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... there is a hole in the heart of the world - the moderate center seems to be getting torn asunder.

OP-ED COLUMNIST

A Hole in the Heart of the World

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

hen you read polls showing a significant number of Americans feel our country is on the wrong track, what do you think is bothering people? I think it's a deep worry that there is a hole in the heart of the world - the moderate center seems to be getting torn asunder. That has many people worried. And they are right to be worried.

American politics is so polarized today that there is no center, only sides. Israeli politics has become divided nearly to the point of civil war. In the Arab-Muslim world, where the moderate center was always a fragile flower, the political moderates are on the defensive everywhere, and moderate Muslim spiritual leaders seem almost nonexistent.

Europe, for its part, has gone so crazy over the Bush administration that the normally thoughtful Guardian newspaper completely lost its mind last week and published a column that openly hoped for the assassination of President Bush, saying: "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. - where are you now that we need you?" (The writer apologized later.) Meanwhile, French and German leaders seem to be competing over who can say more categorically that they will never send troops to help out in Iraq - even though the help needed now is to organize the first U.N.-supervised democratic election in that country.

How do we begin to repair this jagged hole? There is no cure-all, but three big things would help. One is a different U.S. approach to the world. The Bush-Cheney team bears a big responsibility for this hole because it nakedly exploited 9/11 to push a far-right Republican agenda, domestically and globally, for which it had no mandate. When U.S. policy makes such a profound lurch to the right, when we start exporting fear instead of hope, the whole center of gravity of the world is affected. Countries reposition themselves in relation to us.

Had the administration been more competent in pursuing its policies in Iraq - which can still turn out decently - the hole in the heart of the world might not have gotten so large and jagged.

I have been struck by how many foreign dignitaries have begged me lately for news that Bush will lose. This Bush team has made itself so radioactive it glows in the dark. When the world liked Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, America had more power in the world. When much of the world detests George Bush, America has less power. People do not want to be seen standing next to us. It doesn't mean we should run our foreign policy as a popularity contest, but it does mean that leading is not just about making decisions - it's also the ability to communicate, follow through and persuade.

If the Bush team wins re-election, unless it undergoes a policy lobotomy and changes course and tone, the breach between America and the rest of the world will only get larger. But all Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney have told us during this campaign is that they have made no mistakes and see no reason to change.

The second thing that is necessary to heal the hole in the world is a decent Iraqi election. If such an election can be brought off, the Europeans, the Arabs and the American left will have to rethink their positions. I know what I am for in Iraq: a real election and a decent government. The Europeans, the Arabs and the American left know what they are against in Iraq: George Bush and his policies. But if there is an elected Iraqi government, it could be the magnet to begin pulling the moderate center of the world back together, because a duly elected Iraqi government is something everyone should want to help.

The real question is, What if we get a new Iraqi government but the same old Bush team incompetence? That would be a problem. Even an elected Iraqi government will see its legitimacy wane if we cannot help it provide basic security and jobs.

Last, we need to hope that Ariel Sharon's hugely important effort to withdraw Israel from Gaza will pave the way for a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. When there is no peace in the Holy Land, and when America has no diplomacy going on there, the world is always more polarized.

I am no Sharon fan, but I am impressed. Mr. Sharon's willingness to look his own ideology and his own political base in the eye, conclude that pandering to both of them is no longer in his country's national interest, and then risk his life and political career to change course is an example of leadership you just don't see much of any more in democracies.

I wonder what Karl Rove thinks of it? source

Name:

khobar

Message:
1.) How did the Bush/Cheney regime use or misuse WMD intelligence?

Name:

jimmy Van Hoos

Message:
What a great day! Im looking at senator kerry's photo and listening to culture club dreaming of the day we control the white house . Hillary calling the shots.

Name:	jimmy Van Hoos
Re:	culture club

Message:
do you really want to hurt me....what do you think BOY George meant? Hurt in what way? If Senator Kerry does not win i think i will hurt myself bad.

Name:	Bush
To:	My Patriotic Republicans

Message:
No president in history has divided this nation as I have. I am all powerful. Right down the middle in both elections.

Relentless hatred against liberals causes liberals to fight fire with fire and hate you back. Heh! Heh! The idiots fell into my trap. Hatred begets more hatred. That's what I want - a divided nation with one half hating the other half.

It's called divide-and-conquer. No president has done this as perfectly as I have done it. Well done Republicans.

After I have won keep up to good work. You have already made the word "liberal" a bad word. That insult weakened the left. Keep insulting them and taking away their rights until they are so weak we will stay in power for many years to come.

Name:	Patriot
To:	Bush

In response to:
No president in history has divided this nation as I have. I am all powerful. Right down the middle in both elections. Relentless hatred against liberals causes liberals to fight fire with fire and hate you back. Heh! Heh! The idiots fell into my trap. Hatred begets more hatred. That's what I want - a divided nation with one half hating the other half. It's called divide-and-conquer. No president has done this as perfectly as I have done it. Well done Republicans. After I have won keep up to good work. You have already made the word "liberal" a bad word. That insult weakened the left. ...

Message:
We're fighting for you every day President Bush. We have already convinced half of this country that Hillary Clinton is a worse monster than Pinochet, Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Saddam, and all the other monsters combined. Our faithful patriots believe it completely.

Americans must make up their minds. Are they with us or against us? There is no middle ground. We must stay divided in order to win elections.

Name:	General Eochaidh MacDhalaigh OghaChruithne
To:	Chesty Puller
Re:	This is Highly Un-usual

In response to:
Fighting fair is NOT the same as fighting at an advantage.

****Last Updated: Saturday, 30 October, 2004, 15:26 GMT 16:26 UK****

Fighting Fair and\or Playing by the Rules doesn't put American troops at a dis-advantage during combat. In other words, the Geneva Convention does NOT prevent American troops from dropping 2,000 pound bombs on enemy troops even when the enemy troops are armed with only light weapons.

Therefore:

1. A huge body count of enemy dead who were armed with only AK-47s and who did NOT have body armour, is still a good thing (a good Hit) even though they were killed by American troops who used 2,000 pound cruise missiles and high flying air-planes that each have 12 mini-guns that each fire 6,000 rounds a minute from an altitude too high to shot down.

2. Eight dead marines killed during one battle in Iraq is a bad thing no matter if 8,000 enemy were killed during that battle. The two body counts can never add up to a Fair Fight.

3. There's never any reason for American troops to NOT use every modern weapon at their disposal even if the bad guy are a tremendous dis-advantage. As long as the American troops play by the rules (the Geneva Convention) during the battle.

Operations near the town of Falluja have increased over the past day Eight US marines have been killed and nine wounded in action around the militant stronghold of Falluja, the US military has said. In a statement, the officials said the deaths occurred in the western Anbar province of Iraq on Saturday.

The rebel-held city of Falluja is being threatened with a major military strike by US and Iraqi forces.

The interim Iraqi government is continuing peace talks with Falluja representatives this weekend.

The soldiers, from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were killed while carrying out what US military officials called "increased security operations" in the province, which also includes the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.

No further details were given.

Final chance

US forces have been carrying out a heavy bombardment of Falluja in preparation for a full-scale attack.

They say the Sunni-dominated city has become a safe haven for rebels linked to Jordanian rebel Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

When we are told to go, we will go. When we do go, we'll whack them

US Commander

Baghdad bomb blast

A US official quoted by the Associated Press confirmed that air strikes are continuing, targeting buildings believed to be used by Zarqawi's followers.

News agencies report that US officials estimate there are up to 2,000 fighters entrenched in the city.

Peace talks to avert an assault on Falluja, believed to have started on Wednesday, are being held by a government-backed delegation and leaders from the rebel-held Sunni city.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the talks represented the final chance for the Falluja to avoid an assault.

Safe haven

He has demanded that foreign militants be expelled from Falluja and Iraqi forces, backed by American troops, be allowed into its centre.

But our correspondent says the talks are apparently making little progress and a spokesman for a Sunni clerical association in Falluja said there was no good news.

In mid-October, Mr Allawi demanded that the city hand over Zarqawi, who heads the newly renamed al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War In Iraq, or face invasion.

Many of the most high-profile attacks across Iraq, both suicide bombings or kidnappings, have been claimed by Zarqawi's group.

Falluja leaders have repeatedly said that they have no idea of his whereabouts.

US Commander Denis Hejlik says his forces are poised to attack.

"We are gearing up to do an operation," he told reporters.

"When we are told to go, we will go. When we do go, we'll whack them."

Name:	Liberal
To:	Bush Patriots

In response to:
How do we begin to repair this jagged hole? There is no cure-all, but three big things would help. One is a different U.S. approach to the world. The Bush-Cheney team bears a big responsibility for this hole because it nakedly exploited 9/11 to push a far-right Republican agenda, domestically and globally, for which it had no mandate. When U.S. policy makes such a profound lurch to the right, when we start exporting fear instead of hope, the whole center of gravity of the world is affected. Countries reposition themselves in relation to us.

Message:
"The Bush-Cheney team bears a big responsibility for this hole because it nakedly exploited 9/11 to push a far-right Republican agenda, domestically and globally, for which it had no mandate."

Yes, Mr. Friedman. Bush did not win the popular vote but he smashed the left in the face with his far-right Republican agenda. Then he got his patriots to smash liberals in the face until they succeeded in making the word "liberal" a dirty word. Every day they come into this forum and spew their hateful words. They equate good American leaders who have never personally harmed anyone or ordered anyone to harm others, to the worst criminals in history who have committed the most heinous of crimes against millions of innocent people.

Even in the second debate Bush said: "that's what liberals do..." a bigoted statement. Most liberals are highly educated people and do not all think or vote the same way. That was a bigoted statement designed to make the right hate liberals more than they already do.

Only by dividing this nation can Bush win. If Bush was moderate we would have a moderate center. But when he goes so far to the right he wipes out the moderate center by forcing them to take sides.

Name:

HLVMF

In response to:
"When we are told to go, we will go. When we do go, we'll whack them."

Name:

Bush Has Ruined Everything

In response to:
Bush did not win the popular vote but he smashed the left in the face with his far-right Republican agenda.

Message:
i keep hearing this 'far right agenda' thing from all these frustrated losers but have yet to hear an example. anyone care to give an example of this 'far right agenda'?

we all know the NYT thinks everything bush does is 'far right'. this doesn't mean a damn thing.

Name:	Bystander
To:	Liberal
Re:	Divide and Conquer

In response to:
Only by dividing this nation can Bush win. If Bush was moderate we would have a moderate center. But when he goes so far to the right he wipes out the moderate center by forcing them to take sides.

Message:
It took you guys on the left a long time to figure out Bush's divide and conquer strategy. You are not that bright after all are you?

Bush scared the moderate middle into choosing sides. Brilliant strategy! Absolutely the only way to go because scared moderates will even side with a tyrant if they think it's best for their survival. All other issues take second place after survival. We are at war and a tyrannical government is exactly what we need.

Name:	liberal
To:	Bush has ruined everything

In response to:
pinochet is a hero. hillary is a zero. to put him in the same catagory as bin laden-saddam and hitler shows how goddamned ignorant you are and is yet another reason people think liberals are morons.

Message:
Hey dummy. We did not put Pinochet in the same category as Bin Laden Saddam and Hitler - one of your Republicans buddies put that up on the previous forum.

Try and pay attention. I know it's hard for the one-track-hate-liberal mentality, but you are going to extremes.

Name:	General OghaChruithne
To:	HLVMF
Re:	Rules of Engagement (ROE)

In response to:
Presient Nixon

Name:	Milan
Re:	Tom Friedman joins the moonbat parade

Message:
1) The Bush-Cheney team bears a big responsibility for this hole because it nakedly exploited 9/11 to push a far-right Republican agenda, domestically and globally.

RESPONSE: If Friedman is complaining about restrictions on gay marriage and abortion (petty matters when there is a war on terror), he needs to get a life. If he is complaining about the Patriot Act, then he just doesn't get it. What has the Bush administration done about foreign policy that qualifies as "far-right agenda"?

2) Had the administration been more competent in pursuing its policies in Iraq - which can still turn out decently - the hole in the heart of the world might not have gotten so large and jagged.

RESPONSE: Had the Bush-haters in America, Europe, the UN, and the IAEA not been rooting for failure, these mistakes would have been seen in their proper perspective.

3) I have been struck by how many foreign dignitaries have begged me lately for news that Bush will lose. This Bush team has made itself so radioactive it glows in the dark.

RESPONSE: Is this a subtle way of showing off to your readers that you speak French?

4) The second thing that is necessary to heal the hole in the world is a decent Iraqi election.

RESPONSE: THEN WHY DO YOU CONSTANTLY ATTACK THE ADMINISTRATION THAT IS MAKING THIS POSSIBLE?

5) The Europeans, the Arabs and the American left know what they are against in Iraq: George Bush and his policies.

RESPONSE: Let's see; removing Saddam, rebuilding Iraq, training a new army, organizing elections... Gee, they must have to hate George Bush alot to be against things they pretend to support.

Name:	Milan
Re:	Friedman loses all my respect

In response to:
The Bush-Cheney team bears a big responsibility for this hole because it nakedly exploited 9/11 to push a far-right Republican agenda

Message:
The civilized world is at a crossroads. Bush did not create this situation. The neo-cons did not do it. Sharon did not do it.

Al Qaeda put the civilized world on the spot, where the choice is between victory or surrender, dogged determination or vacillation.

In the post-modern world, where political correctness compels us to treat all cultures as equal, naming the enemy is not easy.

In the post-modern world, where soundbytes dominate the news, few appreciate the personal effort needed to study the enemy.

In the post-modern world, where instant gratification is more common than ever, few understand the patience that is need to win a war that may take generations to win.

The poltical landscape is divided between those whose post-modern paradigms were destroyed by 9/11, and those whose post-modern paradigms are still intact.

That is what has caused the "hole," because people who REALLY understand the significance of 9/11 don't whine about gay marriage, abortion rights, or moderate changes in civil liberaties.

There is no middle ground in this election becuase there is no middle ground in this conflict.

Name:

Graf Spee

Message:
From last night's "Larry King Live" (see second Cronkite response) :

CRONKITE: Well, I make it out to be initially the reaction that it's a threat to us, that unless we make peace with him, in a sense, we can expect further attacks. He did not say that precisely, but it sounds like that when he says...

CRONKITE: What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.

KING: Are there enough undecideds to tilt this? Or what do you think of the whole election picture?

Name:	Al Gore
Re:	histrionic lying...it's what liberals do

Message:
If Bush is elected he'll put MORE arsenic in the drinking water...

Name:	Tax & Splurge Demodrats have spent a century
To:	Robbing Our Social Security
Re:	Squandering Billions

In response to:
Wrecking the Economy &

Message:
Driving jobs and opportunity, especially for the less-educated, to far Cathay!

YOUR ARGUMENT: "In the post-modern world, where instant gratification is more common than ever, few understand the patience that is need to win a war that may take generations to win."

IN RESPONSE: Precisely my point! This war may take generations to win so why the rush to war in Iraq? Why couldn't we have waited until the following year to invade, when we were through with Afghanistan; had enough working weapons and armored vehicles with real armor, and valid intelligence other than relying on Chalabi-the-traitor? Tell me that? Why the rush?

I supported Bush in the Iraq war. In fact I was such a strong supporter that somebody made a crack that I was so far to the right that I was making the hawks blush! My imperialistic side knew that we must act, and that we could not sweep this event under the carpet any longer. Nor was appeasement the solution to offer ideologues who had a religious mission that did not include appeasement at any price.

But when I support a war I expect our leaders to be competent enough to WIN! Winning a war does not include enraging one half of your country so badly that you are now fighting two wars, one against the Muslim barbarians and the other against 50% of your own people. It's not a good idea to create your own 5th column if you want to win a war!!!

Name:	ET
To:	Milan

In response to:
That is what has caused the "hole," because people who REALLY understand the significance of 9/11 don't whine about gay marriage, abortion rights, or moderate changes in civil liberaties.

YOUR ARGUMENT: "That is what has caused the "hole," because people who REALLY understand the significance of 9/11 don't whine about gay marriage, abortion rights, or moderate changes in civil liberaties."

IN RESPONSE: Precisely my point! Bush is incompetent. If you want to win a war it's suicide to enrage one half of your country so badly that you are now fighting two wars, one against the Muslim barbarians and the other against 50% of your own people. It's not a good idea to create your own 5th column if you want to win a war!!!

Bush is incompetent. The worst part of all this is that I don't know what the solution is? The Bush Administration had the right idea but very bad timing and extremely bad war planning.

The idea of going to war is to win. The Bush Administration bragged about a "push-over war." The best we can hope for at this stage is a half-assed win, coupled with having mobilized a never ending line of Muslim terrorists from all over the world ready and willing to give up their lives to win this war by any means.

Name:	ET
To:	Bin Laden

In response to:
What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.

Message:
Osama - Your little speech hardened a lot of undecideds to tilt over to Bush to spite you!

Name:

Slimmerson 2M's

Message:
The personal attacks of the two candidates on each other is not a problem to me, I don't expect them to complement each other.

What I find to be more than a little troubling is the major news media that choose sides and not only show their candidate in fraudulent and glowing terms, but denigrate the oppisition to no end.

It has been at least shameful the extent that CBS and the New York Times has gone to calumniate President Bush. The fact that not one Liberal Democrat has the moral fiber to step up and say so speaks volumes about the character of party.

Wrong is wrong, the means are never justified by the end results, unless of course you are the type to sacrifice the minimal morals that you have displayed in the past.

It bears the question, how will you run the country in the event you win? Good luck!!

Name:	ET
To:	Milan
Re:	Just to let you know that I have not lost sight of t he BIG PICTURE

Message:

It All Started in Tehran
By Amir Taheri
Oct 30, 2004, 08:17

October 30, 2004 -- When the Americans go to the polls on Tuesday they would do well to remember two events that have altered their lives forever. The first was the raid on the US Embassy in Tehran, and the seizure of American hostages on Nov. 4, 1979. The second was the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against New York and Washington.

The embassy seizure showed that Americans were no longer safe outside their homeland and that even diplomatic immunity would not protect them. The 9/11 attacks showed that the Americans were no longer safe even in their own homeland, and that no amount of military clout could protect them against enemies that recognized no bounds.

In a sense the Nov. 4, 1979 attack on the US Embassy in Tehran could be regarded as the opening scene of a long drama that reached its catharsis on Sept. 11, 2001.

Here is why.

The 1979 embassy attack came at a time that the administration of President Jimmy Carter was trying to prop up the new Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Carter had decided to support Khomeini in the context of the so-called �Green Belt� strategy developed by his National Security Advisor Zbigniew Bzrezinski.

That strategy was born out of the assumption that the US and its allies were unable to contain the Soviet Union, then expanding its zone of influence into Africa, the Indian Ocean region and, through left-leaning regimes, in Latin America.

To counter that, Bzrezinski envisaged the creation of a string of Islamic allies that, for religious as well as political reasons, would prefer the United States against the �Godless� Soviet empire. The second stage in Bzrezinski's grand strategy was to incite the Muslim peoples of the USSR to revolt against Moscow and thus frustrate its global schemes.

The Bzerzinski strategy had been partly inspired by the French Sovietologist Helene Carrere d�Encausse who, in her book called �The Fragmented Empire�, predicted the disintegration of the USSR as a result of revolts by Muslim minorities.

When the Islamic revolution started in Iran, the Carter administration saw it as the confirmation of its assumption that only Islamists could master enough popular support to provide an alternative to both the existing despotic regimes and the pro-Soviet leftist movements.

The Carter administration went out of its way to support the new regime in Tehran. A ban imposed on the sale of arms and materiel to Iran, imposed in 1978, was lifted, and a US presidential �finding�, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954, was dusted up to reaffirm Washington�s commitment to defending Iran against Soviet or other threats.

Also to symboliZe support for the mullas, President Carter initially rejected a visa application for the exiled Shah to travel to New York for medical treatment.

Just weeks after the mullas� regime was formed, Bzerzinski traveled to Morocco to meet Mehdi Bazargan, Ayatollah Khomeini's first prime minister. At the meeting, Bzrezinski invited the new Iranian regime to enter into a strategic partnership with the United States. Bazargan, concerned that the Iranian left might bid for power against the still wobbly regime of the mullas, was �ecstatic� about the American offer.

The embassy raid came just days after the Bzrezinski-Bazargan meeting in Morocco and, by all accounts, took Khomeini by surprise. It is now clear that leftist groups opposed to rapprochement with the US had inspired the raid.

Khomeini saw the incident as a leftist ploy to undermine his authority. He was also concerned about the possibility of the US taking strong military and political action against his still fragile regime. Deciding to hedge his bets, the ayatollah played a double game for several days, waiting to gauge American reaction.

According to his late son Ahmad, who had been asked to coordinate with the embassy-raiders, the ayatollah feared �thunder and lightning� from Washington. But what came, instead, was a series of bland statements by Carter and his aides pleading for the release of the hostages on humanitarian ground.

Carter�s envoy to the UN, a certain Andrew Young, described Khomeini as �a Twentieth Century saint�, and begged the ayatollah to show �magnanimity and compassion.�

Carter went further by sending a letter to Khomeini. Written in longhand, it was an appeal from �one believer to a man of God.� Carter�s syrupy prose must have amused Khomeini who preferred a minimalist style with such phrases as �we shall cut off America�s hands.�

As days passed, with the American diplomats paraded in front of television cameras blindfolded and threatened with execution, it became increasingly clear that there would be no �thunder and lightning� from Washington. By the end of the first week of the drama, that was to last for 444 days and ended the day Ronald Reagan entered the White House, Khomeini�s view of the United States had changed.

Ahmad Khomeini�s memoirs echo the surprise that his father, the ayatollah, showed, as the Carter administration behaved �like a headless chicken.�

What especially surprised Khomeini was that Cater and his aides, notably Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, rather than condemning the seizure and the treatment of the hostages as a barbarous act, appeared apologetic for unspecified mistakes supposedly committed by the US and asked for forgiveness and magnanimity.

Once he had concluded that the US would not take any meaningful action against his regime, Khomeini took over control of the hostages� enterprise and used it as a means of propping his �anti-imperialist� credentials while outflanking the left.

The surprising show of weakness from Washington also encouraged the mullas and the hostage-holders to come up with a fresh demand each day. Started as a revolutionary gesture, the episode, soon led to a demand for the US to capture and hand over the Shah for trial. When signals came that Washington might actually consider doing so, other demands were advanced. The US was asked to apologize to Muslim peoples everywhere and, in effect, change its foreign policy to please the ayatollah.

Matters became worse when a military mission sent by Carter to rescue the hostages ended in tragedy in the Iranian desert. The A-Team dispatched by Carter fled under the cover of the night, leaving behind the charred bodies of eight of their s.

In his memoirs, Ahmad nicely catches the mood of his father who had expected the Americans to do �something serious� such as threatening to block Iran�s oil exports or even firing a few missiles at the ayatollah�s neighbourhood.

But not only none of that happened, the Carter administration was plunged into internal feuds as Vance resigned in protest against the attempt to rescue the hostages. It was then that Khomeini coined his notorious phrase �America Cannot Do a Damn Thing.�

He also ordered that the slogan �Death to America� be inscribed in all official buildings and vehicles. The star-spangled flag was to be painted at the entrance of airports, railway stations, ministries, factories, schools, hotels and bazaars so that the faithful could trample it under feet every day.

The slogan �America cannot do a damn thing� became the basis of all strategies worked out by Islamist militant groups, including those that, for doctrinal or political reasons, were opposed to Khomeini.

That slogan was tested and proved right for almost a quarter of a century. Between Nov. 4, 1979 and Sept. 11, 2001 a total of 671 Americans were seized and held as hostages for varying lengths of time in several Muslim countries.

Almost a thousand Americans were killed, including 241 Marines who were blown up while asleep in Beirut in 1983.

For 22 years the United States, under presidents from both parties, behaved in exactly the way that Khomeini predicted. It took countless successive blows, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, without decisive retaliation. That attitude invited, indeed encouraged, more attacks. The 9/11 tragedy was the denouement of the Nov. 4 attack on the US Embassy in Tehran.

amirtaheri@aol.com http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_13125.shtml

http://www.arabnews.com/?

Name:	Randall Bornemann
To:	Ominous Signs Ahead

Message:
http://www.safehaven.com/article-1597.htm

Let me just say from the outset that the Federal Reserve has confirmed our Stock Market Crash forecast by raising the Money Supply (M-3) by crisis proportions, up another 46.8 billion this past week.

What awful calamity do they see? Something is up. This is unprecedented, unheard-of pre-catastrophe M-3 expansion. M-3 is up an amount that we've never seen before without a crisis - $155 billion over the past 4 weeks, a $2.0 trillion annualized pace, a 22.2 percent annualized rate of growth!!!

There must be a crisis of historic proportions coming, and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is making sure that there is enough liquidity in place to protect our nation's fragile financial system.

The amazing thing is, the Fed's actions mean they know what is about to happen. They are aware of a terrible, horrific imminent event. What could it be?

Something is up, bigger than we have ever seen in the history of the United States.

Name:

Bush Has Ruined Everything

In response to:
Winning a war does not include enraging one half of your country so badly that you are now fighting two wars, one against the Muslim barbarians and the other against 50% of your own people.

Message:
this coming from a bimbo who constantly whines about some mythical 'far right wing agenda' although never ever gives an example.

Name:	Bush Has Ruined Everything
To:	ET
Re:	these are not bed times?

Message:
let me get this straight. you spend the entire day worked up into a friedman induced frenzy of hysterical 'vast right wing agenda' thing without giving an example of what this is. then you accuse the opposition of opportunistic fear mongering?

Name:	Democrat
To:	virulent Soviet anthrax

Message:
How Difficult Is It to Get Anthrax? and How Is Anthrax Diagnosed and Treated? Is Anthrax a Threat?

I cannot take a chance with my children with a kerry vote. I think Bush is the man for the job and voting for kerry mid game is a mistake.

Name:	More love from the left
To:	ET
Re:	Here's what liberals doo-doo

Message:
The Keyes for Senate campaign is UNDER ATTACK.

After Alan's tremendous three debate wins in the Illinois U.S. Senate race -- first, it was the letters.

Hate mail. Letters full of some of the most vile, despicable, vitriolic profanity you could possibly imagine. The workers in our donation processing center practically had to wade through the rush of filth that came pouring in.

This week, the filth literally DID come in -- someone mailed HUMAN WASTE to the donation center.

This is the kind of disgusting behavior we've come to expect from the radical left and the enemies of the kind of traditional American values Alan Keyes stands strong for.

But that "package" didn't shut us down. Our workers disposed of the excrement, and got back to work processing the thousands of donations and letters of strong support coming in from all over America.

Today, our donation processing center received a package in the mail. Our people were immediately suspicious -- they had been trained in what to look for...

The police were immediately called in. They examined the package and called the FBI, the ATF and the bomb squad right away. The entire building was evacuated.

After putting up a police cordon, x-rays, scanning, and carefully getting the package open... it turned out to be a railroad spike with a hate letter.

Do you see what we're up against? The kind of people we have to stand up to as we fight for the truth, and work to defend everything right and decent?

Today, it might not have been an actual bomb... but it had its intended effect. On our biggest donation day Keyes 2004 has seen in our processing center, we had to SHUT DOWN.

My friend, there's only FOUR CRITICAL DAYS left before election day comes. We lost an ENTIRE DAY -- 25% of our time -- because of this threatening bomb scare.

Name:	Anthrax
To:	Democrat
Re:	Booking our band

In response to:
How Difficult Is It to Get Anthrax?

Message:

Dude, we're like um, available for uh weddings and Bar Mitzvahs and sh!t like that, ya know...just call our agent

Is Osama here. How you do? Hope all is well with campaign for evil, etc. (How about that John Kerry wife - the crazy one. Two burkas for her at least! Kerry, he was surely wearing the fermented hummous goggles when they wed!)

Anyways, maybe can help campaign with new video, featuring me in star role. See attachmented clip below.

By all means, please release this video ASAP. And, as we�ve previously discussed, for every percentage point we gain in the swing states we�ll send you another kidney we�ve harvested from murdered Democrats in Florida.

Name:

LA-la liberals

Message:
ET is incontinent...her incontinence spreads across from forum to forum like a stinky fetid pool of swampy stinky slimy sneering assininity. She wears her liberality like a giant diaper, to guard against her ideological icontinence, she wets herself in constant fear that her antiquated "idears" from the Sixties will be tossed on the ash-heap of history.

Name:

Bacillus anthracis colonies

In response to:
53 year old female, employed 10 years in the spinning department of a goat-hair processing mill. Cutaneous anthrax lesion on right cheek; lesion as seen on 6th day.

Name:

The Radical Left

In response to:
Hate mail. Letters full of some of the most vile, despicable, vitriolic profanity you could possibly imagine. The workers in our donation processing center practically had to wade through the rush of filth that came pouring in. But that was only the beginning. This week, the filth literally DID come in -- someone mailed HUMAN WASTE to the donation center. This is the kind of disgusting behavior we've come to expect from the

Instead of reaching out the the left - you insulted and threatend them every day. Did you think they would just sit back and take it?

Name:	ET
To:	Republicans

In response to:
ET is incontinent...her incontinence spreads across from forum to forum like a stinky fetid pool of swampy stinky slimy sneering assininity. She wears her liberality like a giant diaper, to guard against her ideological icontinence, she wets herself in constant fear that her antiquated "idears" from the Sixties will be tossed on the ash-heap of history.

Message:
Are you proud, Republicans? Are you proud of these hate-mongers you have cultivated? Hate-begets-hate-begets-hate. You refuse to confront what you do and now you are going to learn the hard way what hatred does.

Name:	FDR
To:	Radical Left

In response to:
You want a 5th Column - You've got a 5th Column.

Name:	Paqngor
To:	ET

In response to:
Are you proud, Republicans? Are you proud of these hate-mongers you have cultivated? Hate-begets-hate-begets-hate. You refuse to confront what you do and now you are going to learn the hard way what hatred does

Name:	Kate begets Kate
To:	ET
Re:	ET is incontinent...her incontinence spreads across from forum to forum like a s

Message:
ROFLMAO, I was goofing on how YOU talk about the President...now how do YOU feel?

Name:	my wireless PDA
To:	Kerry voice tracks

In response to:
Anthrax infections can occur in three forms: cutaneous (skin), inhalation, and gastrointestinal. Humans can become infected with anthrax by handling products from infected animals or by inhaling anthrax spores from contaminated animal products

This female patient is shown here on the 24th day of a Bacillus anthracis infection involving her left eye.

Name:	Bush Has Ruined Everything
Re:	perpetual victimhood

In response to:
Instead of reaching out the the left - you insulted and threatend them every day.

Message:
ah! the trump victim card! what else! game over. THEY feel insulted and THEY feel threatened by the truth and it's OUR fault.

Name:	Joe Kerr
To:	ET

In response to:
her incontinence spreads across from forum to forum like a stinky fetid pool of swampy stinky slimy sneering assininity.

Message:
ET, you honestly couldn't recognize that I was doing a riff of your BOOOSH iz EVUHL schtick....lady, you really have lost your perspective and your sense of humor.

Name:

Message:
Young 30's loud-mouthed Wiccan with a ty attitude and general contempt for apathetic, Lexus-worshipping, stuck up Republicans seeks same or younger GWF for obnoxious fun times. I am a versatile, uninhibited gal who loves sex outside in the woods, in the dirt, in the mud, in the yard, on the hood of your mother's car and, sometimes, the occasional rubbish bin. Oh yeah... I'm into loud noises while doing it. There's nothing like scaring the horses, or the neighbors.

I'm not a '10' and am not seeking one. In fact I despise such creatures unless you're married and there's a remote chance that I can ruin your marriage. General interests include church vandalism, ing and then "outing" closeted members of the clergy, burning tires on the lawns of politicians, nice long walks on the beach with a gun, late-night camp fires on the front steps of trendy night clubs, ing with cab drivers, making fun of hippies and playing "scratch the Mercedes."

The possibility of a companion is not as interesting to me as the idea of a sex slave who's into face-sitting, deep fisting, butt-licking, clit-chewing, hair-pulling good times with a scratch or two to remember each other by. Sitting on someone's face is one of my favorite yoga positions. All things sexual are negotiable.

I live in North Carolina and would prefer not to travel more than 300 or so miles. However, if you have red hair I'm willing to travel to say, Prague. Men, gym bunnies and other Narcissistic body nazis please don't bother responding to me as I will only laugh at you and make you feel even more inadequate. If this "no bull" attitude of mine sounds interesting to you then I encourage you to drop me an email and we can discuss things further.

Name:

Board of Education

Name:

Bush Has Ruined Everything

In response to:
democrat le-sb-ian fem and kerry supporter camille paglia on the current state of the democratic party. and boy is she correct!

Message:
The Democratic Party has become a p.c. wallow over the past 20 years -- a sinkhole of unctuous, bleeding-heart liberalism and emotional manipulation, always using seniors or "disenfranchised" African-Americans as convenient straw men. We're supposed to be in a constant state of empathy, on high to a cosmos of injustice. And always there are the aggrieved -- and those nasty people in high places who are doing awful things to them! It's become a tedious soap opera removed from reality.

The Democratic operatives, chummily clustered in their Northeastern drinking holes, are missing the fact that most Republicans are not the top execs of Halliburton but hardworking small-business people who lead orderly lives and try to be good citizens.

There's been a slow shift: What used to be the Democratic base -- plain, unpretentious people going about their business and just trying to do the right thing -- is shifting toward the Republican Party. Republicanism is becoming populist.

Republicans believe that tax cuts to large and small businesses help growth, encourage spending and investment, and create jobs. The Democrats have no answer to that except hysterical rhetoric.

Name:

ben

Message:
I love you satan. I pray to satan everynight asking the dark master to help john kerry get elected.

Name:	TE
To:	ET
Re:	lies told by the New York Times

In response to:
The Bush Administration bragged about a "push-over war."

Name:	Milan
To:	ET

Message:
1) Why couldn't we have waited until the following year to invade, when we were through with Afghanistan.

RESPONSE: Do you really think it would have been a good idea to increase the level of American troops to Afghanistan when the Northern Alliance had already done the main job? The goal in Afghanistan was to remove the regime that was supporting Al Qaeda, not to re-create Switzerland in central Asia. As for relying on Chalabi, that mistake was corrected by the same administration that made the mistake. Intelligence on Iraq was being received for over a decade. I see no evidence that waiting another year would have given us better information.

2) But when I support a war I expect our leaders to be competent enough to WIN! Winning a war does not include enraging one half of your country

RESPONSE: The exaggerated "divisiveness" of the Bush administration is a myth created by people who are stuck in pre-9/11 mode. Don�t get sucked into it. Much of the divisiveness that can be attributed to Bush is politics as usual. You have to expect that during an election year. I am much more offended by the divisiveness in Barak Obama�s overrated keynote speech to the DNC, where he panders to the sensibilities of Arab-Americans who resent the Patriot Act. Furthermore, in response to Bin Laden�s recent statement, this "divisive" president said that "America will not be intimidated. I am sure that Senator Kerry feels the same way." In effect, in preparing for the worst, Bush does not want Bin Laden to celebrate Kerry�s victory. What does Kerry do? He repeats his moronic attack about how Bush "outsourced" our job in Afghanistan. Incredible!

3) It's not a good idea to create your own 5th column if you want to win a war!!!

RESPONSE: Bush does not create traitors. They make the choice. Seeing people show their true colors is an educational experience.

4) Bush is incompetent. The worst part of all this is that I don't know what the solution is? The Bush Administration had the right idea but very bad timing and extremely bad war planning.

RESPONSE: When you make big controversial decisions, you are bound to make big mistakes. Do you think anyone can surpass John Ashcroft in his ability to find and prosecute terrorists? Do you also want to overlook this administration�s success in having elections in Afghanistan with no major violence? Do you also want to overlook this administration�s success in choosing an interim government in Iraq which many Iraqis support? Do you also want to overlook the Clinton administration�s legacy of helping create two terrorist havens in Europe and bringing Arafat back to the Holy Land?

5) The idea of going to war is to win. The Bush Administration bragged about a "push-over war."

RESPONSE: Removing Saddam from power was just that. As for the terrorist insurrection that followed, we can only hope that a serious non-partisan study can dissect this mistake in hopes that we can be better prepared in the future.

6) The best we can hope for at this stage is a half-assed win, coupled with having mobilized a never ending line of Muslim terrorists from all over the world ready and willing to give up their lives to win this war by any means.

RESPONSE: Seeing people show their true colors is an educational experience. Maybe it will help wake up more of the world to what Islam really means.

BTW: I completely disapprove of the way so many conservatives are insulting you on this forum. Unfortunately, emotions are running high this election season, and it is exclusively self-styled liberals (Kristof, Dowd, Kennedy, Gore, Dean, McKinney, Moore, Diana Kerry...) that have made statements that give comfort to the enemy, so their anger is understandable, but they are using guilt-by-association to excoriate you despite the great service you are providing. Hopefully this will calm down after the election.

Name:	Milan
Re:	OBL is a Moore fan

Message:
Kerry Spot ��[ jim geraghty reporting ]

Okay, having had a good night (and morning) of sleep, I've gathered some more coherent thoughts on this Osama tape and the election.

First, is there any doubt that some bootleg DVD or videotape of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" made it to a remote mountain village somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistan border?

Now we hear Osama saying, "It never occurred to us that he, the commander in chief of the country, would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone, because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important."

Was the story of Bush's seven minutes in the schoolhouse really well known or a hot topic of discussion before Moore's movie came out? Is there any doubt that if not Osama, then one of his flunkies watched that movie and excitedly repeated the story to his spiritual leader, bubbling with excitement that even American filmmakers were exposing the foolishness of the Crusader Bush?

All the stuff Osama said about George H.W. Bush - (has 41 ever been mentioned in a previous Osama tape?) and the Saudis and corruption and the oil deals - does any of that sound any different from the arguments in Fahrenheit 9/11?

I could be proven wrong, but I now have drastically revised my prediction of what's going to happen on election night. A Bush landslide is now exponentially more likely, as every voter walks into the voting booth with the topic of terrorism on his or her mind. It's far and away Bush's strongest issue.

There are times when America wants the eloquent, nuanced multilateral, French-speaking, consensus-building, flexible and cautious negotiator. And then there are times when the country wants the plain-spoken butt-kicking aggressive unilateralist cowboy. Guess which time this is?

A majority of Kerry Spot readers won�t like reading this, but there is a part of me that right now pities John Kerry. This election - (I think, and I could be wrong) was going to be a fairly close race and now is going to be a landslide for Bush. To lose the election because Osama bin Laden decides to pop out of his cave and play pundit, reading the talking points of Michael Moore and sounding calmer than Lawrence O�Donnell� that�s a tough way to lose an long and hard-fought election. Team Kerry gave it their best shot, and now the closing days of the campaign are overtaken by events. It just wasn�t their year.

But this tape probably ought to trigger some serious soul-searching on the left. Let me give you a sense of what I mean:

Last night, I heard secondhand that a left-of-center friend said, during a discussion about the tape, �Well, now I actually agree with bin Laden, I mean, the stuff he said about Bush.�

It was probably meant as a joke, or as a statement of irony. I wasn�t there, so I don�t want to draw conclusions about the statement�s meaning, and apparently the topic of conversation shifted so that no one could really analyze what that speaker meant.

But I have little doubt that in some other corners of our country, a statement like that was probably said and wasn�t a joke, or wasn�t ironic.

There was an old saying about politics stopping at the water�s edge. There was a reason for this, and for the concept of the �loyal opposition.� Suppose the U.S. and another country were in a trade dispute. The other country would want different policies, and thus would want the incumbent party out of power. So they would seize on any criticism from the challenging party, and use it for rhetorical purposes to strengthen their case both with their own population and in other countries. �Even the American challenging party says the incumbent leader�s policies are unfair and a failure.� No party wants to be seen as putting foreign interests ahead of their own citizens� interests, so they have to be on guard that their arguments aren�t providing fodder for foreign powers with different interests than America.

Over the last three years or so, we have seen that concept obliterated. We�ve seen a truly unparalleled deluge of criticism of the president that well beyond policy differences. He is tarred as a war criminal, a fool, an idiot, a warmonger, a man who trades blood for oil, a mass murderer of innocent civilians, a stooge of sinister corporate interests, a puppet of Cheney, a terrorist himself, the anti-Christ, the second coming of Hitler, a slave to Ariel Sharon, an anti-Muslim hatemonger� and I�m sure I�ve left out plenty.

This rhetoric has been picked up by the British left, the European left, the Arab press, and anti-American interests around the globe. And � to my knowledge � not one Democrat, not one voice on the left has said, �Hey, we know you hate Bush, but stay out of it. He�s our president, leave the criticism of him to us.�

Instead of reacting to the London Guardian�s silly letter-writing campaign with laughter or dismissive criticism, the left embraced it. Why would anyone welcome a foreign power�s advice on how to vote? Next Spring, the British people will hold their election. Why should they listen to my advice or opinion on the choice between Tony Blair and Michael Howard?

The far left hates George W. Bush with a raging fury. So does al-Qaeda. Was it really so shocking that the rhetoric of the former would eventually be taken up by the latter?

No, this tape should cause many on the left to stare into the mirror for a long time and ask, �What have I turned into? How did I become so reflexively partisan, so blinded by rage, so intemperate in my rhetoric that my own arguments are being echoed by a man who planned and enjoyed the mass murder of Americans?�

�How the hell did I reach the point where I agree with Osama bin Laden on Bush?�

UPDATE: I'm not going to go looking for too many "Well, now I agree with Osama" comments from lefties. But I had these comments by Daily Kos readers forwarded to me: "He couldn't believe that Shrub stayed in a classroom reading a book about a goat to kids while his country was being attacked. SMACKDOWN from OBL." Another one: "well I guess I have to agree with the man. Although it pains me. on a side note. Is Amazon shipping F911 to Afgan addresses?"

Name:

HLVMF

In response to:
6) The best we can hope for at this stage is a half-assed win, coupled with having mobilized a never ending line of Muslim terrorists from all over the world ready and willing to give up their lives to win this war by any means.

Name:	A Friend from feel free to post anything days
To:	Milan
Re:	"excoriating" and guilt by association

Message:
I miss the time when ET would actually allow the posting of diverse viewpoints. A goodly portion of what she calls "hate" from "republicans" is just me taking her words and flipping the situation or taking her hyperbole to it's conclusion.

I've tried kind words in the past...she's convinced that Bush is the root of all evil.

Name:

Fudd

Message:
Young Ben is enjoying preschool and is looking forward to voting in his first presidential election on Tuesday for President Bush.

Name:	Milan
To:	undecided voters
Re:	A British historian weighs in

Message:
http://www.hacer.org/current/US128.php

"When George W. Bush was first elected, he stirred none of these feelings, at home or abroad. He seems to have sought the presidency more for dynastic than for any other reasons. September 11 changed all that dramatically. It gave his presidency a purpose and a theme, and imposed on him a mission. Now, we can all criticize the way he has pursued that mission. He has certainly made mistakes in detail, notably in underestimating the problems that have inevitably followed the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, and overestimating the ability of U.S. forces to tackle them. On the other hand, he has been absolutely right in estimating the seriousness of the threat international terrorism poses to the entire world and on the need for the United States to meet this threat with all the means at its disposal and for as long as may be necessary. Equally, he has placed these considerations right at the center of his policies and continued to do so with total consistency, adamantine determination, and remarkable courage, despite sneers and jeers, ridicule and venomous opposition, and much unpopularity."

"There is something grimly admirable about his stoicism in the face of reverses, which reminds me of other moments in history: the dark winter Washington faced in 1777-78, a time to "try men�s souls," as Thomas Paine put it, and the long succession of military failures Lincoln had to bear and explain before he found a commander who could take the cause to victory. There is nothing glamorous about the Bush presidency and nothing exhilarating. It is all hard pounding, as Wellington said of Waterloo, adding: "Let us see who can pound the hardest." Mastering terrorism fired by a religious fanaticism straight from the Dark Ages requires hard pounding of the dullest, most repetitious kind, in which spectacular victories are not to be looked for, and all we can expect are "blood, toil, tears, and sweat." However, something persuades me that Bush� with his grimness and doggedness, his lack of sparkle but his enviable concentration on the central issue�is the president America needs at this difficult time.

Of Kerry�s backers, maybe the most prominent is George Soros, a man who made his billions through the kind of unscrupulous manipulations that (in folklore) characterize "finance capitalism." This is the man who did everything in his power to wreck the currency of Britain, America�s principal ally, during the EU exchange-rate crisis�not out of conviction but simply to make vast sums of money. He has also used his immense resources to interfere in the domestic affairs of half a dozen other countries, some of them small enough for serious meddling to be hard to resist. One has to ask: Why is a man like Soros so eager to see Kerry in the White House? The question is especially pertinent since he is not alone among the superrich wishing to see Bush beaten. There are several other huge fortunes backing Kerry.

All the elements of anarchy and unrest in the Middle East and Muslim Asia and Africa are clamoring and praying for a Kerry victory. The mullahs and the imams, the gunmen and their arms suppliers and paymasters, all those who stand to profit�politically, financially, and emotionally�from the total breakdown of order, the eclipse of democracy, and the defeat of the rule of law, want to see Bush replaced. His defeat on November 2 will be greeted, in Arab capitals, by shouts of triumph from fundamentalist mobs of exactly the kind that greeted the news that the Twin Towers had collapsed and their occupants been exterminated.

Name:	Pepe'
To:	Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton
Re:	Joe D's Hillary webpage,

Message:
Hillary Diane is a splendid Female - I do desire her as my President.

in the fututre "we, can all look up AC-130 Gunships n' Major Hoolihan O' Iraq and laugh...!, She is just splndid.

Thee liberals will never know what I am talking about.... sooo, many probs. out of them -- Really they are not really U.S.,

"There hads been no letters on the desk of either Bill nor' I, or the desks of anybody in The Clinton Administrration..."????, soooo, funny, the poor, ma'lady, !!!

Name:

Libby Lardazz

Message:
A group of Democrats in Minnesota have launched a new television ad now showing on our local ABC affiliate that uses an old Osama bin Laden tape to attack George Bush. The group, Georgethemenace.org, explains itself thusly:

Okay -- so putting words in Osama's mouth praising George Bush and doctoring the video so that one of the terrorists holds a Bush-Cheney campaign sign somehow equates to 250 of our veterans speaking out against John Kerry? These people forgot that Bush is their opponent, while the people in the video are our enemy. They're certainly free to use bin Laden as their spokesman to attempt to discredit George Bush in the most disgustingly cynical and juvenile manner I've yet seen in this campaign -- but it practically screams out the desperation the Minnesota Left increasingly experiences as they see the North Star state slipping away from their grasp.

Who are the malevolent midschoolers behind Georgethemenace.org? They lacked the courage to identify themselves at their website, but they have some major money behind them if they're purchasing ad time on KSTP. Minnesotans should ask themselves where the funding originated and who in our state would be immature enough to stick a Bush/Cheney sign in an al-Qaeda promotional tape. It's yet another reason to make sure that the Democrats are kept from leadership positions in Minnesota and nationwide.

You can view their TV ad at their website. You decide whether you want people like these in charge.

Name:

Le Monde

In response to:
Europe, for its part, has gone so crazy over the Bush administration that the normally thoughtful Guardian newspaper completely lost its mind last week and published a column that openly hoped for the assassination of President Bush, saying: "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. - where are you now that we need you?" (The writer apologized later.) Meanwhile, French and German leaders seem to be competing over who can say more categorically that they will never send troops to help out in Iraq - even though the help needed now is to organize the first U.N.-supervised democrati ...

Message:
Oh those wacky Europeans, nude beaches, kiddie porn, unshaven armpits...

Name:	Amedley
To:	Faithfully Archived

In response to:
ET is filled with HATE,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate,hate for Bush and Republicans, she vainly attempts to disguise it by using alter-egos and posts from the New York Times, then she projects that hatred onto others who mock her.

Message:
The depth of her hate has stunned me. The suspension of truth by the left is complete.

Partly this derives from the simple fact that, as polls show, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis don't care who wins our election. Their concerns run closer to home--especially how to stay alive. There's an exception, however: the thousands of academics, lawyers, rights advocates and other educated elites leading the effort to create a new Iraq--nearly all of whom have hitched their fortunes to our own and nearly all of whom hope that President Bush wins.

Liberal Iraqis repeat the same question: Will the U.S. leave? These, after all, are the Iraqis building institutions, occupying key positions in ministries, and cooperating openly with the U.S. And they're the Iraqis with the most to lose in the event John Kerry makes good on his pledge to "bring the troops home where they belong."

This prospect, once unimaginable, has become very real in Iraq. The fear of abandonment has transformed meetings between Iraqi and U.S. officials, until recently arenas for grievance, into forums for the expression of solidarity. Leading Iraqis stayed up late into the night to watch the presidential debates. "Sophisticated Iraqis are listening closely," Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie says in a telephone interview. "Any discussion of withdrawal worries them." Echoing this, Manhel al-Safi, who recently left his post as an aide in the prime minister's office for a job in the Foreign Ministry, says, "There's a level of fear--people in the government are afraid the Americans will leave Iraq." He adds a personal plea to Sen. Kerry: "Mr. Senator, destruction is easy; building takes a long time."

Such fears haven't been spun out of whole cloth. As far as Iraqi elites are concerned, President Bush brought democracy to a land that knew only dictatorship. From Sen. Kerry, however, they hear no commitment to build a liberal state or, for that matter, any state. What they hear instead is a presidential aspirant who complains about "opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in the United States of America," even as his campaign aides dismiss Iraq's prime minister as an American "puppet."

Not surprisingly, surveys by the Iraqi Center for Research and Strategic Studies find that, whereas Mr. Bush garners the most support in the Kurdish north and from Iraq's well-educated urban elites, Mr. Kerry draws his strongest support from what the Center's Sadoun al-Dulame calls Iraq's "hottest places"--hotbeds of resistance to the U.S. A poll taken earlier this month in Baghdad, for example, finds that while President Bush would win a higher tally in New Baghdad's Christian precincts, Sen. Kerry carries Sadr City hands down.

Leaving aside that speechifying about a U.S. withdrawal culminates in what Mr. Rubaie describes as "a huge moral boost to the terrorists": How does Sen. Kerry intend to work alongside the pro-U.S. Iraqis he denigrates at every turn? This is a practical as well as a moral question. By advancing the fiction that there's no such thing as bringing the troops home too soon and nothing to justify an adequate level of expenditure in Iraq, he's already signaled his willingness to forfeit America's obligation to rebuild the country it turned inside out. And he offers this as heightened moral awareness.

But if John Kerry, who famously demanded that the U.S. "stop this blind commitment to a dictatorial regime" in Vietnam, imagines history repeating itself in Iraq, he really ought to visit the place. Having passed through eight time zones and one looking glass, what he will find is not the reactionary playground of his fantasies, but a country where thousands of idealistic young men and women go to work each day in the hope of creating a democratic society. One of them, Mustafa Al-Khadimiy, who risks his life cataloging the depredations Saddam Hussein inflicted, has this to say: "The terrorists want to destroy everything and we're dying every day. If we're going to have democracy, the Americans cannot leave." Alas, he won't be voting on Tuesday.

Mr. Kaplan, a senior editor at The New Republic, is a fellow at the Hudson Institute.

To no one's surprise, the dominant media machine finally unleashed the eagerly anticipated October surprise. The New York Times and CBS News are no doubt surprised that their surprise didn't bust anybody's bunker.

October surprises, a regular feature of the presidential campaign, like yard signs and bumper stickers, are considerably smaller caliber than they used to be. Twelve years ago, when Caspar Weinberger was indicted for nicking bedpans from a pantry at Health and Human Services, or whatever it was he was falsely accused of to tarnish George H.W. Bush on the eve of the '92 election, October surprises were fairly exciting. Even four years ago, the not so surprising revelation that George W. Bush had imbibed a beer too many one night when he was young and foolish was a mere blast of birdshot in the dark.

But this time the October surprise is turning out to be something shot out of a popgun. CBS News was ready to report on election eve that 380 tons of weapons explosives had gone missing after the U.S. Army moved into Baghdad, leaving an explosive dump unguarded. The GIs were unconcerned and naturally it was George W.'s fault, or at least the fault of Laura and the girls. When the New York Times learned about the CBS story the editors wanted to get in on the fun, and published a version of the story first. This ruined the CBS scoop, but what's a little competitive juice measured against bringing down a president they all hate?

The only problem with the story is that it's probably too good to be true. This one is not even, as the New York Times famously described Dan Rather's scoop about George W.'s Air National Guard service, "fake but accurate." An NBC reporter embedded with the troops said the dump appeared to be empty when the Americans got there, and John Shaw, an official at the Pentagon, said the Russians probably carted off the explosives for safekeeping in Syria. Naturally the Russians deny it � what? Russians perfidious? � but after the story appeared in The Washington Times the intelligence agencies released satellite photographs showing convoys of Russian trucks in the area shortly before the Americans arrived. The trucks did not appear to be driven by FedEx men delivering wading boots from L.L. Bean.

John Kerry naturally laced into the president but as usual didn't get the story straight. "Our troops," he said, "are doing a heroic job, the president, the commander in chief, is not doing his job." But if the troops were lollygagging while terrorists were looting the explosives dump, what's heroic about that? Monsieur Kerry, who described American soldiers in an earlier war as rapists and war criminals, is taking no chances this time. If the GIs in Iraq were lollygagging, they were heroically lollygagging.

Mr. Bush unaccountably let two days go by before he answered the Kerry charges, and said yesterday that the Pentagon is conducting an investigation. The president accused the senator of stump-speech hysteria, making "wild charges about missing explosives." He took note of a remark by Richard C. Holbrooke, a Kerry adviser, who said in a Fox television interview that all the facts were not known. "One of his top foreign policy advisers admits he doesn't know the facts. He said, 'I don't know the truth.' End quote. Well, think about that. The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts."

The satellite photographs uncovered yesterday indicate that Saddam Hussein was moving arms and equipment from weapons sites. The photographs, taken by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, are said to document "the movement of long convoys of trucks from various areas around Baghdad to the Syrian border."

Another surprise, this one by al Qaeda, was unreeled last night by ABC News. On videotape, a terrorist raghead, his weapon at the ready, warns that American streets will soon run "red with blood" to punish the Great Satan for electing, and threatening to re-elect, George W. and Cheney. In earlier days such a threat from such a mortal enemy would have assured the re-election of the president. But election-eve terror worked in Spain, and who knows who the Americans are now. We'll get a clue next Tuesday.

Name:

Jim Lowtower

Message:
The big picture is, Bush has the momentum and is playing offense, while Kerry is on the defensive going into Election Day. A key panic button moment for Kerry campaign came on Friday, when the candidate lectured the American people to �wake up.�

The 72-hour Get-Out-The-Vote Operation has been launched. Starting Friday and continuing through Tuesday, 150,000 volunteers in the most competitive states are mobilized and will contact 18 million voters to get the President�s supporters to the polls.

This unprecedented voter turnout operation is built to negate the traditional advantage that Democrats enjoyed on turnout during the 1990s with unions and African-American churches.

The Bush team believes the personal touch is going to make a big difference. The Bush-Cheney �04 turnout effort will be driven by volunteers, acting on their personal beliefs and enthusiasm for this President. The Kerry campaign has turned over their grassroots operation to 527 organizations that are relying on paid employees who do not know the voters they are contacting. Will a voter be more persuaded by contact from a neighbor or contact from a stranger who is being paid to do it?

The lack of commentary yesterday about Ohio should not be interpreted as a lack of good news. The Bush team is pleased with the latest poll by the Cleveland Plain Dealer shows the President up by three points (pre-Arnie sample), and volunteers will contact over 1.2 million voters.

Two-thirds of the president�s time is spent campaigning in states that Al Gore won in 2000, and the President leads the polls in Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico � all blue states set to turn red. Hawaii, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania are all close, too close for Kerry�s comfort.

Name:	Major Turret Top
To:	ET
Re:	The Precinct

In response to:
The depth of her hate has stunned me. The suspension of truth by the left is complete.

Message:
Falluja is a castle. Not as good a castle as Masada, though. Not by a long shot.

Name:	Citizen, Not Subject.
To:	Schemers
Re:	Socialism is tyrannuy and theft.

In response to:
The depth of her hate has stunned me. The suspension of truth by the left is complete.

Message:
I wouldn't vote for John Kohn Kerry for president even if he paid me 50,000 dollars in unmarked bills to do it!

Name:	Just Wonderin'
To:	ET
Re:	Jihadis /Terrorists/Insurgents/Freedom Fighters/Whatever

In response to:
Falluja: A gathering of Jihadis

Message:
Would you rather they gathered in Sausalito? Do you find their gathering objectionable?

"...There are times when America wants the eloquent, nuanced multilateral, French-speaking, consensus-building, flexible and cautious negotiator. And then there are times when the country wants the plain-spoken butt-kicking aggressive unilateralist cowboy. Guess which time this is?..." Jim Geraghty - Kerry Spot

Message:
We much prefer to gather in Tel Aviv. We enjoy interacting with the locals there. But there are certain difficulties...BUSH HAS RUINED EVERYTHING!!

Name:

The American Voter

In response to:
Name: Smedley In response to: ET is a dedicated Radical Leftist ecumbered with a Zionist fetish.

Message:
Smedley is full of bullsh*t. He is a anti democratic nut and belongs in the booby hatch.

Hillary_Clinton_Forum_1267

A Hole in the Heart of the World

In a hard fought campaign Bush loses to Kerry and concedes in a personal telephone call.