Actually bulldogg that was a well placed shot directed squarely at those out there that can do nothing more that ape whatever talking head owns the microphone at a given moment. I like to refer to these programmed by the media types as “sheeple”. People who deep down are nothing more than sheep that spend their days wandering the fields guided by their Shepard, never wondering what is over the next hill, never asking why.
Since you are a Vet, the one group who's opinions I give the most weight to in many matters, I will be more than happy to expound on my brief statement. And since you are an educated and apparently intelligent man, I would be happy to take part in an argument, in the classical sense, with you about this subject.
For starters, you open, and close your statement with the standard, tired, fare used by both sides when trying to make a small piece of the puzzle the most important piece. In this case its the “Bush lied, people died”, and the “Evil Bush and his spin-doctors”, complete with a “Dubya” reference in the middle. This framing of your statement makes it quite clear your personal politics, and the fact that are viewing events through the lens of those politics. This does not make you right, wrong, good, bad, or even unique. It just places you firmly in the 80%-90% that lets their opinions be heavily influenced by whatever political wing they ascribe to. Somewhere along the way you stopped standing over the table and seeing everything, and sat down on one side and began viewing everything from only that perspective. Like I said, not good, bad, right, or wrong. Just being one of the sheep being led by the Shepard.
This leads us to the next couple of points you make. You state that the current administration has ethics problems. I hate to break the news to you, but politicians lie. Anyone who thinks for themselves can see this. When we elect a politician, we elect him because we like his lies, and we want him to lie for us. The only difference from one administration to the next is the type of lie, and how many they get away with. It is wrong, I personally don't like it, but it has been the way of American politics for at least the last hundred years. I feel pretty confident in stating that every other government on the face of the Earth that practices some form of democracy partakes in the same liefest. The saving grace for Democracy is that when we tire of one sides lies, we can get rid of them, and put someone in power who's lies we like better.
Credibility on the world stage is another cruel joke. The current notion of National “Credibility” is fairly new to geopolitics. Since every nation lies to forward their own agenda, deeming what is “Credible” has morphed into a policy where the level of credibility is in direct correlation to what the nation or individual has to offer to the entity that makes the judgment. During WW2, the Nazi death camps were an open secret to the major “free” world powers. Photo's, reports, and affidavits were presented, and then discounted as lacking “credibility”. The Jews had nothing to offer, and the sad fact is that the US and others knew that most people either did not care about the Jews, or hated them outright, and they did not want to lose the support of their people for the war in Europe by making it a crusade to save the Jews. So your notion of US “cred” while being noble, is nonetheless flawed.
Historically, the only real “influence” one nation has had on another has been gained by force of arms, economic warfare, subterfuge (assignation, tampering with the political process etc), or a forced integration of culture. Money also buys influence, but only as long as the Benjamin's continue to flow. All “influence” arises out of either power, or money. As far as the US loss of influence is concerned, the only real losses we have suffered the last few years revolve around countries such as France (mad because Saddam can't honor the oil field leases he signed in return for their votes at the UN), Germany (mad because of the multi-billion dollar contracts for building fixed defensive, and command and control emplacements cannot be paid for), China (mad because the hardened fiber optic and electronic command and control hardware they were installing not only proved to be a joke, but Saddam can no longer finish paying for it), Russia (mad because one of their top importers of weapons is no longer around), and the UN (mad simply because the Benjamin's quit flowing their way). If you want a few on the plus side, how about Lybia admitting to, and ending their nuke program (complete with full disclosure, and surrendering of the hardware), or maybe Pakistan and India taking steps back from decades long armed conflict (this did not happen in a vacuum).
You speak of Iran's nuclear program, and hatred of the Jews as if it something new. Iran has had a on and off again nuclear weapons program for over 40 years. The Shah at one time had ambitions to join the nuke club, but was dissuaded by the United States. When the Theocratic government took power, they immediately began spouted “Death to Israel” and “Death to the United States”, and then took advantage of any opportunity through financial, technical, and state support to make it happen. A devastating war with Iraq, and the bloody purges and internal power struggles have provided the only checks to Iran's clearly stated goals of the annihilation of Israel, and the fall of the West. It's been the same message for the last 26 years. Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton have all heard the same human waste spewing from Iran, and have not been able to stop it, yet you seem to infer Bush II is somehow at fault.
The Russians. I get the impression that you believe the Russians have at some point been “friendly” with the US. Here's a history lesson for you. Since the US involvement in the Russian civil war, they have never been our “friends”. Let me repeat that in case I was not clear enough, THE RUSSIANS HAVE NEVER BEEN OUR FRIENDS. When the Sate Department snubbed Lenin, we made an enemy forever. Lenin did not forget, and instilled a hatred of the US into the very fabric of the Soviet Government. The US of course set this stain in by fighting on the side of the White's during the civil war. The Russians have never given a concession that was not forced by the gun or purchased via massive financial aid. Russia has always armed and supported any country that was willing to cause the US damage. As far as Putin's dealing with the Muslim World, he like the Chinese, can't see the forest through the trees. They believe that they can placate, and actually make deals with fanatics that openly declare they will take over the world. Their inherit hate of the US has blinded them to the greatest threat posed to the world as a whole right now.
I sincerely hope that more people will quit swallowing the rhetoric from both the right and left, and start looking around. Read. Research. Take a hard look around. When one bothers to actually learn about politics, world affairs, and history, they see that everything has a reason. It's the rare man that bothers to ask why, and then tries to find out. It's even a rarer man that can do anything about it. As far as the rest... well, they're “sheeple” happily following their Shepard and spewing the last sound bite they heard that conforms to the comfortable little box that is their idea of the world.
