Bent Corner

Our illustrious president spoke last night on the television about his most favorite subject - the Iraq war. From his speech:

Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working. Last year, an intelligence report concluded that Anbar had been lost to al-Qaida. Some cited this report as evidence that we had failed in Iraq and should cut our losses and pull out. Instead, we kept the pressure on the terrorists. The local people were suffering under the Taliban-like rule of al-Qaida, and they were sick of it. So they asked us for help.

The al-Qaida he should be worried about is the al-Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is the real al-Qaida. That is the al-Qaida that attacked the United States on 9-11. The al-Qaida in Iraq? They just call themselves that to give themselves some cheap terrorist credibility. Everyone knows that al-Qaida attacked the United States six years ago and Bush has failed to bring them to justice. Bush has failed to make them pay. Bush and his inability to make al-Qaida pay turn them into the terrorist organization that every two bit terrorist wants to be apart of.

Just because they call themselves al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida. The al-Qaida in Iraq is as much al-Qaida as American skinheads are Nazis. Sure, they may have a photo of Hitler in their mom’s basement, but that doesn’t mean they are the same bunch that fought Patton’s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge. Those were real Nazis. They weren’t pretending to be Nazis.

Just because someone identifies themselves as a Nazi on their MySpace page doesn’t mean they are a Nazi. Just because someone in Iraq says they are al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer. Not because he knows of any credible intelligence that points to that. No, because he feels it in his large intestines.

“Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” he said of al-Qaeda. “We do worry that they are rebuilding their activities.”

Still, Chertoff said there are not enough indications of an imminent plot to raise the current threat levels nationwide. And he indicated that his remarks were based on “a gut feeling” formed by past seasonal patterns of terrorist attacks, recent al-Qaeda statements, and intelligence he did not disclose.

Don’t just sit there. Go grab some duct tape and save yourself! It’s summertime and Michael Chertoff’s bowels are talking!

Link

Rudy Giuliani should have been spending less time flying around the country giving paid speeches on the 9-11 terror attacks and spent more time actually learning more about them. Including the reasons we were attacked.

This following is a partial transcript from the recent Republican South Carolina Presidential debate.

REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.

We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?

REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.

MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Congressman?

REP. PAUL: I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.

They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich and we’re free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there. I mean, what would we think if we were — if other foreign countries were doing that to us?

Congressmen Ron Paul is correct. Bin Laden didn’t attack the United States because of our love of apple pie and baseball. He didn’t attack us because we love Jesus.

Rudy Giuliani has made a lot of money off of 9-11. You would think he would try to learn a thing or two about it. Instead he comes off looking like an idiot.

Congressman Ron Paul was right. The so-called “America’s Mayor” was wrong.

Here's a letter I wrote that was published in the local newspaper, the Herald-Mail.  It was in response to a letter written by someone who was calling for all Muslims to denounce terrorism.  For some reason, it struck a nerve with me.  Here is my letter: 

I wanted to weigh in with an opinion on the recent letter written by Jack Myers where he called upon Muslims everywhere to denounce suicide terror attacks. Why stop at only calling on Muslims to denounce terrorism? Should be ask all religious people to denounce terrorism? 

Muslims believe in the God of Abraham, along with people of the Jewish and the Christian faith. Should everyone that worships the God of Abraham also denounce terrorism? There are over a billion peace loving people in the world that practice Islam. Only a small percentage of that number recognizes or endorses terrorism as a legitimate method of achieving objectives. It is ridiculous and insulting to lump all Muslims in with the terrorists. The reality is that an overwhelming majority of Muslims don't condone terrorism or even know a terrorist. 

Asking Muslims to denounce terrorism is like asking Catholics to denounce pedophilia. Of course the vast majority of Catholics do not condone or endorse pedophilia. Similarly, the vast majority of Muslims do not condone or endorse terrorism. Don't allow the actions of a small few lead you to make erroneous judgments about a majority.

I don't know if we will ever win this war on terror.  How do you win a war against a technique?  I do know that we will not win it by insulting a billion Muslims that don't support terrorism.  It's giving credibility to the idiotic notion that all Muslims are blood thirsty terrorists that only have children so they can strap bombs on them and turn them into suicide bombers.  

It's like asking Christians to denounce rattlesnake handling. 

The ironic thing about my letter to the paper was the title they gave my letter.  It's as though the editor didn't even read what I wrote. 

He entitled it, "All should denounce terrorism".

Really?  Was I saying that everyone should denounce terrorism?  That's not even close to the point I was making.

President Bush suggested Thursday that Democrats don’t have the stomach to fight the war on terror. He was at a Republican campaign fundraiser in Alabama and had lots of nasty stuff too.

“Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on the American homeland in our history, Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing,” Bush said at a Republican fundraiser.”The party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run,”.

Party of cut and run? How does Bush have any business saying something like this? He is the guy that acted like a wuss on the day of 9-11. When the Saudi terrorists attacked, he was at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida reading to kids. Instead of getting on Air Force One and returning to Washington D.C., he flew around the country hiding from threats that never existed. He even spent time in a bomb shelter at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. How embarrassing. There were a lot of people doing brave and courageous things on the day of 9-11. Don’t let anyone fool you. George Bush wasn’t one of them.

I’m tired of Bush and gutless neo-con chickenhawks like him constantly trying to man-up on everyone else. Only in America can someone like Rush Limbaugh describe a man such as John Kerry as a coward. John Kerry earned a Silver Star for killing the Viet Cong into the jungles of Viet Nam. The only thing Limbaugh has ever killed was a bottle of oxicotin.

I find it ironic that Bush can refer to leaving Iraq as “cut and run”. What more do we have to do over there? We took care of ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Granted, Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was captured and is now on trial. They have had democratic elections in Iraq. Twice. Iraqi People even got purple fingers. What more is there to do? Mission accomplished, right? Major combat operations in Iraq are over, right? So why continue the military occupation of Iraq?

Not only are we paying a heavy toll in American lives, it is costing the American taxpayers approximately $2 billion dollars a week to occupy Iraq. Then again, it’s not like current taxpayers are going to be footing this bill. It will be this country’s great, great, great grandchildren that end up paying for the Bush Iraq war. Future taxpayers will be footing the bill for Bush’s war. Bush isn’t really keen on the idea of paying for the things he wants. He drives up the national debt while cutting taxes. Mostly these tax cuts go to the ultra rich. Tax cuts for people that don’t sacrifice or contribute anything to the war on terror or Bush’s war in Iraq. It’s not as though their children are enlisting in the military after high school and going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Then again, if you join the military, your chances of going to Afghanistan are not all that high. The odds of going to Iraq are seven times more likely then going to Afghanistan. That’s a shame too, especially if someone joined the armed forces to kill the people that caused the terror attacks on 9-11. Instead of occupying Iraq, our military needs to be in Afghanistan killing the Taliban and hunting down bin Laden.