"The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear -- I'm a commander guy." --George W. Bush

"I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy." --George W. Bush, interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sept. 24, 2006

"The solution to Iraq -- an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself -- is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2007

"I'm a strong proponent of the restoration of the wetlands, for a lot of reasons. There's a practical reason, though, when it comes to hurricanes: The stronger the wetlands, the more likely the damage of the hurricane." --George W. Bush, New Orleans, March 1, 2007

"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk to families who die." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 7, 2006

You just have to ponder at the Bushisms. He is nothing like Hitler, and Bin Laden's mob are not who you think. They were never Bush's enemy.

Hitler had a vision that his people found inspiring and exciting. Yes, it was driven by hate, but there was a vision. Bush had no vision at all. He actually axed the levy-bank repairs a year before Katrina. What vision? Also, Hitler's voice was charismatic and had an enchanting resonance to it. It was absolute and polished. Bush never had charisma and his speaches were, well, foolish to say the least.

I'm no fan of Hitler, I'm simply commenting about propaganda and communication effectiveness.

The reality is Rumsfeld and Cheney ran the whole Iraq campaign and Bush just played the fool. On that level, he was a genius.

It is hard to handle 2 threads in one, yes America has lost the battle for hearts and minds.
Yes Islamist are far far worse, I hope America finds a leader after the idiotic Bush.
But not one of the current list of cartoon characters so far running comes close to that.
The world needs Al Gore to run.
And Islamists? the heart of training for these hate filled idiots seems to be Pakistan, a great site for an inland sea.

How could they possibly replace such a genius like George W Bush who acts so dumb.

The secret is out. They've been grooming him already.

Dax Flame will be replacing George W Bush as the next Republican President. Yes, his own script writer. Dax Flame for President. Thats write, Dax Flame or Bernice Bouche III.

See the next George W Bush protege. Notice who similar he is to the current president. We'll never know the difference.

Except of course that Dax is more human.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAGdk-pn7I8&mode=related&search=

I think they lost hearts and minds the moment innocent men, women and children began being killed indiscriminately by US forces on invasion. If a tank rolled into your town or city here in Australia and started shelling and bombing the city to ruins to target 'militants' and suspects, I think all Australians would be united in rejection of the invasion and following occupation. This includes torturing and raping by in front of your family by said forces (see Abu Ghraib and other news stories). A late one I've come across:

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/18/1954193.htm
Rape Video
"The ex-general, who retired in January, spoke of other, undisclosed material on the Abu Ghraib abuse, including descriptions of the sexual humiliation of a father with his son, who were both detainees.
He also told the magazine he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomising a female detainee," adding the video was never made public or mentioned in any court or in public."

That could be any one of us. Luckily our own troops have extremely principled standards, as far as I'm aware. I don't know how Americans can keep thinking themselves morally superior to everyone else. They certainly and demonstrably, are far from it.

Bush may not have a vision, but his backroom staff who direct him certainly do.

That vision is of the entire planet being westernised, so we no longer have to give money to backward, incompetant, savage cultures who refuse to adopt civilisation.

Oh they love our western technology, some nations even have the hide to think they can have our nuclear weapons, so ignorant given they wouldn't even have electricity yet if not for the ingenuity of the civilised west.

Colonialism ended too soon. We need to occupy the backward, racist, tribal, middle-east, in Soviet style - brutal, cruel ways, as it's all they understand.

We need to bomb Iran today, Syria tomorrow, and Saudi Arabia - the head of the 'McJihad', the day after.

Isn't it funny that Palestinians are running to Israel for sanctuary? I never want to hear a smug leftist say they treat them bad again. One doesn't want refuge in a nation that is your enemy. I would kill myself before I had to live in a backward Islamic nation, they obviously think the same because anyone who can wants to live in the civilised Christian west.

God I wish I was President. I truly, truly do.

The world would then deal with the Islamist threat once and for all.

And it would be over.

For good.

Leftist idiots. What kind of fools you are. What sort of victims would run to the hospital of their enemies? This is what Palestinians do. They run to Israel for help.

Wake up. Israel should be armed to the teeth and take revenge for all the times they were invaded by Arab states.

What’s this about capturing their hearts and minds?

Seems just another phase of colonialism, killing inferiors or driving them into the gutter, as the Americans have done with the Redsins and us with the Aborigines. Not surprising that they want to fight-back and seemingly prefer one of their own in charge of Iraq, even if a murderous dictator.

Leave them alone and let them be, to be sure is far from a modern phrase, and certainly conflicts, if the Old Testament is true, with when our forebears were told by God to do away with those who occupied the original Promised Land.
However, using modern reasoning the Old Testament if true seems more like a gradual ethical learning process. As if God our Father was learning too, and so eventually we have the Ten Commandments, and a Great Ethical Awakening in the New Testament with the young Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount.

Thus we now have the two schools of thought in our later Christianity following the Sermon on the Mount and the death of Christ on the Cross - hardheaded survival politics really taking over with the later intervention of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

But something Constantine forgot was that the Christianity of the young Jesus had forbade stealing another’s territory, so hardheaded pressure much later on the Church forced it to forge a fake document called the Donation of Constantine, which allowed the Church to follow the deadly principle of the Roman occupation of another’s territory, as our Church has allowed since.

To be sure greed in the shape of power is forcing the issue much rather than decent democracy in the Middle East, and the never you know, even in Iran, as was spoken by a Justice of the Peace lady, Iran is quite capable of finding its own democracy.

Maybe such forethought is far better than having democracy forced on them on the end of a missile, similar to on the end of a bayonet as it used to be.

Never really worked, and never will.