# When did changing your mind become the next worst thing to murder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 28, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440 "2004-09-28T05:19:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/21 "2004-09-30T05:04:58Z")
At least the pubbies were creative enough to change words for this candidate. Remember how they accused Clinton of _waffling_ on the issues? Same old accusation. Anyone want a pool on what the catch word will be four years from now? I’ll take _seesaw_. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/22 "2004-09-30T18:53:52Z")
I like yours better, but will you give me decent odds on “weathervaning” ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/23 "2004-09-30T18:56:14Z")
Oh, and as long as I’m here, does anyone else get the giggles everytime Norm Coleman (Republican Senator from Minnesota, former Democratic Mayor of St. Paul) is put up by the GOP to accuse Kerry of “flip-flopping?” ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/24 "2004-09-30T19:11:50Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > At least the pubbies were creative enough to change words for this candidate. Remember how they accused Clinton of _waffling_ on the issues? They re-played a snippet of the Bush/Clinton debate of '92 on NPR this morning, and you hear Herbert Walker valiantly trying to instill a catch phrase in the public’s mind, when he accuses Clinton of waffling and says that he doesn’t think the White House should be turned into the “waffle house.” :rolleyes: Late memo to Bush Sr.- the odds for a catch phrase to work increase exponentially if it isn’t _catastrophically lame._ ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/25 "2004-09-30T20:56:33Z")
With all the other news coming in during 9/11 and immediately afterwards, The Sadaam government’s reaction to 9/11 after it manifested, might be buried. But I remember that the Iraqi government was the only one, the only one, mocking the US. The governments of the other Islamic countries, even Iran’s, mourned along with the rest of the world, as some of their compatriots were killed as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/26 "2004-10-01T13:20:05Z")
Your memory differs from mine. I remember commenting to Brainiac4 how fast Saddam got on the phone to express his sympathy to GWB - saying “he sure as hell doesn’t want to take the blame for this.” ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/27 "2004-10-01T13:39:14Z")
> [@capacitor](#): > > Without the WMD, there is still the fact that Sadaam went Nelson Muntz on the US right after 9-11, as the only ‘leader’ who went ‘Ha ha!’ at the mourning US and the world. > > In my opinion, he deserved to be overthrown just for that. Bullshit. > [@](#): > > [Saddam offers condolences on Web > October 20, 2001 Posted: 2:12 PM EDT (1812 GMT)](http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/10/20/gen.iraq.letter/) > > Hussein reiterated Iraq’s previous message of condolence to the September 11 victims, in a letter adressed to the co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a group that opposes U.S. economic sanctions on Iraq. > > The Iraqi leader said he did not know who was behind the attacks and said that he would not offer condolences to the Bush administration. > > “I don’t think that your administration deserves the condolences of Iraqis, except if it presents its condolences to the Iraqi peope for the 1.5 million Iraqis it killed, and apologised to them,” Hussein said, in the letter. > > Last month Saddam said he would not give his condolences to Bush. > > In a meeting with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said: "Bush wants us to pay our condolences, but if I were to do that I would not be respecting my people. Bush is the president of a state that is launching a war on us … in a mean, terroristic manner. If anything, he said “sorry people of the US, but up yours, Dubya.” ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440/28 "2004-10-01T17:01:28Z")
Yes, as someone on the fence, I know where you are coming from with the OP. It is one thing to say, “Kerry, you blow with the wind and do not have the stamina or ability to see things through when the going gets tough.” It is one thing to say, “Kerry, Iraq has been painful, not everything has worked perfectly, but staying the course is a good thing, and here is why.” Followed up with a statement of any adjustments you plan to make. Bush basically came off to me as saying that once a decision is made, it is final. Changing your mind based on new information or the results of the original decision is always wrong. Reevaluating or coming up with a new strategy to meet the reality in the ground is wrong. How will you ever lead the troops if you don’t ignore any problems and blindly plow ahead (that one was brilliant by the way, what a trap; my policy can’t be wrong, because if it is wrong we can’t change it or admit it because it will harm the troops)? I hope to high heaven that he was trying to say the former things but accidentally saying the latter. The logic of, “Hey, if you’ve blindly plowed into a hellhole, you just have to keep plowing deeper no matter what,” is not one I follow. After rational analysis plowing deeper might be the right answer, but I’m embarassed by anyone who says that once the decision is made, rational analysis has no place afterward. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-changing-your-mind-become-the-next-worst-thing-to-murder/266440.md?page=1)