Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Hip Hip Hooray! My fiance got a part time job paying $8.50 an hour with no benefits this week too. She'd been making $35K/yr until 7/02.



Tell her to keep looking, move, or get retrained. I had to do my fair share of shuffling around for a few years; it all depends on your motivation and comfort level. Ultimately, most people settle for what is "convienent" and "easy"; sinking into debt for a Masters or PhD and selling yourself to the best of your abilites usually isn't as fun or rewarding at the beginning as it is a few years down the track.

Adapt or die, so the saying goes...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
So the economy may limp back into employment just in time for Iraq to blow up in Bush's face. Anyone wanna place bets on whether the ayatollahs in Iraq will really allow the US sponsored interim constitution to stick as it is written now?



Compromise is unavoidable in a situation like this; a basic understanding of diplomacy and our aims and goals would tell your this.

The US will want a government as favorable to our interests as possible, while still preserving the basic freedoms and benefits of democracy for the Iraqis. The Shi'ites of course will do their typical hard-line BS and "Great Satan" shouting, complete with mobs of lemmings appearing on TV demanding an Islamic state...

...which AIN'T gonna happen, partner.

We will meet somewhere in the middle. Why? Well, I guess we could drop protection of the ayatollahs and let the Saddam's remaining Republican Guard wackos keep assassinating them, or we just simply point to who has the biggest guns in the area...

Freedom, no matter how great it is, isn't always fair.

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Our election does not happen until months after sovereignty is to be passed to the Iraqis. Maybe our rebounding economy will help pay for our keeping forces over there for a full four more years, like members of the senate foreign relations committee co-chaired by Sen. Lugar (R-IN) had surmised.



Better there than yet another dumbass social program that some spendthrift politican decides his district needs so he can get re-elected next term...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
If that sovereignty change happens around the end of June, lets see how the Dow Jones responds to the ayatollahs around July through October, and then we can discuss our vibrant, healthy economy.

Ok. Quick note, though. The health of the stock market doesn't always a vibrant economy make. It's been going back through the roof in recent months, while a number of people have been whining about job data, pointing to this "jobless recovery" phenomenon.

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Is Condi Rice still focusing on missle defense? (OK, that last one's a cheap shot. That was her focus on 9/10/01. After all, she did change her focus the next day to Iraq. Must have been because of all those Iraqi hijackers.)



If you want to get technical, Afghanistan was the next item on the Adminstration's list, then Iraq...

...but I feel order of importance is entirely lost in this discussion.

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
And while you flame me, quit the "But Clinton messed up on terrorism too" chant.

NEVER. That immense f**k-up of a Commander-in-Chief was more interested in what his figures looked like in the polls than getting down to business and building appropriate responses to a blossoming threat. The SOB gutted the CIA's eyes and ears in the Middle-East, if you care to remember the absolute axing the intelligence budget received under his administration. That move was akin to cutting your staff in half and blinding the one's that remained. I hear constant complaints about what kind of job the CIA has been doing; well, guess what? It's a b**ch doing surveillance with blinders on, both hands tied behind your back and being told who you can and can't "work" with.

All thanks to Mr. Clinton, ladies and gentlemen...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Clinton's not running in this election packaging himself as a hero in the war on terrorism. (But if you MUST dwell on the past, then how about discussing how Saddam got the gas he used on the Kurds... during the Reagan administration? What was Rumsfeld's job back then?)



IIRC, we only supplied biological agents to Hussein during the Reagan years through an FDA or Dept. of Commerce export program. I think the gas and the materials that made it were of GERMAN or FRENCH origin. Try again...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Anyway, our show of force did not exactly turn the tide in Vietnam, but here we are again, needing to "win the peace," to "win the hearts and minds." Do you really do that by turning the Middle East into a sea of glass?

I can't imagine a more different theater of conflict than Iraq and Vietnam, at least in the 20th century...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Enjoy your jobs and contemplate how many MORE enemies we have NOW, swearing to kill us all, than we did one year ago.

Much fewer than before, since we've been bombing the living s**t out of them in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as putting bullets into skulls on the one's we can't bomb. Keeping them on the run is also helping out, too. Is it aggrivating people and many Islamic countries? Absolutely. I don't like that we have to take care of their housekeeping any more than they do...

Welcome to the brave new world; one where no longer do we have the US and Russia keeping everyone in line and in order. I'll agree it's somewhat of a mess, but if you really want to get down to it, blame the fall of Communism for setting off the whole 3-ring circus...

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Between 9/11/01 and 3/03, we had allies newly eager to share intelligence on terrorists.

Define your usage of the word "allies".

If you mean France, Russia and Germany, a quote that Patton once used comes to mind:

"I would rather have 10 German divisions in front of me than a French one behind me"
- Gen. George S. Patton

Originally posted by PDXSVT:
Now we have former allies who are convinced we're liars on a deluded power trip. Thanks George, I feel safer already.

We'll see how their tune changes, because since Spain rolled over, they are seeing more bombs on traintracks. Chirac has France being threatened and put at risk becuase of his incessant flip-flopping, though I can't fault him entirely; France has a history of capitulation (must be something in the food or wine)...

...don't you also find it odd that they had access to pretty much the SAME information as us from '91 onwards on Iraq and came to the EXACT same conculsions, up until the US finally got fed up of playing "pin the tail on the donkey" with Saddam's regime?

JaTo e-Tough Guy Missouri City, TX 99 Contour SVT #143/2760 00 Corvette Coupe