As you know, I drive a lot these days. Two thirds of it is in the state of Massachusetts and the rest tends to be elite border towns like Hollis or Amherst. I've seen about one too many snippy bumper stickers of the MoveOn.org type and need to write a little to counter their virulent jingoism.
Just to dial up the way-back machine a little bit (since the mainstream media won't and is obsessing about Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld at the moment) :
“What if Saddam fails to comply (with UN sanctions), or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more time to develop this (WMD) program? He will conclude that the international community has lost its will… [that] he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, I guarantee you, he’ll use this arsenal.”
-- President Bill Clinton in February 1998
“The United Nations believes that Saddam Hussein may have produced as much as 200 tons of VX (nerve gas)… we face a clear and present danger… terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in New York City had in mind the destruction and deaths of 250,000 people”
-- Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen on November 15, 1997
“The world hasn’t seen, except maybe since Hitler, somebody quite as evil as Saddam Hussein. If you don’t stop a horrific dictator before he gets started too far, he can do untold damage”
-- Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright on February 20, 1998
Who expressed the view that the containment of Saddam Hussein could not succeed over the long run; that “even a contained Saddam was harmful to stability and positive change in the region”? He said:
“For the last eight years, American policy towards Iraq has been based on the tangible threat that Saddam poses to our security. That threat is clear.”
-- Clinton National Security Council advisor Sandy Berger in December 1998 speech at Stanford
Which president signed the Iraq Liberation Act? Excerpt:
“it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power.”
President Clinton, October 31, 1998
Yet, judging by the bumper stickers I see on many a left-mobile, you'd think Iraq was all a new idea started by President Bush under the influence of the so-called 'neo-cons'.
Ahh, I feel better now. Soon I'll resume family related writing…
I think I'm just plain old tired of snippy bumper stickers all together. The right camp has just as many as the left.
Posted by: nikkiana at April 15, 2006 11:23 AMHi Nikkiana,
For the most part, I don't mind stickers with overall support or opposition to how things are going. Certainly during the previous administration there were plenty of raunchy anti-Clinton bumper stickers. But back then, the media lamented the cliched 'angry white male' that supposedly turned the Congress from Democrat to Republican. Poor Bill Clinton, victim of the evil Republicans.
Nowadays I don't see any media attention on the 'kook left' that drives around in stickers that say (sampling 2 from this past week) "It's gonna take two Johns to flush the cr@p out of the White House" or "Defend America, defeat Bush". A decade ago we had Time magazine *front covers* challenging "Is Rush Limbaugh Good for America?" Now we hear nothing regarding the venom that comes from the Air America crowd. Perhaps from the media's viewpoint Air America is "moderate"? Is MoveOn.org good for America?
Most of what I'm seeing on the right these days is just "Support Our Troops" or "Proud to be an American" or "These colors don't run" type of stickers. Snippy, but not as virulent.
I guess it all depends who is in power at the moment.
Posted by: Scott at April 16, 2006 09:55 AM