This North Korea stuff

Lucky you Kiwi...still would love to live in the US at some stage. My ex skiied Mt Hutt this year and said it was incredible.

I don't find the Iraq drama a problem really. The guy hasn't done anything in the last 10 years. It's all about oil. Any excuse Georgie can come up with to attack will be fine with him. I think the leaders of the world should get in a boxing ring and sort it out themselves instead of sending young innocents to fight for them.

I don't know Carrie...to keep the rods cool?

Carrie - refrigeration units could be used to keep biological weapons - they cannot be kept over a certain temperature or it wouldnt be viable.

Thats my assumption anyway.

I agree with you Peugeot, I think Bush is just looking for any excuse to start a war - I guess he wants to finish what daddy started.

Of COURSE he is trying to finish what Daddy started. What the hell does he care? He has HIS small pox vacination! He has HIS freaking salary for the rest of his life. He doesn't care about those of us that have NEITHER. The man SCARES me! aranoid2:

Well, I may get flamed all over the place here....seems I'm in the minority...but I actually like George Bush. I usually try to steer clear of these types of discussions because my views are not always appreciated, and also I am not real "up" on what all is going on...there is alot I don't know....but I do think Bush is doing the best he can, and sure he will make mistakes, who wouldn't in that position....and who would want it for that matter...making life altering decisions for the whole country....WOW that is alot to handle!! But I think he is trying to do the best he can, and I sure as heck wouldn't want Al Gore in charge of this whole mess right now!!!!!! I also like the fact that Bush prays about his decisions before he makes them, he has stated that several times. I also think that instead of slamming our world leaders because we don't agree with them, maybe we should try praying for them instead. Pray that God will give them the wisdom they need to make the right choices. They are only human after all.

I'm with you Debby, small minority in this discussion as we may be. Bush is doing what he can, and making the best choices he can. Sure, he doesn't sound as good as Clinton, but at least I don't feel like I'm being lied to or sold a used car every time Bush speaks. Clinton also used the military for more "police actions" around the world than his predecessors (smaller actions, granted), while the whole time depleting the resources and funding for the miltary that he used.

The thing that also scares me about N. Korea is that they are sending armed troops into the DMZ, and there are pictures to prove it. That breaks the terms of the treaty signed in 1953.

Carrie, No one knows when the world will end. The Bible specifically says that. The signs, natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars, etc. have caused people to predict the imminent end ever since I can remember, and before my birth also!
I too believe that there's too much testosterone in the mix. However, in retrospect we might all be wrong. Hussein is not exactly an angel. And it's bad enough that we have the bomb, but China is probably the only nation with a large enough population to survive a nuclear war, and N. Korea is their ally. I know that when Hitler was carrying our his master plan, the world ignored Winston Churchill's warnings. I am so glad I am not responsible for these decisions. I lean toward pacifism, but that won't work unless the entire world believes that way.

Hi Debby! No flames here! I do pray for Bush. I'm also sure he tries his best. I don't know that I prefer him to Gore. The problem is the President makes decisions based on info and opinions of his advisors. I think I prefer the people Al Gore would have picked.

It bothers me that Bush speaks only in soundbites. It bothers me that he is so willing to allow the country to give up the freedoms guaranteed in our constitution in order to fight this problem. THere must be other ways.

Iraq is a problem. North Korea is a problem. North Korea, however, is posturing, and we will posture back. Iraq is rogue. But I do not like the people Bush has in place, and I don't like the decisions being made, nor the messages communicated.

So while I do not think he is a bad person, I do not think he is a good President. I'm sure he's doing his best. But I'm disappointed in the people that he has chosen to advise him. Look what happened with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. He was not a smart man - and he was head of our Treasury?! He was a cheerleader, and couldn't address a single informed question ABOUT NUMBERS.

Gary actually met President Bush. Last January. The First Lady opened up a package of our research and Gary's Strategy stuff. Gary's headline on that morning's meeting notes was "Paul O'Neill and his Shameless Band of Hacks Take Their Weird Show to Tokyo." !!! She looked up at Gary, and said "Mr. O'Neill is a good friend of ours." And Gary replied, "And one of the wonderful things about this great Nation is that our Constitution guarantees us the right to freely express our opinions without fear of retribution."

Unfortunately, I believe because Bush is not that smart, he has surrounded himself with a number of advisors that aren't that smart.

Have any of you watched the Nixon Interviews recently? He may have been a crook, but he was a brilliant man. David Frost did a series of interviews with him. It was like - 20 or 30 hours long. We watched 5 - 6 hours of it recently. It was on History or Discovery or A&E Biography or something. And he made bad decisions re: Vietnam. But to listen to him talk about his Presidency and International Relations....

At least he understood what choices he made and why he made them. I don't think Bush does. And that's the difference, in my eyes. And THAT'S scary.

LDG I couldn't have said it better myself. You are right. He is not a smart man which is a dangerous thing, and the advisors he has makes him even more dangerous. The thing that worries me is that Georgie has to realise that the decisions he makes do not only affect the US, but the whole world. The President of America is really the President of the world. It seems to me that the Bushes like a fight. I think he is using Iraq is somewhat of a distraction from the fact that he hasn't found Osama. I think that should be the priority.

Some of us need to remember that our fearless leader Anne is very close to this conflict should it arise with Iraq. She told me the other day in IM if she goes off line suddenly it will be because of a scud missile attack! I cannot even imagine the type of terror she deals with on a daily basis, and I never know what to say to her when she talks about it (which is rare).

She has honored me and asked me to write a powerful story telling the life of a kitten who was saved after a scud attack. The purpose of the story will hopefully get people to donate to The Cat Welfare Society of Israel. They are trying to come up with ways to keep the cats they have safe from biological attacks,(building sealed rooms, and they are trying to get the resources together to help the ones that will be abandoned when people flee. They need volunteers, and teams of people, and transportation, cat carriers, food, and medicine, vets standing by to help those who will have no idea what is going to happen. And in order to have all that, they need money.

We are starting to put together a page dedicated for just this purpose, but it is still in the planning stages. If you have any extra money floating around and you want to make a donation to help this noble cause- here is the website.

Again, I know that once we go to war everyone will be affected. Sadly, more will be affected then others, and in Anne's country many cats will become homeless in a millisecond with only one organization available to help them all.


CWSI

Yep...I think I would be scared to death if lived over there. They have been fighting for years for what seems pointless to me. Religion???? Isn't religion supposed to be about love and all of that? It REALLY confuses me that these terrorists really believe that they are doing good for their religion by killing people. Now THAT is messed up!

My heart goes out to Anne and the people of Israel, and to the cats. It has got to be so hard being there

My heart goes out to Anne as well. We have family living in Israel and hear of the sadness all the time. Once I am over the XMAS cash shortage I will be definately donating what I can.

Deb, I am with you in the minority here. I like George Bush, and am proud to say I voted for him and will again if he runs. I think Al Gore would be hiding in a bunker somewhere crying like a baby. I am realy glad Clinton is out of office for all this. I would love to see both of the Clintons completely out of public office. I can't stand the sight of either one of them.
The people that are really on the losing end of this are the people like Ann and her family, just trying to live their lives in the midst of all the chaos. I pray for all of them and hope this can be resolved peacefully.

I too pray for Anne, and feel so horrible that she has to be so close to this!!! It must be terrifying to live with the fear of an attack so close! I pray she and her family will be safe.

OK does anyone remember what happened a little over a year ago in the US??? Innocent citizens were attacked while they were at work! We are simply defending the US from further attack. If we just sit back and do nothing about it then the world will see that it is ok to do this sort of thing again in the future.
As for Clinton being such a great president...He was good at human relations and keeping everything looking great and peaceful on the surface but he actually reduced the size of the military and overlooked alot of the problems that were brewing in the Middle East and elsewhere which led up to the situation that we have today. Bush was only in office a few months before the attack on the US. If Clinton and his advisors were as smart and diplomatic as some say then it should have been prevented and worked out long before the Bush administration took office.

Well put, Coco Maui!!

The Clinton administration is, partially, to blame for the events of 9/11. On THREE separate occasions, they were offered Osama bin Laden, on a silver platter. These offers came from West African nations, after the embassy bombings. That administration turned them down.

Clinton's National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, was anti-military and helped to gut our defense and intelligence resources. Now, the current adiministration is having to play catch-up.

Getting us involved in every internal conflict, in Eastern Europe, spread our forces, way too thin and, severely, compromised our national security.

I am, usually, for letting other countries handle their own affairs but, Saddam Hussein and North Korea pose a major threat, to a large part of the world and must be, at the least, contained.

The job should have been finished, in 1991. However, since we were dealing with a gutless NATO coalition, our military experts were overruled, leading to the current situation.

Saddam Hussein has no respect, for human life. He has murdered, tortured and killed his own people. He has been permitted to sell a stipulated amount of oil, to purchase food and medicine, for the populace. Instead, he spends that money to build and decorate lavish palaces, for himself and to finance his biological and nuclear weapons programs. He has to go.

The same situation exists in North Korea. There is mass starvation, while the ruling elite live lavishly and money is spent on weapons technology.

Coco Maui and Cindy...I agree! Very well said!

Cindy, I don't disagree with you. But I just want to add that a PART of what is happening in N. Korea is the fault of the US, stemming from BOTH the Clinton and the Bush administration.

Both N. Korea and the US have broken treaties and agreements, and N. Korea does, in fact, need this plant for electricity. Unfortunately, part of the "economic pressure" the US placed on N. Korea was stopping fuel shipments. Had we provided the light water reactor we were supposed to, N. Korea wouldn't be producing plutonium (a by-product of a heavy-water nuclear plant).