Why do so many people now HATE the Republicans?

I cannot agree with those who feel that President Bush's actions leading up to the invasion of Iraq don't really matter or with those who think that whether he lied or not is unimportant. I think the question of culpability here is VERY important because if Bush DID lie then that is indicative of potential issues that are more boogie man in the dark complicated than simply bungling Iraq due to poor planning or faulty intelligence.

The possibility that the invasion of Iraq was intentional is, of course, not news. The bigger issue is how much of this is systemic and how much situational because if Bush is leading this and there is a design afoot to dismantle the Constitution and focus on global banking/oil/defense contractor concerns rather than the good of the collective American populace then THAT is a problem, a problem which we should not take lying down, and is fundamentally different than just having things "not work out" in Iraq.

The Republicans have spewed such vitriol and hatred against all who dared oppose them that it is only fair that an equal amount of love and affection be shown them in return. I have never in my life seen such a concentrated effort at distortion of truth and suppression of individualism and I hope that we can wake up from this coup d'etat before it is too late.

I think Bush seems like a good guy if I was going over to his house for cheeseburgers and a beer to watch the Cowboys-Eagles game but as far as the policies of his administration--TOTAL Gestapo bullshit.

They deserve our hatred because they obviously HATE us!!

I believe the key to getting along is to love your neighbor and follow the golden rule and treat all people with dignity and respect. This administration does not practice that philosophy and even though I cannot personally harbor hatred in my heart towards anyone, if anyone EVER warranted that feeling I believe it is the people (and I don't believe they are necessarily politicians) running our government today.

I also recently read (and responded to) a group thread in which analogies were made comparing America's involvement in World War II to the situation today in Iraq; they were basically saying that America has always been the good guy and that any war America takes part in is, by default, good and that the past history of American intervention in World War I and World War II supports the premise that the US was right and justified in the invasion of Iraq. Germany was bad, America good. As it was before, so must it be today.

The problem with this line of thinking (as I see it) is that we are using the GEOGRAPHY of WWII as indicative of causal principles in the current war with Iraq rather than the ACTIONS AND MOTIVATIONS of the participating countries.

Most of us can probably agree that Nazi Germany was an aggressor and someone upon whom most forward thinking people would agree that to sit passively by was suicidal and the only viable option was war--all out war.

In that war, as in WWI approximately thirty years earlier, the United States came in midstream during full scale conflict in Europe and tipped the scales in favor of the Allied forces and helped defeat Germany, first under Kaiser Wilhelm and then again under Adolf Hitler.

The problem today though is that in this particular case we are not saving ANY countries from attack by another--instead WE are the aggressor, the instigator and in the analogy for WWII we are now Germany and Iraq is now Poland.

Hard to swallow for the flag wavers of America but in this case we are the ones who attacked, we are the ones who hold the country under our rule for our personal and monetary gain, and therefore it is not that much different than what Germany did to Poland in 1939 (and later France, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, Norway, etc etc during the early forties).

No one asked us to help save them from Iraq. This is what’s different between then and now. Iraq was not an aggressor as they were earlier in 1991. This time they were trying to mind their own business but Bush et al wanted them so they could have their oil and their land and also, in the process, show the world that we were studs and the baddest dudes on the street. “Don’t fuck with us,” that is what they were really saying. “If there is something we want we are prepared to take it, whether YOU like it or not.”

The US "decided" to attack Iraq, without legal provocation, and that, as the poet says, has made all the difference.