# Bush approval rating continues to fall **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 15, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838 "2003-01-15T22:22:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838/101 "2003-01-21T22:12:15Z")
Nothing wrong as such, but the term carries too much “baggage”. Even though it may be very descriptive, it kinda carries the same sort of implications as “running dog” or “imperialist”. There are indeed elements of our most recent strategic policy that are blatantly “imperialistic” but I would hesitate to use the term in discussion because it raises red flags in the listener, and thereby impedes my purposes in subverting all that is good and decent in America. I’m sure you understand, comrade. Please burn this post after reading, and see you at the next Comintern meeting. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838/102 "2003-01-21T22:47:16Z")
You’ve got me all wrong, The greatest sin in a social science is reducing a complex issue down to a simple explanation. However, there is one generalization that is relatively accepted: Great prosperity makes great civilizations grow complacent, corrupt or both. I’m not saying the sky is falling, but the post WWII United States, and the current President in particular, is walking a very fine line indeed. I love my country and I’m all for the good things it stands for and does. I just won’t close my eyes to dirty deeds that get chalked up as the “cost of doing business.” I criticize because I care. ---
**Author:** ![Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Age_Quod_Agis)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838/103 "2003-01-22T00:31:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _cainxinth:_ > They have been unsuccessful in rebelling against the numerous autocracies that repress them (with exception of the Iranians), so they are redirecting their attack against the US, a common foe that is supporting those autocracies, notably Saudi Arabia, and in some cases is responsible for their very existence. Saddam Hussein, for instance, came to power in a CIA backed Baath party coup. So all we need to do is depose those bastards that we installed, starting with Saddam Hussein, and then the people will love us again? That seems pretty easy. So can I count on your support for a war in Iraq? > [@](#): > > _cainxinth:_ > why do you think Iran is a member of Bush’s “Axis of Evil” and Saudi Arabia, the nation from which the great majority of 9.11 attackers hailed from, is conspicuously absent? Maybe because of this: > [@](#): > > _cainxinth:_ > Iranians have as much to hate about the US as anyone else in the Middle East, possibly more. or maybe because of [this](http://www.terrorismanswers.com/sponsors/iran.html): > [@](#): > > The State Department calls the Islamic Republic of Iran the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism.” Iran continues to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups based in the Middle East and elsewhere. > . . . > [Iranian President] Khatami is reform-minded, but anti-American, anti-Western hard-liners like [Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei still dominate the Iranian military and intelligence services. > . . . > **What terrorist activities have been linked with Iran?** > The U.S. government first listed Iran as a terrorist sponsor in 1984. Among its activities have been the following: > > - In November 1979, Iranian student revolutionaries widely thought to be linked to the Khomeini government occupied the American Embassy in Tehran. Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. > - Observers say Iran had prior knowledge of Hezbollah attacks, such as the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Colonel William Higgins, a U.S. Marine involved in a U.N. observer mission in Lebanon, and the 1992 and 1994 bombings of Jewish cultural institutions in Argentina. > - Iran still has a price on the head of the Indian-born British novelist Salman Rushdie for what Iranian leaders call blasphemous writings about Islam in his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses. > - U.S. officials say Iran supported and inspired the group behind the 1996 truck bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen. > > **Does Iran have weapons of mass destruction?** > Yes. . . . > > **Does Iran have missiles that can deliver the weapons of mass destruction?** > Yes. . . . Don’t kid yourself. Iran fully deserves to be included in the “Axis of Evil.” > [@](#): > > _cmkeller:_ > As I said, I don’t consider Pearl Harbor to have been justified, but we were certainly doing more harm to them than we ever did to any of the Middle Easterners who primarily comprise Al Qaeda. > > _cainxinth:_ > Then we concur; Japan was not justified in WWII. Now if I can just convince you that the situation in the Middle East is not analogous… Are you really saying that the Al Queda attacks were justified? Please tell me I’m misinterpreting that statement. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838/104 "2003-01-22T00:54:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Age Quod Agis \* > **So all we need to do is depose those bastards that we installed, starting with Saddam Hussein, and then the people will love us again? That seems pretty easy. So can I count on your support for a war in Iraq?** Certainly, although not as an exercise in unilateral US jingoism but as a sanctioned UN response. While you’re taking votes, mark me down for an internationalized Jerusalem and a free Tibet. > [@](#): > > **Maybe because of this** I see the rhetorical question is still a touch advanced for you. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > \*\*Are you really saying that the Al Queda attacks were justified? Please tell me I’m misinterpreting that statement. \*\* I don’t think murder can ever be justified, and in this case it is also doing little to forward their cause. In fact I think the Islamists would be having better success in their uprising if they were utilizing non-violent protest instead of guerrilla warfare and terrorism. It worked for Gandhi. ---
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838/105 "2003-01-22T01:04:41Z")
Just to clarify my last statement… I am not comparing a blood soaked monster like Arafat to Gandhi. That would be like comparing Bush Jr to FDR… 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-approval-rating-continues-to-fall/148838.md?page=5)