I am a 42 year old widow woman whose husband served in Vietnam war. I know being a leader of this country is not easy and decisions are not solely based on the President's opinion. Although my husband was in a war, he totally understood the reasons for war and the grim behind the scene decisions you must make to win. It was also his belief that everything about the war that we engage in should not become a public venue. It isn't pretty and you have to mean business.Our elected officials Democrat and Republican are intelligent and will do what they have to when it gets down to it.
We do not want to lose our upperhand ever, especially to people who could care less about the world. I feel strongly the decisions made were "not" to protect the people who caused terror but to prevent it. I believe in our super power and so do other countries. I am beginning to not believe in our own people who continue to circle around a "war that should not exist". You do not have power if you let others into your life and conquer it as if it is their right. If you were in charge we would not have any resolution until a person with guts steps up and does what he has to do! We have only done this war to create peace not to demoralize our own country. I have to believe, because my President lives in this country (and the other leaders under him), that they want what is best and they are not jubilant over what it takes to have that. My husband explained to me that it is the will of our main force to keep harm "out" and not to create it, but the leftest who need a leg to stand on politically want to change the genuine concerns of all our past leaders who had to make such decisions to go to war all the way up to present. Very undeserving of the great country that we can't seem to keep people away from!
Do you think the President really salivates over this? You are sick and ignorant if you think this. To constantly preach this message is nonproductive and more damaging to our country than the war itself! People like you scare me because once you have division in our own home you have much less power. I guess a good analogy would be to imagine your child being killed by a person with the "intent to kill to obtain world power" verses "fighting to achieve peace". I find I would feel better about our country if they could grasp this. Decisions like this take a lot of thought and timing I am sure. If the President said what he said I am sure he meant it and needed help to stop what had been occurring for many years before it blasted him the minute he came into office. I am sorry other people who have been fighting the same battles did not have the confidence in themselves to help build a band around what was going on. All the bashing you dish out is really against yourself. I am ashamed to know a terrorist believes in his own country more than you. Your comments are very harmful whether you want to acknowledge it or not! Being alone now isn't my problem it is what my country is doing to itself with words of non wisdom or the will to understand.

One more thing. On the topic of this thread. Look at the influence of the "Oil for food" scandal in which Saddam Hussein bribed the security counsel nations so that he didn't buy military intervention. So much for our allies. The best UNSC that oil can buy.

I think you guys are all nuts. I think we have a very average president doing a crappy job like his predecessor. I live in very liberal Oregon, and our "wonderful" democrats have done more to enforce a police state than any dream of Bush.

Look carefully. You'll notice your seat belt is on. Your helmet is on and you better not smoke within 100 miles of a hospital entrance.

You guys have been watching way too much Michael Moore. George Bush is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He's also not Hitler.

I am a 45 year old liberal in the classic sense. I am a still a democrat. But if I am going to look for conspiracy...... I'll shine a light on Clintons and a liberal judiciary.

Investigations of Bush have turned up dick. I didn't like the Clinton scandals which were blown out of proportion and I don't like this use of the judicial branch to get power that votes can't get.

One person. One vote. Plus a democratic party that is so busted that it needs to resort to chicanery.

Bush is just a dumbass, not Satan. And every damn thing that I've seen in this thread to indict him was voted for with democrat zeal.

Think. Read. Watch. We have a very dangerous situation in that the judiciary is extending it's power beyond it's mandate.

You may not like Bush. I don't. I also think we are treading on very dangerous ground. Our government is being influenced by the judiciary and without proof of wrongdoing.

You vote. I vote. That should count. I am truly scared because I am very much a liberal, but I'm not a marxist. Communism has been the detriment of every society in which it's been tried.

Social responsibility Yes. Bush has highly screwed up, but I am very uncertain of our democrats. I live in Oregon, which is probably as democrat as it gets. I also notice that the republicans aren't the reason for a massive police state encroachment.

I think the best thing that could happen right now is that Bush is right and that we will prevail in making Iraq stable. Small chance when I think democrats are nearly committing treason to get elected.

Can you imagine what would happen to democrats if Petraeus makes this work? He seems pretty smart.

I agree we must get rid of the Bush crime family,or we are all going to die,satan will love that. Be happy drink your beer.

matthood: All I want to know is, "Is Gloria Vanderbilt a CIA agent or her mother? or was it Wyatt Cooper?"

Hey, are we a "superpower" or what?

plenum,

Agreed. This world could benefit so greatly from some old-fashioned court-ordered neck-stretching of a select few hyenas.

ACDC,

If no one stops them, before they are through the Bush/Cheney criminal gang will take Orwellianism further than even Orwell could have imagined.

jassim,

It borders on the criminal that Butler's essay is not required reading for all US highschool students.

Kristina40,

You write: 'Our government behaves more like La Cosa Nostra than a democracy....'

In 1935, Major General Smedley Butler wrote in Common Sense magazine:

'There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its 'finger men' (to point out enemies) its 'muscle men' (to destroy enemies) its 'brain guys' (to plan war preparations and a @big Boss' (supernationalistic capitolism) ....

In his over thirty three years in the Marine Corps, he writes: '..I spent most of my time being a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitolism.'

'I helped to make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped the raping of half a dozen central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering was long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China, in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

'During those years, I had, as the boys in the backroom would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honours, medal and promotion. Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was opeate his racket in three city districts. I operated on three continents.'

Wonder what he'd think of the current crop of Generals and if they have read him and reflected ....

Best, J.

From the 531-page memoir of former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, that caused so much turbulence in Washington last week.

Alan Greenspan say's, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: THE IRAQ WAR IS LARGELY ABOUT OIL."

It's the OIL STUPID! Nothing to do with WMD's or DEMOCRACY, but OIL!

Over 1.5 Million people murdered in Iraq over a 15 year period (1991 – present) by the "civilized" DECOMCRATIC WEST for what? OIL STUPID!
And the Blood lust isn't over yet- Iran is next on the Western genocide list. AND ALL FOR OIL- IRANIAN OIL THIS TIME!

"AmeriKKKa" and the "United Snakes of America" NEOCON new world order doctrine states through subliminal messages;

"Liberation" means Occupation
"Freedom" means War
"Victory" means Victims
"Reconstruction" means Chaos and stealing OIL
"Democracy" means following directions from Washington

The great South American freedom fighter against American imperialism, Simón Bolivar said in the mid-late 1800's, "The United States… seems destined by providence to plague (Central and South) America (I say the World) with torments in the name of freedom" (words in brackets are mine). This statement is as true of America today as it was during Simón Bolivar's time over 150 years ago!
SAD, VERY SAD AMERICA (AND BRITAIN)!

Forget impeachment. I want to see him before the International Court of Justice.

I am an American and live in Madrid. Yesterday afternoon there was a protracted discussion about this topic on Channel 5... Much argument among five analysts was devoted to condemning Aznar as well as to the irrationality of the war. This comes within four or five days after two Spanish soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

President Zapatero who won against Aznar (after the Madrid train bombings) has done well by ordering Spanish troops out of Iraq and hopefully these latest combined events will promote the eventual withdrawal of all troops from the Middle East.

This has been a horrendous tactical policy error by the West, and much of Spain is grossly embarrassed by Aznar's association and support of President Bush.

Bush and several in his administration, as well as Blair and Aznar, I think should be tried for international war crimes - and while I typically do not support the death penalty, I will make exceptions in this case and hope that they be EXECUTED as an example for those leaders who would encourage war against other countries for illegal reasons.

(Lastly, it amazes me that the UN is being asked to step into Iraq and help control / resolve a situation that it itself declared as an illegal war. This is typical of the US arm-twisting methods of getting others, both friends and antagonists, to fight what should be their own losing conflicts.)

I cannot hear one more,"Oh well...(someone will save me)"

matthood - Are you on drugs? I'm mad too. Time to make fliers?

Galen said: "Didn't Bush put cigarettes out on the skin of pledges during his years at Harvard?"

What kind of dumb coward would let him get away with doing something like that? If anyone did that to me, he'd be one sorry SOB. No wonder the Chimp is such a spoiled bully. He's been allowed to get away with anything and everything. No one has ever stood up to him.

I've read a previous post's definition of psychopath. It is also good to read the definition of a dry drunk. Both apply to the current "leader of the free world", and explains volumes.

It would also be advisable to query under oath, the physicians in charge of such a leader. I believe it imperative that George Bush Jr., who stands so close to the nuclear holocaust switch, should at the very least, have his sanity certified. It also frightens me that such as he should need medication to control his temper tantrums. No wonder the Pentagon is worried?

The intimadation and threats is hardly new..This is normal operating procedure for the U.S. government and as been for decades.
They have always used their economic and military superiority to get their way!

Nothing will come out after Bush is gone, because Bush will be replaced either by a Democrat or a Republican. Do you get it? What's the difference. Also, they all are complicit.

The greastest sin of this admistration is that our current President is a covert CIA officer which is against the law. This an impeachable offence. There is a long history of father and son OSS/CIA officers. Take Anderson Copper of CNN news. He interned at CIA headquaters laying the foundation of being apart of the CIA's domestic media program--Operation Mocking Bird. His family has a long history of being connected to OSS/CIA and military intellgence. It is against the law to be a covert CIA officers while being a federal elected official. You can not be a Senator of the United States and be a covert CIA officer; unless you reveal that you were once on the pay role of the CIA. It is a felony! Bush JR who graudated from Yale univercity, a major recruitment ground for the CIA, and, who is a member of Skull and Bones, who has a long history to the CIA where multipul family members have served in the CIA. Bush's grandfather, an Army intelligence officer, and a founding member of the OSS/CIA whoes son President GHW Bush SR. was a Army recon officer for military intelligence for the Army Air corps, who was probably OSS/CIA during the war during WW2, who was a OSS intelligence officer when he when to Yale, who after graduation became apart of the domestic CIA program to control the government from the inside out, whose son Bush jr is a CIA officer, who was recruited at Yale to be like his father, a domestic CIA officer to be apart of the hidden government of the thousands of covert CIA officers and CIA assets who are on American soil. Look at how many General of today who fathers were Generals. It is as if being a General in the US Military is a hereditary inheritance form of a chain of command reserved for their children as well as for the CIA. I suspect that many persons in the Bush family are in the CIA in some compacity. General Storming Norman Schwarzkopfs, so to, Gen. H. Schwarzkopf who was a personal friend of the Shah of Iran who helped put him into, power with Kermit Roosevelt in the CIA's coup de ta CIA/military operation call Operation Ajax. Why am I not suprize that his son did not become a 4 star general by accident.. Its the children of the other generations that are continuing in their father foot steps and dreams to finish what their father did not finish. General Petraeus was groomed to be a baby sitter for other generals. To be protected from war like Bush. I guess You could say it was a way to avoid the draft! General Petraeus is a Bush in uniform. Who is a coward! Who career was fast track by the Bush family. His carrer was guranteed by his father-in-law Gen. William Knowlton, who wrote the real book on counter insurgency from his two tours of duty in Vietnam. All Petraeus did was copy his father in laws notes on the war in Vietnam. General Petraeus has never shed the blood of our enemy. He has never killed any one in combat or in the line of duty. He has never been in harms way. Name me one General that has been killed since Vietnam or while in Iraq. Generals never travel alone they travel with armies. Its the poor 2nd Lts who travel alone with a platoon against all the odds. It is not the same. The only way Gen. Petraeus can get hurt is if he shoots himself. For the past 40 years the Bush clan have been fast tracking their brand of military officers into position of authority to create the perfect storm that would give Bush Jr, the willing Genersal staff who would not rebel; but who would just say -Yes Sir and salute! The only thing General Petraeus is qualified to attack is Harvard! This war was written in the 1940's by the CIA during the cold war. He wanted on the behalf of JD Rockefeller's Standard oil company to privatize the economies of the middle east. The Wall Street monsters CFR have been praying for a 9-11 to give them the excuse that they needed to invade Iraq like Hitler did to Austria. Many of Bush's speech sound just like Adolf Hitlers speechs People fail to ask the right question on this matter. JD Rockefeller found oil in the middle east because he was angry at America who broke up his oil companies with the Sherman anti-trust act and with the passage of america income tax laws it forced JD Rockefeller to pay taxes. He was angry at the fedeal government for telling him how to run his business. Thus; we have middle east oil that comes into america tax free. But, no one asks any one why the Western oil companies were kicked out of Iraq. The CIA controlled Western oil companies where kick out of Iraq because they conspired with Saudi Royal family to control the oil fields and the development of Iraq oil fields to increase the oil profits of American oil companies and their Saudi Kingdom co-conspirators. The Western oil companies and their friends to keep their oil of the market cheated Iraq out of oil profits,taxes and industry developement funds to make Iraq a better place to live. The West tried to create another Iran in Iraq. Unlike the Saudis, the government of Iraq invested in their nation to the anger and contempt of the western masters. Iraq developed their own talent making themselfs free of the west. When Iraq made the decision to accept only the Euro; therfore, trashing the American dollar, Saddam Hussien sign his own death warrant. As long as Iraqs and Iran oil is off the market Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are gettin filty rich of off Bush moral out rage for profit for the oil companies. The Bush family has a long history of hiding money. Bush is getting rich by extortion of the American Taxpayers.
What Bush has done to my beloved Texas can be simply said-Texas has become a modern day plantation. Slavery has come back the destruction of the unions in Texas. The petro-chemical industry is the new cotton king of Texas where the new modern face of slavery is in the master craftmans who have been turned into the modern day sharecropper, who without unions wages have been frozen in the oversaturation of illegals in constuction, who have lost all of the benefits of FDRs vision of the world of a just pay for a days work where corporation are resonsible for their social resonsiblality. What corporation are doing to america to day is what they did to this nation before WW2. The bankers, oil companies, and the Wall street money changers conspired to bankrupt this nation because of laws like the Sherman anti-trust laws, SEC laws, income tax laws, and other law design to make corporate america honest to the american people had to be defeated. In Bankrupting America deliberatly during the Great Depression, they took all of their ill gotten gain to Europe to invest in Adolf Hitlers, Germany, who hated labor and the union who help to create the first RIGHT TO WORK, nation in Germany with the monies from America's Enrons who fleed to Europe to make a killing in the market from the money they stole from the good old US of A.
What is going on to day with international corporation is exactly what they are doing today. I am sure the CIA is helping them all. I heard that when Enron fell they had to lay off over 300 former CIA and military intelligent officers. That should tell you someting

You know, I would ALMOST prefer Chuckie Manson as president...

Refernce G W Bush's mental state, I suspect there would be many thousands of inmates of mental instutions in the USA who are less damaged mentally and psychologically than the aforementioned Mr Bush.
Given his recent behaviour, I think a strait-jacket and padded cell might be appropriate.

Gee, really? This is some sort of secret? New info? Everyone and their mothers who didn't support the illegal invasion were threatened - whole countries, newspapers, elected Reps, my cat. They bugged U.N. members pre-III (Illegal Invasion of Iraq,) remember? Cheney v Blix? Cheney v IAEA?

December, 2003:

"All three European leaders had been angered by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's announcement on Tuesday that only firms from a list of 63 nations that would able to take part in Iraqi reconstruction efforts being funded by the U.S. government worth some $18.6 billion (€15.2 billion)."

"Wolfowitz said the action was vital to protecting the United States' "essential" security interests, but many observers saw it as the Bush administration making good on a threat that those nations that opposed the U.S.-led campaign to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would not play a large role in the rebuilding of the country."

It is silly to talk of the dem's or the rep's winning the next election.
REGARDLESS WHICH PARTY WINS THE PEOPLE WILL LOOSE. this is merican type lection.

Although Powell, Greenspan, Aznar and the others are guilty of enabling the Bush Regime, Nancy Pelosi is the ultimate enabler for continuing to keep impeachment off the table, even as more Regime crimes are uncovered.

imagineusa, I really didn't need that particularly disgusting mental picture floating through my mind...EWWWWWWWWW

There all in bed with Bush and waiting for thier piece of the action.

Didn't Bush put cigarettes out on the skin of pledges during his years at Harvard?

Once a twisted, sadistic, psychopath...

So this is a basis of the Coalition of the Swilling and Warring. The assumption is that the public can be sold anything, and that base opinion can be manipulated by any fiction they pleased to fake. "Of course I'm Right because I can make it appear so, and it benefits me and my benefactors. I am at peace with myself." These are the true beliefs of the political right everywhere. Even if they are at war with everyone else. Its the ugly side of evolutionary group selection theory.

I'd also like to thank Joe T Wallace and CanuckChuck for their postings. I related yesterday on CD that IF Bush had been born to a family of lesser means, chances are pretty good he would have been a serial killer. His smug disregard for inmates on death row in Texas overshadowed his obvious sociopathic personality, now on view for the entire world to see. It's comedy to the point of tragedy when this shell of a human life form tries to speak about justice, he has gutted the American ideal and replaced it with the species of strong-arming that only organized crime can respect. DISGUSTING.

If anyone thinks we have a choice at election time, think again. The powers that be have selected the two nominees from a list of Rhodes Scholars, CFR members, Yalies, and anyone related to the clique.

The two candidates are of the same one world order mindset, so whether one votes Republican or Democratic, you will get the same person. The cabal does not take chances.

That is why a true American such as Ron Paul has the chance of that veritable snowball.

Hillary Clinton will continue Bush's warmongering policies. Her husband Bill the lecher has been adopted by the Bush family........haha

It would be worthwhile going by the various national monuments to past worthies as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln to hear them spinning in their graves...

coyote,

true enough. maybe bush-cheney is really pushing it further than some immediate predecessors. I am certainly not resigned that this is how it must be just because it is a consistent pattern. I guess I want to assign the blame where I believe it lies -- deeper in the ingrained thinking about US foreign policy, and likely not to change significantly at the origination of one or the other major political party.

"Prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, Washington unsuccessfully lobbied the 15 members of the UN Security Council for a second resolution paving the way for military action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein failed to comply with demands to disarm."

Didn't Saddam comply with demands to disarm, the fact that we found no WMD proves that? If so then the war in Iraq is totally illegal and was never voted on by the UN or Congress.

mirf, I need to disagree with one of your earlier posts where you say this behavior is not unique to Bush-Cheney. You are basically right about this type of behavior, but these guys take it to a whole new level.

There's an old expression that comes from boxing: "Taking off the gloves." Bare-knuckle boxing is much more savage and damaging than boxing with gloves, but in another sense it sheds the pretense of civilization (Queensbury rules and all that). Similarly, Bush-Cheney have abandoned all pretense about American bullying, which may be more honest, but at the same time much more brutal.

It's like saying that there have always been wars and always will be. Sure, but there is a big difference between fighting with swords and spears on the one hand, and modern automatic weapons and artillery on the other.

It's also interesting to note Serial Killers and Genocide perpetrators display nearly identical traits with more inclusions as Cleckley delineated as psychopathy...

Thug Nation!

canuckchuck September 26th, 2007 2:48 pm

Now see that's what I've been talking in my previous posts....
canuckchuck...right on the money!

Only to Add Bu$h in his delusional dissociated pathological personality type is definitely suffering Dry Drunk Syndrome [See: Dry Drunk Syndrome by Solzberg] and 'potentially' undiagnosed Early Onset Parkinson's Disease with 'some' classic early symptoms being on display... for example 'potentially' short term memory loss and mangling words....

Fancy having such a 'screw up' as President it's bloody embarrassing...

"Those with some experience will remember that when Clinton became President he covered for and protected the Reagan/Bush administrations. We didn't learn much more about any of the shady things that happened in Reagan/Bush. If I remember right, they through out a quick line or two about looking forward rather than back and then did nothing to dig into or reveal what had happened in Reagan\Bush. The same will happen again if the Democrats win."

The MurderingSycopahtnicMedia pundits are already proclaiming Clinton II as the successor to the throne, happily and with enthusiasm. I stumbled across a HillaryLuvFest on CNN while sleeplessly switching across channels in the middle of the night --

Thank you canuckchuck and JoeTWallace. Your posts give one great pause...

"As one commentator has observed, most conservatives, with a few exceptions, seem to value America for her body (the power and leverage that comes with economic and military might), and most progressives value America for her mind *AND SOUL* (the ideals of freedom and liberty embodied in our consent to be governed by the checks and balances and separation of powers reflected in our Constitution)."

Sounds exactly like a line or two from the Godfather...."Pay up or expect broken knees or a cement overcoat." Our taxes are supporting these hoodlums. Are there enough jails and detention centers to hold the entire taxpaying community if everyone withheld the money for them to operate? We aren't getting very much for our money right now, so what is there to lose? We wouldn't have to pay for the horrors we are creating in other countries, we wouldn't have to pay for death and destruction in other countries, we wouldn't have to support the companies who supported this regime. If our collective tax monies were privately gathered together to be used for helpful and constructive objectives, beneficial to all, we would be better off. Just a thought from someone wondering how much more can we pay them, (our generous government) to take more away from us.

Galen

No doubt!

"I am optimistic because I believe I am right. I am at peace with myself," Bush responded.

so·ci·o·path –noun Psychiatry. a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

psy·cho·path n. A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

The prototypical psychopath has deficits or deviances in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and self-control. Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright. Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression.

Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by their low self-consciousness, a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth. This extends into their pathological lying and willingness to con and manipulate others for personal gain or amusement. The prototypical psychopath's emotions are described as a shallow affect, meaning their overall way of relating is characterized by mere displays of friendliness and other emotion for personal gain; the displayed emotion need not correlate with felt emotion, in other words. Shallow affect also describes the psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short lived and egocentric with an overall cold demeanor. Their behavior is impulsive and irresponsible, often failing to keep a job or defaulting on debts.

Since psychopaths cause harm through their actions, it is assumed that they are not emotionally attached to the people they harm; however, according to the PCL-R Checklist, psychopaths are also careless in the way they treat themselves. They frequently fail to alter their behavior in a way that would prevent them from enduring future discomfort.

It is thought that any emotions which the primary psychopath exhibits are the fruits of watching and mimicking other people's emotions. They show poor impulse control and a low tolerance for frustration and aggression. They have no empathy, remorse, anxiety or guilt in relation to their behavior. In short, they truly are devoid of conscience. However, they understand that society expects them to behave in a conscientious manner, and therefore they mimic this behavior when it suits their needs.

Most studies of psychopaths have taken place among prison populations. This remains a limitation on its applicability to a general population but that has not prevented fiction writers from popularizing psychopaths in the movies.

Cleckley defined psychopathy thus:[26]

1. Superficial charm and average intelligence.
2. Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.
3. Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations.
4. Unreliability.
5. Untruthfulness and insincerity.
6. Lack of remorse or shame.
7. Antisocial behavior without apparent compunction.
8. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience.
9. Pathological egocentricity and incapacity to love.
10. General poverty in major affective reactions.
11. Specific loss of insight.
12. Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations.
13. Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, and sometimes without.
14. Suicide threats rarely carried out.
15. Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated.
16. Failure to follow any life plan.

It has been shown that punishment and behavior modification techniques do not improve the behavior of a psychopath. They have been regularly observed to respond to both by becoming more cunning and hiding their behavior better. It has been suggested that traditional therapeutic approaches actually make them, if not worse, then far more adept at manipulating others and concealing their behavior. They are generally considered to be not only incurable but also untreatable.

Psychopaths also have a markedly distorted sense of the potential consequences of their actions, not only for others, but also for themselves. They do not, for example, deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.

BUSH...SEEK HELP NOW!!!

This is what America does right now. These coercive tactics are not unique to Bush-Cheney.

Let's not forget that Clinton bombed and invaded Serbia when there was a peaceful alternative on the table as drafted by Russia and amenable to all.

Let's not forget that Clinton bombed the living Hell out of Iraq long before Gulf War II became official. In fact, there were estimates of civilian casualties from bombs and sanctions that are equal to the estimate of such deaths from Gulf War II.

That was coercive bombing.

So, this is what we do as a nation. Let's not frame this as a Bush innovation, as it runs much deeper. We are the big bully on the block. The man sitting in the Oval Office makes no difference on that count.

Before someone mentions Carter, Carter supported Suharto in Indonesia, while he was crushing East Timor and also the brutal dictator of Turkey who was decimating the Kurds at the time.

So, there are no angels when it comes to coercion of foreign peoples to support the US agenda. We have to look at the roots of this amoral model of foreign policy, which I believe is termed "Realist" school of foreign policy.

It is a truism that if you look for enemies, you will always find them. Even the search itself can create them.

It is also a truism that people are people, and if you sit down with them and treat them with respect and dignity, break bread with them -- you can solve anything peacefully.

COMarc

You are, unfortunately, right. As I've stated before: Clinton I let Bush I off the hook, so who's fool enough to believe that Clinton II would not do the same for Bush II? (Who could trust the wife of Bush I's good buddy, anyway?)

My God!! I never realized how fragile our government really is. Millions upon millions being lead around by the nose by a few corrupt idiots. There has to be another way!! This just isn't working people!!

Who actually believes these thugs are going to leave power? They stole TWO elections! Even money says that the '08 elections will go the way of the US constitution when the next '9/11' or 'Tonkin Gulf' happens...

The laundry list of reasons to impeach are only going to continue to grow. This is just another example that Bush had no intention of dealing with Iraq peacefully...we were going to invade, whether anyone liked it or not.

Our government behaves more like La Cosa Nostra than a democracy. No wonder they love the insurance industry so much, they are busy "selling" insurance as well.

Upon hearing this threat, one of these leaders should have just urinated on George Wanker Bush's shoes, turned around and walked away. Wouldn't that have been beautiful!

This is NOT new! DemocracyNow reported the threats to cut off aid to those not joining the "Coalition of the Willing" which we referred to at the time as the "Coalition of the Coerced." Participants in the Coalition were also promised preferential treatment when contracts for rebuilding went up on bid, but we all saw how that turned out with the no-bid contracts. When it came to co-operation with the Bush Administration war machine, allies were screwed if they did and screwed if they didn't. Anything to do with the Bush Administration war criminals is just plain screwed.

That Bush would resort to threats to win people over should come as no surprise. In any battle of ideas, he's an unarmed man. His invasion and occupation of Iraq was supported, as one wag put it, by a "coalition of the sullenly acquiescent" who were either bullied or rewarded for their participation. As one commentator has observed, most conservatives, with a few exceptions, seem to value America for her body (the power and leverage that comes with economic and military might), and most progressives value America for her mind (the ideals of freedom and liberty embodied in our consent to be governed by the checks and balances and separation of powers recflected in our Constitution).

Apologies, re my entry above, it was, of course George H.W, Bush, shrub's Daddy who threatened Yemen.

The money-power never rests. If it's going to rule anyway, why can't We the People Inc. be the money-power?

surprise ........ surprise.......the thugs are threatening people

now, should any common citizen engage in this same activity...........enemy combatant - sent off to eastern europe.......(baa-bye)

gotta love the "new world order" and their vision of america

Yes, I think that the world knew what was ment by "the security of the United States is at stake" and yet, through threats and bribes, many COWs joined America in it's own destruction.
Jimmy Carter sure understood that Bush/Cheney were demanding a catastrophy.
The scorn that the GOP, MSM and the Christians heaped upon those partiots, farsighted enough to see through the greed based lies, will not be easily forgotten.
Are we safer now that the Neo-Cons have destroyed America? The conquest of all of humanity, all of civilizatation, will be next.

Well, he carried through on his threat vis-a-vis Canada. Bush doubled the tariff on Canadian softwood lumber when Canada refused to join the so-called coalition of the willing. The dispute was settled only when Harper agreed to forfeit one billion dollars owed to our crippled lumber industry by the US. So we're not just talking empty threats here.

Here we go again:

"We have to get rid of Saddam. There are two weeks left. In two weeks we will be ready militarily. We will be in Baghdad at the end of March," Bush said in the transcript which was translated into Spanish by the newspaper.

And the world was told (tho' many, many marched in millions and did not believe) it was about weapons of mass destruction. So again, Nurmeberg's 'supreme international crime': a war of agression, against a country whose 'sovereignty and territorial integrity' was guaranteed by a United Nations whose weazel Secretary General said nothing (and whose successor is equally silent regarding crimes of ongoing enormity.)

Of course, bullying and bribing runs in the family. In 1991, George W. Bush, told little Yemen, who voted against the war at the UN: 'That is the most expensive vote you will ever make'. The US cut off seventy million $'s of aid. Pittance to US, but a great deal to Yemen.

The last seventeen years bring shame on us all. Currently, it is not being just brought, but heaped upon us. And now we are being told the same about Iran. If Iran is bombed, with working nuclear installations targetted by massive, working nuclear bombs, welcome to Armageddon and an irradiated planet as never seen before. Welcome to the nuclear mutations of generations yet to be born (if anyone survives long term.)

And GWB is comfortable with himelf. No wonder even his father has taken to crying in public. (Yeah, it was his pride in Jeb right? Believe that ...)

Lunatics running asylums come to mind.

This has nothing to do with the article, but what really caught my attention was calling "El Pais" a left-wing paper. Unless things have changed a lot since I used to live there, El Pais is simply a good paper which does its job and reports the news in a fair, balanced way. Just because they didn't like Franco doesn't automatically mean that El Pais is a left-wing paper. I used to read it everyday because I knew I was getting just the news and not reading some newspaper with an obvious agenda, like the other leading paper, the name of which escapes me at the moment. But in that newspaper, about the only thing you could trust were the sports scores. The other newspaper was the Spanish equivalent of Fox news in print.

If I remember correctly, after this meeting Bush was still going around saying, "War is a last result.

The threats followed soon after the Military Coup of 2000. So not surprising at all. These goons continue with their bomb back to the stone age mentality. Profits soar! Thou shalt commit Genocide.

Why does anyone think information will come out after Bush and Cheney leave office? Who's going to replace them? It will either be another Republican who will protect them. Or it will be a Democrat who is complicit in this war and these policies and who will protect them.

Those with some experience will remember that when Clinton became President he covered for and protected the Reagan/Bush administrations. We didn't learn much more about any of the shady things that happened in Reagan/Bush. If I remember right, they through out a quick line or two about looking forward rather than back and then did nothing to dig into or reveal what had happened in Reagan\Bush. The same will happen again if the Democrats win.

If you want the next administration to reveal what has happened or to investigate and press charges, then you'd better be voting Green or some other independent party. After all, the Democrats have done nothing to impeach this President while they've had the power to do so, and there's no reason to believe they won't continue to protect their fellow travelers in corporativist government should they gain the White House.

Why are these war-mongering, war-profiteering criminals not only not behind bars but still in positions of power?

There is enough evidence to prove war crimes by any standards set by the UN Charters, the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg Trials. Add on the Downing Street Memos and the statements of numerous former and current members of this administration and it's more then clear that we have war criminals running this country. For months rice has refused to comply with the subpoenas issued by Waxman about testimony of prewar intelligence.

So I ask again, why aren't they behind bars?

Remember, we already know we were listening in on diplomatic communications of these nations that were on the Security Council but who weren't supporting of this illegal and immoral war. So this isn't really a surprise.

The good thing to remember is that even with all this obnoxious behavior, these nations still wouldn't support this war.

Gee, Bush saying he believed he's right should have been the scariest thing Aznar could have heard. Anyone with any intelligence will always admit to themselves and others that there's a possibility that they are not right and be willing to discuss and plan for that possibility. When you hear someone saying for sure that they know they are right and that it can't be any other way, that's when to be worried and to realize you are dealing with a fool.

Once Bush and Cheney leave office, the flood-gates will open and out will come so much of the dirt that they tried to hide. We're talking blackmail, possible death threats, threats, collusion with the media, extreme cronyism and favoritism, giving the military the green light to commit war crimes, and allowing his favorite companies to loot the public coffers. So maybe we'll learn of a few new nasty things, while the rest will be more details of things we already know.

More to the point, Anzar is as guilty as Bush for comitting the gross crime of breaking the peace as spelled out by the UN Charter and Nuremburg Laws. This just might be the first move toward his prosecution as Spain's justices were in the vanguard in the push to hold Pinochet accountable.

Once again, someone who was in a position to say something that would have made a difference in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, chose to remain silent when it counted. Now worrying about their sorry place in history, they leak out the dirty laundry, once the disaster that they enabled has become evident to everyone. Powll, Tenet, Aznar are all criminals for not speaking up.