Exactly!
I basically agree re: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bush.
But as someone who posted on this board 2003-2008, I find it incredible when Republicans now offer these casual, matter-of-fact “Bush sucked/Iraq was a terrible idea” claims. Of course no sincere humility or self-awareness seems to accompany this shift.
See, a lot of people thought that at the time (re: Afghanistan and Iraq) and said so. The vast majority of them were “liberals.” It’s one reason I came here: to figure what the hell Republicans were thinking.
The unquestionable sanctity of Bush/Iraq then held roughly the same space for Republicans as Trump does now. Any Republican who opposed Iraq was dismissed as a RINO. I literally started a thread at the time asking Republicans, “What criticism of Bush is legitimate?” (None)
I’m going to try to stick around long enough for Republicans here to tell me how much Trump sucked. Or we could just cut to that now, and skip the unnecessary misery.
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Anybody who feels OIF was completely wrong doesn’t understand warfare, strategy, etc.
And is in their feels.
They also most likely weren’t even there; and if they were, they weren’t where the warfare and strategies were happening.
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They also don’t understand AQ, patterns, etc.
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I didn’t come on this board until October of 2008 but when this took place, I went to my beautiful wife’s high school reunion. It was during this time period and some there were in the military and stationed in Iraq. I said the same thing at the time and got into a verbal altercation. One swore that he went to a storage facility that was filled with poisonous gas and that this was a weapon of mass destruction. We agreed to disagree and not ruin the get together with our argument but my opinion has never waivered.
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Been here since 2003 and the prevailing attitude was that the invasion of Iraq was legit and necessary. Mantra repeated then was fight them there than over here not to mention anyone who disagreed with thr Iraq War was for the terrorists.
I fell hook line and sinker for the politics of the day but gradually started to question it.
Same with Patriot Act I know there are posters who were all for it but now seem to have forgotten that. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear was the hannity forum quote of the day.
I get opinions change but i just wish people could be honest. 20 years ago I had a very different outlook on the world
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It was definitely “legit.” It happened and in a serious way.
“Necessary”? Inevitable is probably a better word.
I am considered the forum conspiracist because I’ll suggest things years before they’re exposed. The drip, drip, drip thread is an example of that.
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I don’t even remember what, if any, opinion I had of the patriot act back then. But it is certainly understandable if someone supported an act back then that we were told was intended to catch middle eastern terrorists but opposed an act that was used to catch General Flynn.
The support for the Patriot act by cons was rabid, dozens of threads about how the government and police should be allowed to do anything to stop a terrorist attack. It was a crazy time on the forum.
I made the point several times that those for it may not feel the same way if there is a future dem president who in their opinion abuses it. And bingo I was spot on.
I see. It makes sense- Bush may have been misled, but it was still a needless war.
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As invasive as it was, the I think the NSA was necessary during its day. It takes one or a few bad people to make things worse for everyone else, unfortunately. We have people who hate us.
There it is!
If you criticized the Iraq war here in those days, a dog pile of conservative posters would accuse you of being a DU plant, unamerican, and sometimes, you just got banned.
The world is changing. Surveillance has to change too.
I don;t even remember the particulars of the PA, but intelligence and surallience has to keep up with the changes in technology. I’m sure there was some over reach but things have to keep up.
Not true. In fact that’s an outright lie.
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Trump now inhabits roughly the same space in the GOP re: a singular, increasingly narrow source of authority/truth and tribal identity, beyond any normal understanding of facts, logical demonstration, etc.
I can distinguish between my view of Donald Trump (on one hand) and (on the other) the reality of, say, the stock market’s performance between 2017 and 2019. I don’t see much of that distinction here on the right.
Another thing: Republicans here seem trapped in fatiguing head-games and oppositional defiance disorder; it’s become almost impossible for them to honestly explain what they sincerely think about so many things beyond the necessity of punching libs. That kind of information used to be a real source of value here.
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I was one who was against it. As I said at the time, be careful what you wish for, it may come back to bite you. I warned about it being used against citizens and not just to be used to "fight terrorists ".
I couldn’t say more than that. That was enough to be a pariah. I only gave more info and arguments on other forums. Couldn’t do that here at the time. It was what it was.
There was a time we could have sigs on here and mine was at one time government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take it all away or something thereabouts and tried to explain my viewpoint.
I do understand how it was so supported however. People were sold ot was just to catch the bad guys and who doesn’t want to do that? However, experience shows govt can’t be trusted with that power.
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