Do you care that the government tracks your phone calls?

He was acquitted, did you forget?

Well, a conservative protest march is truly a pitiful thing, for sure. No, the conservative witch-hunt on Bill Clinton was conducted in the Republican Congres on Capitol Hill. The right wing rank and file protests too--big time. They have their own style, to be sure, but they dissent all of the time and they are not subtle.

The anti-abortion right-wing has loud protest marches all of the time including on the Capitol steps and in front of Clinton's White House. Some have actually have bombed clinics and assasinated doctors. The Olympic bomber was a right-wing protester as was Timothy McVeigh. The conservative militia's and survivalists shoot it out with the law and the FBI all of the time. Perhaps you are correct, you really can't compare right-wing and left-wing protests.

The right-wing even protests against Bush! Conservatives led the way in killing the Harriet Myers nomination by their protests.

Well, there you have it! You were with everyone in the world! How could anybody possibly have a different opinion than you, amigo? :yelwink2:

Sure Salty, all of the moderates and liberals are homeless street beggars who've never worked and have nothing else to do but smoke dope and protest. You are being extremely facetious or you are beginning to sound like martin, which is disturbing. :grin:

Even more disturbing, you are complaining about US citizens protesting an elected politician. This is what America is all about and it is all laid out in the Constitution, a document you spent a decade of distingushed service defending. Don't you believe in it? We are free to disagree with our President in the United States! He is not a Emperor or a Fuhrer who can't be challenged. Political dissent is Constitutionally protected in this country from Day One.

 

These things are not mutually exclusive, obviously. This is a terribly simplistic notion.

Look, America is feared anyway, has been since WWII, even our allies fear us. But there was a time that the US was also feared, respected, and admired. Now we are widely feared, hated, and loathed. Even our closest allies fear, distrust, and often disregard us. This is not a good thing.

Bush has dragged the good name of this country through the mud for no gain that I can see. America was once the leader of the free world, but our leadership skills have been sadly lacking since 2000. The decrease in respect and admiration is immense and not even the Brits are going to follow us blindly anymore. At least not until some changes are made and some bridges rebuilt.

 

Inavsion is not an option in Iran. We do not have the capability at present. Any war with Iran is going to be on our terms--airpower and SOF intensive like in Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. We would hit them hard and destroy their command and communications and then their mlitary assets and eventually their industrial capacity. And they will give in.

Vietnam taught us a long time ago that we don't win by invasion and occupation. Bush forgot it but now Iraq has taught us all again that we must conduct war by our rules, not the enemy's. A ground invasion of Iran is immensly foolish. What would it gain us? Another Iraq. They don't have a thing that we need. If they need to be punished, intimidated, or forced to back down we can do it with airpower easily and effectively.

And remember we brought down a rival superpower without a war by patiently taking advantage of their every weakness. And Iran has plenty more faults than the Soviet Union did.