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What other shoe will ever drop?
I had hoped to leave behind the Bush years in my writings here. Yet, it appears that the actions by the Bush Adminstration will continue to be the talk of the nation for a while yet.
I have been reading with horror comments by Seymour Hersh about what had transpired about an alleged assassination squad. The accumulation of power is quite scary. I realize that the reporting done here by MSNBC is biased. Between the John Yu memos and this allegation, it shows an apparent debunking of the Constitutional Form of Government during the past eight years. Not withstanding the political tone of it, the mere fact that this kind of "command" existed should be of concern to all:
When values are debased in the name of a false sense of security, then terrorists would truly have won. I wonder if Mr. Cheney understood it when he pushed for the so-called policies which has caused so much grief and destruction under the guise of "National Security".
The world is right now fascinated with Davos. The rich, the famous and the powerful are all there in paradise talking about the world and all the problems. There is enough being said by all pundits which will speak for itself on Davos. But, two key things occured which I wanted to note:
1) Turkey's Prime Minister Edrogan stormed out of a discussion with Shimon Peres during discusisons on Gaza. Edrogan was given a minute by David Ignathius of the Washington Post to rebute a lengthy comment by Shimon Peres. I think the gesture by Mr. Edrogan must be taken seriously by Israel. It shows the frustration with Israel and the fact that as Amr Mousa said, Israel "does not listen". I was quite disappointed by David Ignathius when he did not grant equal time during the discussions. It seems to me that Dinner could have waited.
2) The Prime Ministers of China and Russia spoke at Davos, blasting the West. I think both men had excellent points. But, both men have a lot of problems of their own and their crediblity is suspect at best. I think Wen Jinbao has been at the forefront of changing China. I think his efforts during the earthquake surprised me. But, the Chinese are undergoing changes that the Government cannot truly contend with and blasting the West is not going to solve it. As for Russia, Tsar Putin can say whatever he wants. The fact is that he is a dictator in a 1000-Dollar Suit speaking about responsbility when his country has profound challenges.
China and Russia have to be watched. They are powerful, they are emergent and they should not be discounted. But, lecturing the rest of the world is disingenious at best. The Davos Alternative, though, also has convened. I am quite interested to see what it achieves. Everyone is still talking, talking and talking. But there is no action at all.
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It is nice to dream.......
In my Witness to History Column on Thursday, I wrote about George W. Bush's Farewell address. I noted that I would accord him the respect due him as one of only 43 men to have occupied the post and let others judge him. But, I did want to address a column that Charles Krauthammer wrote about the legacy of George W. Bush.
Charles Krauthammer is one of the leading conservative voices in America. I sometimes read his work in the Washington Post. He wrote a column which I briefly reviewed in Townhall.com suggesting that George W. Bush will be kindly remembered by history. He noted that his reputation will be "restored". He noted that Truman's reputation took many years to recover and Bush's reputation would be resurrected a lot sooner. I think he is absolutely wrong in this regard. Mr. Bush is leaving office as the worst President in my lifetime, if not the history of the Republic.
I hereby conclude my reflections on the Bush Presidency with an alternative view. Keith Olbermann was quite forceful in his "retrospective" on the Bush Presidency. For all intent and purpose, the Presidency of George W. Bush has ended. I wish him well as he goes back to Texas to build his "Freedom Institute". His policies made it a lot tougher for the Middle Class. But, optimism is the order of the day. It has to be for the sake of the future.
The future has already arrived. However, I had a laugh as I listened to this 8 years in 8 minutes:
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Faith, Morality, Freedom and Our Society
Pastor Warren began the first hour of the forum with Senator Obama. Unfortunately, I missed the first 10 minutes of the session where the question he asked was on the 3 wise men that have had a profound impact on his life and his profound failures of Character. I did find Senator McCain's response interesting on both count....but more on that later on. On the question of faith, there was no question that he embraced his faith with no reservations in anyway, shape or form. He told the world that he understood his faith to insure that he acted justly and lovingly.
The question from Pastor Warren was when a fetus acquires human rights. Senator Obama told the world that he was pro-choice. His view was based on a fundamental belief that women who decide to have abortions do not come to such decisions lightly. But, he noted that alternatives should be explored to not have 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. What Senator Obama talked about was a culture shift that allows women choices. Pastor Warren also brought up Marriage. Senator Obama told the world that he believed that marriage was the union between a man and a woman. He did not support a constitutional amendment due to his belief that it was states' rights issue
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Mike Pouraryan
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