Q Mr. President, as you mentioned, you know, as you approach the end of your term in office, you mentioned that you still feel that establishing the Palestinian state is still achievable. What is the exact vision that you have, you know, with this short time left?First, you notice that Bush must have his head where the sun don't shine and the air ain't clear because otherwise he would know that the Israel/Palestine situation is so bereft with conflict and years of aggressions that it won't be solved in 10 months. Hell, it hasn't been solved from the outset of the establishment of Israel. What makes him think that simply by having "Condi over there" that it will get done.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure, I appreciate it. First of all, 10 months is a long time. May seem short to you, but it's -- there's plenty of time to get a deal done.
Secondly, I have visited with the leaders, you know, on a one-on-one basis quite frequently, and I understand that it's -- this is a difficult subject. But I also feel very comfortable with the commitment they have made to try to work out subjects that have been difficult for other leaders to work out in the past.
The role of the United States -- we can't impose peace. We can help leaders come to agreement and come to the table and make hard decisions. We can help facilitate the bridging of gaps, if there are gaps. And that's exactly what our diplomacy is in the process of doing.
And by the way, there is -- and one of the reasons why His Majesty is so important in this process, as the other leaders in the Middle East, including my close friend, King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and President Mubarak of Egypt, is that both these leaders are going to need the support of the Arab world in order to make tough decisions. But first it's up to them. And so I'm optimistic that they can conclude tough negotiations. And we'll try to facilitate that.
Second, if we "cannot impose peace" on any nation, why did we go into Iraq in the first place? Really, as more GIs return with mental as well as physical wounds and the number of flag draped boxes get flown for burial in Arlington, the rationale seems less and less legit for having done it.
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Sieg Heil
The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ...
- Douglas MacArthur, 1957
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity. War settles nothing.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech: Ottawa, Canada, January 10, 1946
If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of Columbia University, speech to luncheon clubs, Galveston, Texas, December 8, 1949
When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, press conference, 1953
Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech: New York City, May 31, 1954.
You don't need a totalitarian dictatorship like Hitler's to get by with murder ... you can do it in a democracy as long as the Congress and the people Congress is supposed to represent don't give a damn?
- William Shirer, 1973
This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.
- Benjamin Franklin
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