Quote:
Originally posted by JR@Mar 1 2003, 04:55 PM
i am getting increasingly cynical about this whole situation.
Bush tried to make the sale and it looks like few are buying.
oh well. lifes a bitch. democracy means accepting the will of the majority. not the will of the majority as long as they agree with you. people are not saying a tougher stance should not be taken against Saddam. People are saying "why attack him right now". i think thats a valid position.
its kinda sad that a murderous dictator, hiding under a sand dune and rocks, still proves to be a better politician than the last 3 Presidents of the USA.
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JR, I agree that few seem to be buying. Murderous dictators are often good politicians. Saddam is an excellent one.
Americans don't live in a strict democracy though. I don't know what one would call it really -- maybe a Constitutional Democratic Republic. The will of the people is important but so is the will of the states as evidenced by their representation in congress and the senate; one being proportional to the population of a state, one not. The president is the commander and chief of the armed forces. These are his decisions to make regardless. If we don't like it, we can vote him out. There are measures, if the people and their representatives feel strong enough, to change the situation. If we don't like that, we can change the system.
At any rate, Presidents REGULARLY act against the majority opinion of the public and I think it's really no big deal. It's happened a lot. The public was quite opposed to US involvement in WW I, for example. How about the War of 1812? How about The Spanish/American War? Even after World War I, 70% of Americans thought it had been a bad decision. None of these wars had popular support. I guess one could argue the US would have been better off not in any of them. That's Pat Buchanan's party though. ;-)
I am guessing that if there is a quick conflict, people will forget there was any opposition anyway - either inside or outside of the US. There were protestors during nearly every war this century, There was opposition somewhere to every war this century.
A messy war that doesn't go as planned will be the complete opposite and people will forever remember.