Brett Robson <jet_boy@deja.com> wrote in message news:<be05i502g02@drn.newsguy.com>...
> On Wed, 2 Jul 2003 10:09:06 -0400, "Kevin  ...
> >
> >http://washingtontimes.com/world/20030701-115649-1264r.htm
> >
> >"Many of those most opposed to the U.S.-led effort in Iraq now argue that
> >American participation is vital to the success of a proposed 5,000-strong
> >multinational peacekeeping mission to enforce a cease-fire. Among them are
> >U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading European powers
> >&#65533;&#65533;&#65533; including
> >France &#65533;&#65533;&#65533; and the editorial page of the New York Times."
> >
> 
> "The Bush administration remained noncommittal yesterday on whether it would
> send U.S. troops to quell the civil war in Liberia, where President Charles
> Taylor was defying a U.S. demand to step down. "
> 
> Of course
>  1. There's no oil
>  2. They're poor and black
>  3. There's no oil
> 4. High-tech weapons and massive fire-power are useless, soldiers would actually
> have to do  soldiering. No opportunity to "kick ass"
>  5. There's no oil
>  6. It's dangerous to health
>  7. There's no oil
>  8. Not even Americans are dumb enough to believe Al Queda have links to Liberia
>  9. There's no oil
> 10. Liberia is a shitty hole that doesn't look good on TV, and reporters won't
> want to go there anyway.
> 11. There's no oil
> 
> ---
> "he [John Ashcroft] deliberately left Jesus out of office prayers to avoid
> offending non-Christians."   - Ben Shapiro 27/2/2003

A lot more Bush bashing is called for so I contribute the following:

Norman Mailer has a fine piece on George Bush at 
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16470

Here's the concluding paragraph:

Democracy, more than any other political system, depends on a 
modicum of honesty. Ultimately, it is much at the mercy of a leader 
who has never been embarrassed by himself. What is to be said of a 
man who spent two years in the Air Force of the National Guard (as a 
way of not having to go to Vietnam) and proceeded—like many another 
spoiled and wealthy father's son—not to bother to show up for duty 
in his second year of service? Most of us have episodes in our youth 
that can cause us shame on reflection. It is a mark of maturation 
that we do not try to profit from our early lacks and vices but do 
our best to learn from them. Bush proceeded, however, to turn his 
declaration of the Iraqi campaign's end into a mighty fashion show. 
He chose—this overnight clone of Honest Abe—to arrive on the deck of 
the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on an S-3B Viking jet that came 
in with a dramatic tail-hook landing. The carrier was easily within 
helicopter range of San Diego but G.W. would not have been able to 
show himself in flight regalia, and so would not have been able to 
demonstrate how well he wore the uniform he had not honored. Jack 
Kennedy, a war hero, was always in civvies while he was commander in 
chief. So was General Eisenhower. George W. Bush, who might, if he 
had been entirely on his own, have made a world-class male model 
(since he never takes an awkward photograph), proceeded to tote the 
flight helmet and sport the flight suit. There he was for the 
photo-op looking like one more great guy among the great guys. Let 
us hope that our democracy will survive these nonstop foulings of 
the nest.

Happy 4th, Jr. but I think America deserves someone much better than you.

W.