same video we did in the states.

Add to that the Reagan years ... cripes, man ... hasn't anyone figured it out? I'm a reactionary product of the 1980s.

That's just a partial list. L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet was set against the possibility of apocalypse.

But we in the US have grown up expecting to be vaporized at, essentially, any given second. After a while, it has its effect ;)

thanx,
Tiassa :cool: