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NeilMacCallister 05/21/2011 11:17 PM Report
I just don't get it !!
With all this man's education, ..all his social buttresses,
..he here showcases his conclusion that George W. Bush is responsible for "the worst decision EVER by an American President"???
My God, ..has anybody noticed that 5 or 6 people from his "Atlantic Group" are now working for (..and being paid!!!!) by our President Obama????
"Obama is Kennedy", .."Obama is Kennedy", .."Ohbahma is Kinnehidee"
When will this "other adulation" stop??? ..When will the real man who is President STAND UP FOR HIMSELF!!!!!!
(Kennedy???? ..didn't he get us into Viet Nam???)
***
Mr. Kempe is far smarter than me, ..so why does he not admit that the "Arab Spring" started, not with that self-immolation in Tunis, but with a 90% voting turn out, with purple-fingered proof, ..in the George Bush and Gen. Patreus offered democratic election that those brave Iraqi's undertook, under the threat of sniper fire, in bringing democracy to the Middle East???
(Have you people in the "new Atlantic" ever known struggle??)
***
With this man's kind of "leadership" , ..we have no chance!
We could have helped Japan, and showed the benefits of civilization, ..we could have supported egalitarian voting in the Middle East, ..but we sent missiles instead.
***
Please, ..forget Harvard and Princeton, ..they only produce dithering.
Try 'Sanjuro' and 'Yojimbo' instead.
See the truth.
***
Excuse me now, ..I am going to go cash in my tin cans and try and satisfy my mortgage payment.
REMant 05/17/2011 04:18 PM Report
Kempe seems to feel the way to negotiate is from strength so that altho Kennedy started out blowing the opportunity to lower tensions (see http://www.acus.org/thinking_global/berlin-1961-kennedys-first-mistake), he learned to stand up to the Soviets, as for instance in the Cuban missile crisis. Of course, he comes from an highly conservative background, and a long stint with the WSJ.
As a Catholic, tho, Kennedy was an arch anti-Communist from the get-go. He and Johnson had run a Red scaremongering campaign (Formosa, the missile gap, and nonsense about satellites). If Khrushchev felt any weakness it was that unlike Eisenhower, who had ordered IRBMs into Europe and Turkey, he was in no position to deal. As the lesser son of a maternally dominated family, I'm fairly certain Kennedy compensated by posturing all his life, which might explain his womanizing, as well, and it seems to have run in the family. In this, he had a lot in common with many other, particularly Democratic, presidents. So perhaps his Soviet counterpart sensed that, but it doesn't seem, as was mentioned, the favor was returned.
If I recall correctly Kennedy reversed the deployment decision long before to the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba, and raised holy hell when he found they had provoked the Soviet counter move. Altho kept secret from many years their removal was key to the resolution of the crisis (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis and http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/moment.htm). None of this tho seems to me to fit very well with the hawk's ideas.
Where I will agree with the thesis is that the big mistake, was in not electing Nixon, who didn't need to prove himself as an anti-Communist and might have done his China act considerably earlier. Recall his unflappabilty in the "kitchen" debate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Debate).
Frankly, I don't think the decision about Bin Laden, etc is of any real consequence at all, Gates' statement Sunday, notwithstanding, or could be adduced to prove any number of things about the president, but does appear to be evidence of a change of target from Afghan's Taliban to Pakistan's. And aside from underscoring the need to eliminate electoral corruption in places like Chicago, or listening to and voting for ideologues, I don't see any of this offering any lessons for the present, unless it lies in why it is we are the ones now stirring up popular revolutions and others deploying missiles.