That's the only logical conclusion you can come to after Republicans make false and frankly, despicable charges against Democrats' ability to secure the safety of Americans home and abroad. Because the fact of this matter is that deaths of Americans from terrorist attacks, at home and abroad, increase exponentially when Republicans are in charge.
Not coincidentally, the gap between the rich and poor widens, and the number of people living in poverty increases.
This current wave of terrorism (and this particular brand of terrorism, 'Islamic-jihadist') is unique in that for the first time, U.S. citizens are being targeted, although not very often. The roots of this brand of terror is in America's foreign policy going back to the 1970s and the U.S. oil-driven economy of rapid capitalist growth and expansion without restraint or regulation.
Islamic-jihadists didn't invent the tactic of hijacking airplanes or using them as "suicide bombs." But the numbers of hijackings, shootings down or planting of explosives on airplanes have increased with each Republican administration. Republican policies have alienated substantial numbers of people around the world, with more people becoming motivated toward responding with extreme violence with each passing administration. It only makes sense that as the world's population grows, and the corporate, pro-growth, anti-regulatory politicians strip-mine and asphalt over the earth, those people who are being displaced (geographically and economically) would eventually take their beef to the people who are democratically-electing the planet's robber barons - We, the People of the United States.
September 11, 2001 really was only a matter of time.
And to listen to the Republican candidates for President, despite the damage that their policies are doing to people and to the planet, they aren't going to stop. In fact, just like Bush-Cheney, they're going full speed ahead both on the war front and on the anti-populist economic front.
Politico.com reports:
Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.
But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.
“If any Republican is elected president —- and I think obviously I would be the best at this —- we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.
The former New York City mayor, currently leading in all national polls for the Republican nomination for president, said Tuesday night that America would ultimately defeat terrorism no matter which party gains the White House.
“But the question is how long will it take and how many casualties will we have?” Giuliani said. “If we are on defense [with a Democratic president], we will have more losses and it will go on longer.”
“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,” Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”
He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”
After his speech to the Rockingham County Lincoln Day Dinner, I asked him about his statements and Giuliani said flatly: “America will be safer with a Republican president.”
Giuliani, whose past positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights have made him anathema to some in his party, believes his tough stance on national defense and his post-Sept. 11 reputation as a fighter of terrorism will be his trump card with doubting Republicans.
“This war ends when they stop coming here to kill us!” Giuliani said in his speech. “Never, ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for [terrorists] to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”
Giuliani said terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world.”
Giuliani continued: “The freedoms we have are in conflict with the perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.” He said Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections, freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy.”
Addressing the terrorists directly, Giuliani said: “We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”
Giuliani also said that America had been naive about terrorism in the past and had missed obvious signals.
“They were at war with us before we realized it, going back to ’90s with all the Americans killed by the PLO and Hezbollah and Hamas,” he said. “They came here and killed us in 1993 [with the first attack on New York’s World Trade Center, in which six people died], and we didn’t get it. We didn’t get it that this was a war. Then Sept. 11, 2001, happened, and we got it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment