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I don't have much luck in my life.
1991. Street fights in Belgrade, almost got hit by a stone.
1992. I went to Sarajevo for studying, I was bombed.
Then I went back to my Belgrade, sanctions, chaos, refugees - misery again.
1999. NATO bombed me.
2001. - A revolution, Milosevic overthrown.
2003 - now. I am here in Australia. Finally peace! But no..
Interesting times, for sure. I'm sorry you've had to go through all that. In my experience you Serbians are friendly, sophisticated and tolerant people, much more so than many others... And yet you were demonised no end and probably still get accused for all that horrible stuff that happened in former Yugoslavia. (Western media, as you know, basically made it out to be all Serbia's fault.)
Let's hope things will be OK for you in the future.
The Serbian government deserved a good bombing, but not the Serbian people. There are a couple of Serb guys I used to work with and when I first met them they said they were from Yugoslavia. I looked right back at 'em and said, "Oh, you mean Serbia." They grimaced a bit, then nodded.
Now we Americans will know how it feels - a government that is just slimy, but only one in four of us support what they are doing.
Something like that. I tell people, especially if they are visitors from the USA, that GWB is an American Milosevic. Everything that's going on now in the USA seems to me like 'deja vu' - patriots vs. democrats, media brainwashing, clumsy lies, insecurity, fear. But there is a difference too, when we compare SM and GWB: our president wasn't dumb. He was cunning and corrupted, driven by only one thing, and that was his pathological desire to stay on power. But I would never say he's stupid, or something similar. GWB, however, sounds like a man that really lacks not just education but also 20 or 30 points on the IQ scale. Now, how it's possible that a man so incompetent becomes a president of the most important country, I don't know. It's a mystery to me. Plus, to be re-elected. I don't get it.
At this moment, as I perceive things, no one in the world expects ANYTHING from the current administration. There are many ongoing crises and conflicts in the world, but people don't expect Bush and Cheney to come with some solution. They must feel blessed. They can push their agenda, no one will try to stop them. Everyone is just waiting for them to leave, AND THEN to start solving problems.
What are you talking about? He's got a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, two of the finest universities in the US! How could such a man be uneducated? ;)
SAT score conversions and socio-historical analyses (sic) put his IQ somewhere between 111-138 on classic IQ scale. Clearly not dumb (at the time of tests), if those are any figures to go by. However, clearly among the least intelligent of the US presidents so far (if you go by the same data/studies).
Personally I don't mind dumb. Lem showed in Cyberiad that even an average sailor is smart enough to run a country and much better than a evil prankster.
But for the sake of balance you have to have:
- competent staff around you (Cheney, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, Bolton... need I go on?)
- honesty of character (hmm... what did he say about: WMDs, Iraq, oil, 911-intel, torture, domestic spying, withdrawing troops, Katrina, tax cuts, clean air, energy security, global warming... I've lost count on this administration's patent lies)
- ability to lead (New Orleans, anyone, 911 anyone? current polls...)
- uncorruptability (Bin Ladens, DoD deals, Iraq oil deals, ...)
- respecting and protecting the lives of other people (1+ M dead, 2+ M displaced, 2 countries bombed, 2 occupied, more on the list... please don't give us any more of that 'love')
I know I've been critical of my own country's leaders, but Bush as a president with his current staff is like an nightmare that refuses to end. And I don't even live in the US.
And I do agree, it does reflect somewhat poorly on Yale and Harvard.
I wouldn't put too much weight on the Yale and Harvard degrees. My sister was on the Harvard faculty for awhile, and she said everyone knows about the "happy bottom quarter." They are the students who are happy just to pass. Their parents are alumni, often very wealthy and famous alumni, or they would never have gotten in. (She also said grade inflation is insane. Nobody wants to give a student a C, let alone a D or F, because their last name might be Rockefeller.)
There's another possibility as well. Maybe he was once very bright, but fried his brains with drug use. It's pretty well established that long-term abuse of drugs and alcohol can cause permanent impairment.
He was definitely a coke-snorting, heavy drinking frat boy. A friend of mine was roommate with GW at Yale and testifies to the fact ("Shoulda killed the SOB when I had a chance..." he says only half in jest).
GWB, however, sounds like a man that really lacks not just education but also 20 or 30 points on the IQ scale.
That isn't true. This guy has made it to the top of the State and now Federal government - hell, he even managed to get elected to president ONCE!
He's not dumb; but he's out of his depth in his current job. Luckily, for him, he's surrounded by people who know just what to do with someone like him and so we see cronyism and the corruption of the government from within - the polluters now in the EPA "regulating" themselves, corporations ensuring short term profits over the long term health of the planet, government being bloated, spending & debt & deficit utterly out of control while the destruction of the social safety net goes unabated as the middle class gets fleeced.
Him and his handlers have visions and dreams and they are realizing them - the common people, the world, and reality be dammed.
That isn't true. This guy has made it to the top of the State and now Federal government - hell, he even managed to get elected to president ONCE!
Here's what I say to that;
We have gotten our heart's desire.
Where are all the BUSH bumper stickers now?
I think everyone who had a bush bumpersticker should have to wear it on their forehead.
Next election season do something that would DRIVE THEM NUTS.
Elect RON PAUL. If for nothing else to than to drive the FED crazy.
Go Ron Paul -
Come on, give the man some credit. He got elected to president twice.
Just not by voters.
Well I think he is doing exactly what he was elected for. And by that, I mean, he is doing exactly what the people that elected him wanted him to do.
It seems that voters, though, are catching up a bit with the scheme. With any luck, they might Actually Do Something (TM). But the odds are heavily stacked against them.
That is the problem when you get an early version of something, be it an Operating System or Democracy. You get to have all the problems and try out many things that do not really work. The trick is upgrading.
He was elected by cheating--twice!
To answer your question as to how GWB could have been elected:
GWB is a mere puppet, under the effective control of a clique of people with a far-reaching agenda. He does what he is advised to do (flattering & fooling himself by thinking that he is "the decider", when in fact he is "the manipulated one"), and says (approximately) what he is advised to say.
The U.S. voting public is manipulated by media propaganda.
All bush had to do to get elected was exactly what he was told to do by his 'advisers', having to much intelligence would have been an impediment.
It's harder to blindly follow orders when you think about stuff.
I can think of dozens of governments that deserve a good bombing. The problem is, you (even if you are the world police) cannot bomb a government without mostly hurting innocent civilians. While I think Saddam deserved to be bombed to eternity, Iraqis in no way deserved any of that.
And now that the US is most assuredly guilty of genocide in Iraq, would it be OK for you if somebody gave a good bombing to your government? I mean, you wouldn't start whining about terrorism, right? Even if 100,000 people were collaterally damaged?
Yes, one can. The reason that no big governemnt seem to try that route is a mistery to me.
Just think a moment. ¿What happens if someone in a local government in the USA (or any other reasonably functioning country) misbehaves and breaks the rules?
¿Does someone bomb them? No.
The bigger government sends the police. The local police does not stand in the way, there is no shootout and no bombing. The offender is detained and brought to justice.
¿How does that work? ¿Why does that work in that scenario, and not in an international scenario?
I guess there is a whole wing of my university's library full of books trying to answer that question, but speaking off my end hole I would simplify it to:
A) A set of rules that are specific enough, and provide people with expectations on what is going to happen.
B) A government with enough force and/or persuasion arguments to convince people to follow those rules.
If you have those things, you do not need to bomb anyone. You might need violence, like the Italian government trying to get a Mafia boss in Calabria, but usually not in the level of 25-TNT-ton bombs. It makes for much better living for almost everyone.
Jussi,
Might makes right.
End of discussion.
It _is_ as simple as that.
Now in Australia? Godzone Country? Things can only look up mate - she'll be right! We can wish away the water crisis, the global warming threat, the destruction of topsoil, the wheat harvest crash, the impoverishment of the rivers and seas, the failure of infrastructure, and the peak oil storm-clouds - as we all know, it's the Lucky Country!