I don't get it.

Submitted by Simona (United States), Nov 5, 2003 at 16:38

As much as I appreciate Dr. Pipes' writings, I fail to understand the point. Yes, America is unpopular abroad... and it has been unpopular before. It proves no one's point to say that we were just as unpopular during the Vietnam War. Vietnam wasn't exactly America's shining moment. Furthermore, America's actions such as going to Yugoslavia which was unpopular with the UN and many EU nations was not listed. Perhaps b/c Bill Clinton who is a Democrat was involved.

In this case the outcome was actually a good example of what can happen when America is headstrong and doesn't listen to the rest of the world.

And listing Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Treaty as well as other beneficial world treaties should be part of the evidence that perhaps Mr. Bush doesn't have the best interests of America and the World in mind when he makes decisions.

Using Reagan's building up of arms was the Star Wars project is equally as ludicrous. To this day Star Wars is the butt of jokes, not a viable military solution.

There are many anti-Iraq war liberals. Even those who intitially supported it are against it now. And why? There was far too little planning for what to do after the military victory. We all knew that military victory would be easy, but the great conservative minds in our government didn't seem to plan on the fact that the work would not be over once the bullets stopped flying.

So when Liberals and/or Democrats criticize the war and its aftermath they are very right in doing so. America had their chance to oust Saddam and put power in the hands of the Iraqi people during Bush Sr 's administration. That chance was wasted. And now we are again wasting our time and billions of dollars in a futile attempt to turn Iraq into a viable Democracy, meanwhile not having so much as a stable plan to do it with. And there seems to be no real attempt at making one either.

And my ultimate concern is for Israel. If goodness forbid Iraq erupts into some sort of Civil War Israel could be further victimized. As long as Mr. Bush fails to inform the world of what is really going on and gives his own people reason to doubt his every word he needs to be criticized constructively and using fact based solid evidence. He needs to account for his actions b/c he answers to us all and our reputation is at stake.

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