More on the Coalition of the Bribed

[billroper]

This article from the Times of London quotes from a leaked report that gives a great deal of information about Saddam's work to bribe France, Russia, and China via the Oil for Food program and how he skimmed off profits for his own use.

Comments

[billroper]

I understand that politics is complicated.

I am also fascinated by your unsupported assertion that "Bush was bribed by oil money". That's a wonderful tack to take in a political discussion without providing any supporting evidence and a remarkably black and white way of looking at things as well.

You speak in your next post of Bush dissing our allies. Really? While I'm aware that many people have dissed the French, I don't recall that Bush was one of them. (It's also not unreasonable to ask whether the French are particularly good allies, but that would be another discussion altogether.) And -- since I did watch at least part of last week's debate -- I am able to recall Bush working very hard not to dis our Russian allies when he was being led in that direction by the questioning.

I understand your belief that attacking Hussein was wrong. I do not necessarily agree with you about this -- for a wide variety of reasons that I don't propose to go into here -- but I am certain that there are good and valid reasons why you believe what you believe and I do not presume any bad motives on your part.

I do, on the other hand, have a problem with Senator Kerry's position on the Iraq war, which I would attempt to delve into in depth here, except for the fact that I have some actual work that I need to do.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"I am also fascinated by your unsupported assertion that 'Bush was bribed by oil money'. That's a wonderful tack to take in a political discussion without providing any supporting evidence and a remarkably black and white way of looking at things as well."

Sorry. It was such an ancillary point that I didn't bother thinking twice about it. I agree that "bribed" is too strong a word, just as I think it's too strong a word to use with the French etc. I used it because you did, and I wanted the parallel. I shouldn't have done that.

Anyway, there is a much longer discussion about the influences behind Bush's invasion of Iraq. Certainly it wasn't WMD, or terrorism, or security...his general foreign policy actions make no sense if those reasons were correct. I believe the reasons are oil interests, and they're obviously oil interests. That and the bizarre political theories of the neoCons.

But yes, I probably should not have use the comment without the underlying support. I don't think it affect the rest of my post, though.

"Really? While I'm aware that many people have dissed the French, I don't recall that Bush was one of them."

Sorry also. I use "Bush" as a shorthand for "the Bush Administration," because the buck stops with the guy in charge. I don't like the "he never actually said the words" defense that I keep hearing. I think it's bogus.

"I understand your belief that attacking Hussein was wrong. I do not necessarily agree with you about this -- for a wide variety of reasons that I don't propose to go into here -- but I am certain that there are good and valid reasons why you believe what you believe and I do not presume any bad motives on your part."

And I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. I don't think I have any bad motives, either.

"I do, on the other hand, have a problem with Senator Kerry's position on the Iraq war, which I would attempt to delve into in depth here, except for the fact that I have some actual work that I need to do."

Feel free to bring it up later. I don't have all his answers, but I have access to a lot of them. And while I don't necessarily agree with everything he's said during his campaign, I believe that no one can honestly predict what they will do as President. These kinds of things are very much about the events at the moment, and the best decisions are the ones made at the time. The best we can do as voters is pick someone whose general ethics, beliefs, and intellect seem like the ones we want on the job when the decisions have to be made.

This seems like an easy choice to me.
B