Thinking back to the criticism I received for criticizing our attack of Iraq, I find this clip from a Cato Institute forum very interesting. Rather astounding, actually. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) tell Grover Norquist that “the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake.”
I came to the same conclusion, but eight years earlier.
So are you with the repubs on health care?
In one way, yes. We’re both disappointed. They’re upset because they see it as a socialist takeover of the health care system, a view I find very amusing. I’m disappointed because of what it failed to do. I’m trying to maintain the attitude that it’s a good first step. The GOP says the next step will be to dismantle it. That might not be a popular thing to do.
I was hoping for something like the socialist Hawaiian system.
Holy moley,
This video assuages me a bit–considering the anonymous threats I received all during those 8 years, including that awful moment a pick-up driver said he’d run over me if I crossed the street in front of him (and I had a green light).
What amazes me is that we who were against this illegal war in the first place apparently knew more than the congresspersons did who supported this awful shock and awe that was manufactured, primarily by Cheney and Rumsfeld. We started protesting in August before the conflict started and I marched in D.C. in October and January, prior to March 19, 2003. Why would we have even gone to the trouble of doing this had we not known that the Bush administration was going to proceed with their preconceived plan to take out Saddam.
I was accused of not supporting the troops when all the time, I was doing more to support them than those who were attaching those stupid magnets on their cars and wearing their patriotic lapel pins or flying the American flags from their cars. I didn’t want our boys and girls to be involved in this illegal conflict in the first place and when they were sent over in droves, I wanted them to come back home immediately. That was MY support for them.
It would have been so easy (and certainly less fearful) to have just completely avoided the unpleasantries of war. So many times, I’d hear people say, “I just don’t want to think about it; it would cause me many sleepless nights”. Well, sometimes, we simply have to sacrifice our ordinary comforts because of the outright obscenity of a situation and I’ll never regret having done so.
I quite saddened at the direction we have taken. There were points within the debate that I would have gladly supported had they been taken separately and on a smaller scale. I don’t believe all the best health care you can imagine is a “right”. In my view there has to be some incentive to get up in the morning and earn your way in life. I easily could have supported a safety net for those unable to do so.
Leaving kids on their parents policies until their 26 is not a way to get them to grow up and start contributing to society.
The government taking over all education loans could lead to abuse. I see it as an avenue for government to extend their power over what is taught. There will end up being standards that the progressives embrace to exclude people with a different point of view. Ironic isn’t it?
Get those kids out of the house so they’ll go out and get one of those jobs that don’t exist, or at least one of those many jobs that don’t provide insurance. Palm Plastics, for example, or the State Line Observer.
Interesting that the subject of this particular entry was the Cato Institute forum and how Republicans feel in retrospect regarding the illegal Iraqi conflict. Sadly, it devolved into the healthcare bill, which is another issue completely. Seems like we can’t stay on point when the topic might be a bit uncomfortable.
If you, David, want to open up the healthcare debate, I’ll sashay in. Otherwise, this particular issue is about the immoral invasion of Iraq in 2003.
I wouldn’t mind taking up the topic you suggest but I realize that it is an excercise in futility. You forfeit the cloak of sincere debate by openning with “illegal war”.
Okay, let’s go “it was a horrible mistake”. Still game?
I don’t have a lot of time and won’t be pulling info off of blogs as reference material. My viewpoints are probably most aligned with the Tea Party movement although I’ve never been to one of their events. So if you are willing to continue the conversation knowing all that then I’ll start. Please excuse my spelling and gramatical errors. I do so wish that this blog had a spell check feature!
It is difficult to prove a negative. Therefore, it is impossible for us to know the outcome of events in the middle east if we had not gone to war. We do know there was an aggressive regime that had attacked neighbors. In retrospect, would the holocast have been prevented if we would have acted more proactively toward Hitler?
The UN had been ineffective in enforcing it’s resolutions. I am a firm believer that it is better to not make resolutions if you are not going to back them up. Many parents make the same mistake working with their children and then all of a sudden they are suprised when they have a war at home.