Reagan & GW Bush

[sharkman]

Already their money is devaluing and China is getting more powerful economically, militarily and otherwise. Iran, North Korea, Russia; nobody fears the U.S. anymore. What a difference a decade makes.

Decade? No, less than that.

What a difference just one very terrible president can make.

Think bigger figleaf. During Clinton's terms, many U.S. government properties were attacked, and 9/11 was plotted and partially carried out before (the terrorists were already in the U.S.) Bush came to power. As was the first WTC attack.

[bush_cheney2004]

However your local police force is now linked with state and federal forces as well. Your local guys are the federal and state guys now. And they DO see it that way.

Hard to argue with success, and the change in probability. Even the restrooms are cleaner.

[Figleaf]

Already their money is devaluing and China is getting more powerful economically, militarily and otherwise. Iran, North Korea, Russia; nobody fears the U.S. anymore. What a difference a decade makes.

Decade? No, less than that.

What a difference just one very terrible president can make.

Think bigger figleaf. During Clinton's terms, many U.S. government properties were attacked, and 9/11 was plotted and partially carried out before (the terrorists were already in the U.S.) Bush came to power. As was the first WTC attack.

Same was true before Clinton, going back several decades really. It's not whether you are being attacked that makes you weak, it is how you can deal with it. Bush's bad strategies have reduced American power and influence, and have encouraged US enemies. Bush's loses represent a diminishment in kind, not merely quantity, of US power.

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[sharkman]

No of course it's not being attacked that makes you weak. I am referring to the enemies of the U.S. and not their attacks, but their lack of fear of the U.S. They used to fear the U.S. and now they don't. It wasn't Bush's policies that did this in the seventies and eighties and nineties.

And how the U.S. has been able to deal with past attacks has reduced the fear of your enemies.

[bush_cheney2004]

No of course it's not being attacked that makes you weak. I am referring to the enemies of the U.S. and not their attacks, but their lack of fear of the U.S. They used to fear the U.S. and now they don't. It wasn't Bush's policies that did this in the seventies and eighties and nineties.

And how the U.S. has been able to deal with past attacks has reduced the fear of your enemies.

It's not that they feared the US in the past...they were constrained by Cold War protocols and a dominant Soviet Union balancing the other side. The Islamic Revolution in Iran was almost 30 years ago...no fear.