"George Bush our hero!"

[IXis9]

It only took him 6 weeks 800billion dollars, 1,000 tons of explosives, 1,500 civilian deaths, and who will ever know how many children suffering concussion injuries to figure out what most of the world's population has told him for six months. Iraq is not a military threat. I'm soooooo proud.

[anerki]

Some examples of Bush-Hitler resemblance:

State of the Union Speech: Bush Declares war on the world
Bush Speech on Middle East: Ignorance, Arrogance, Imperialism
Bush and Hitler: Compare and Contrast

If anybody has more articles, send them to me in a msg and I'll gladly add them here!

[toast]

Anerki,

Look at your sources:
- World Socialist Web Site, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
- Pravda.ru: "Say what you want! PRAVDA.Ru will hear you!"
- Counterpunch seems more credible, hopefully.

The problem is, anerki, that demagogic speech is proper to the political class in general. It has also been proven that those politicians who tend not to use it in normal times do when big political events come (war, elections, etc.). The whole thesis is by a man called Giovanni Sartori. Throw it a glance.

[binaryDigit]

Originally posted by toast
Anerki,

Look at your sources:
- World Socialist Web Site, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International.
- Pravda.ru: "Say what you want! PRAVDA.Ru will hear you!"
- Counterpunch seems more credible, hopefully.

The problem is, anerki, that demagogic speech is proper to the political class in general. It has also been proven that those politicians who tend not to use it in normal times do when big political events come (war, elections, etc.). The whole thesis is by a man called Giovanni Sartori. Throw it a glance.

Thank you toast for throwing a little reasoning into all this. What's so funny is that many who might consider themselves enlightened (and those who "fall" for Bush's rhetoric unenlightened) will read things like this, take their tenuous conclusions and then propagate them. Just because some journos (who OBVIOUSLY have differing views) write that "Bush rattled sword, Hitler rattled sword, Bush defies peaceful countries , Hitler defies peaceful countries, therefore Bush == Hitler", all of a sudden this becomes a mantra. Forgetting things like common sense, context and an understanding of politics. To compare the two based on their actions is to expose oneself as someone who is so into ones own politics that it has obviously clouded their thinking.

[toast]

I do not like G.W. Bush very much, as all people here know from reading the war threads.

But if I had to compare him to some people, here's my list. Comparison to...

- Other American political figures: Ros Perot and Ronald Reagan, and also Pdt. Jackson.
- Eurasian political figures: Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin.

[anerki]

You do have a point there (both of you), fact remains what he did is wrong and in my opinion you have to be, well, you know, not to see it.

What I think lacks in the US, sorry for all you americans out there, is a view of history. I don't know what they teach in the US except for what I've heard, the american history and a little bit of world history too. In Belgium and Europe in common, we get everything from the Chinese/Egyptian empires in the ancient times till now: the US, China, Sovjet Union, ... Americans lack history, and knowledge of it. And I think that's a terrible thing not to have (of course if you don't know it you don't know what you're missing)

[binaryDigit]

Originally posted by anerki
You do have a point there (both of you), fact remains what he did is wrong and in my opinion you have to be, well, you know, not to see it.

Well some agree and some disagree. I have no problem with either side as long as their arguments are "reasonable". It's just that sometimes people have a tendency to start to "stray" and their arguments start losing touch with reality.

What I think lacks in the US, sorry for all you americans out there, is a view of history. I don't know what they teach in the US except for what I've heard, the american history and a little bit of world history too. In Belgium and Europe in common, we get everything from the Chinese/Egyptian empires in the ancient times till now: the US, China, Sovjet Union, ... Americans lack history, and knowledge of it. And I think that's a terrible thing not to have (of course if you don't know it you don't know what you're missing)

Well we do get a fair amount of history about things other than the US. Of course most of it is focused on the US (at least the stuff that's required). I think the bigger problem is one of retention and applicability. Fact is for a European, you have to be more aware of other European countries at a minimum due to the geography and economics of the area. Europeans are also much closer to other areas such as the Middle East, keeping these things in for forefront and therefore helping them keep in context. The US really is a big island in that for many things, we are self contained (with a few notable exceptions). And even when there is a dependency on other countries, much of what ends up here has been filtered through US companies. Oil is an excellent example. Someone from the US usually equates Exxon or Shell with gas, not Iraq or Kuwait (current events not withstanding).

[toast]

I will speak very frankly about this education question.

Point #1: The US education system is complete crap. I can't believe this world still counts some countries where you may be taught creationism in public school [size=1](basically, creationism is believing that Adam and Eve founded this Earth and that dinosaurs and Big Bang is state bullsh!t)[/size=1].

Evidence: This report provides initial findings from the first cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The report gives information on achievement of 15-year-olds in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy in the United States and 31 other participating nations.

Point #2: The German education system, for example, is even worse. This three-school system is a total failure, even if what it was aiming at (less scolar failure) is of the most honorable.

Evidence: Program for International Assesment (better known, esp. from german people, as the PISA studies, which are financed and led by the OECD).

Conclusion: education explains a lot. However, the US are not the lower standard of education. If you read both links, you will learn that 25% Americans aged 15 can't locate the US on a world map; but you will also learn 27% Germans aged 15 can't locate Germany on a world map. Sic.

This is NOT boasting/showing off/etc. , but you should know France is at a very high level, close to Canada, Quebec, Scandinavia etc.