It's articles like this one which make me think Kerry is going to win, maybe, just maybe, win big.
O'Reilly Network: Wow. The world is getting strange [May. 08, 2004]
I'm working on my next java.net article and having problems focusing. Why? Well, Richard Monson-Haefel is publicly broadcasting that he's looking for a job (depressing news about the state of the computer industry), the EU is posed to do the software-patent shimmy (ditto), and (and this one boggles me) I just realized that I'm probably going to vote for John Kerry.
As to the latter— I think Don Park nailed it. I didn't think the war was a particularly good idea to start with, but I thought it could be justified. And I'm actually okay with the (so far) non-finding of weapons of mass destruction. And I think that, for better or worse, the US has to stay the course in Iraq. Leaving now, or in the near future, or before Iraq is a stable and functioning society again, would be a very bad decision.
But wow— invading Iraq wasn't a no-brainer when the decision was made, and in hindsight it looks like a very bad idea indeed. Moreover, the follow through in the post-Saddam era is a mess; ; a total failure of foresight and planning. The sort of thing that causes boards to fire CEOs, if you ask me.
And how very depressing to see the recent flood of pathetic commentaries along the lines of America: Not as bad as Saddam. It's hard for me to even respond to most of those articles because they're so deeply steeped in moral corruption (briefly: if you invade a country on humanitarian grounds, and a major part of the justification for this invasion was humanitarian, AND if you want to take the moral high ground when defending the invasion, and the defenders of the invasion did take the moral high ground, then saying “well, the other guys rape too” indicates an inner emptiness that boggles the mind).
All this is subject to revision, of course. I'm well aware that there is a lot of information that hasn't been shared with the public (and a lot of that was probably withheld for good reasons). And that the media has a tendency to over-report sensational news and thereby blow things out of proportion. And the last thing in the world I want to do is post yet another silly article linking rapes in Iraq to the patriot act.
But, from where I'm sitting (very faint voice) Kerry in 2004
The original is full of links, by the way. [corrected @ 5:43pm]
One of the links is to Don Park, expressing this very Confucian vision,
I know I'll get a lot of flack for this, but I am of the mind that Bush should resign as a sincere gesture of apology to the world and to Americans. Ultimately, he is responsible for the humiliation, rape and murder that occurred in Iraq by American soldiers and no mere words will make up for the damage the acts have caused.
Which I think is a bad idea: 1) Makes Cheney President in name as well as deed; 2) Allows the GOP to pick a new candidate since there's no chance they'll go with Cheney. Although the mechanics of that, given the delegates are all picked, would be sort of fun to watch…
I imagine the real Bush loyolaists would pick Jeb.
Michael,
These guys have lost everything but the appologists for torture vote.
As with 9/11 they were told but they did nothing. Now they ask ‘how could we have known?’.
I think that the race could still be tight, but I don’t expect a close result. I think that what we will see is more than simply a rejection of Bush, I think we will see a repudiation.
I expect that the House and the Senate will swing as well. Perhaps not enough to take the Senate, but both are definitely in play. Its not just the criminals in the Whitehouse that will be blamed, their chorus of sick-o-phants have nothing to recomend them either.
Phill