No. You cannot justify your present actions by comparing it with other's mistakes (past or present). The only ones who I see doing that constantly are toddlers and politicians.

Oh the irony.

Ok, I've this thread and I think I may be a bit confused on some points. I understood the point that one cannot use the past as an excuse for their own actions. Example, Since Germany almost took over the world, it's ok for Country X to try to do the same.

However, in some of the posts, I'm reading that we aren't suppose to use the past for comparisons of current events and make connections to it. I may have misread something somewhere, but aren't a lot of research papers based on correlating past events with current events? I did a paper once on how today's media seems to control things more than report on things and I used the Spanish-American War as an example of how media can control things.

"You supply me the pictures, I'll supply the war." - I can't remember the editor's name now.

Again, I may be misreading something, but it sounds to me that your brother wasn't making an argument to excuse Bush but merely making a comparison that there have been past presidents who did just as bad or worse. (Don't take that as pro-Bush because I truly dislike the guy as well).

Yeah he was making a comparison and keeps making comparisons. No one in my family excuses him but my brother has a really nationalist view of things, like he thinks what any president does is justified, even genocide can be justifiable.

Ok, that's a little extreme.

"A little extreme" doesn't even begin to describe it.

LOL.

Bumper sticker slogans.

Tell us...which american citizen has suffered from a suspension of habeas corpus?

OH, you must be referring to those enemy combatants locked up at gitmo?

Until recently, the US Constitution never recognized habeas corpus for those people.

But nice try. Maybe you can come back with "bush lied, people died" for all that is worth.

Yes, he has.

Some are already saying he has done more for peace between Israel and its neighbors than any other president in history.

So let's see what happens. Again, history will be a good judge.

Look at Lincoln. He is judged as a great president...but at time he was in office, he had half the US hating him.
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By the same reasoning, should you consider the successes of others to justify your present actions?

Because with both, mistakes and successes, they are all tainted by the subjective views of the people.
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I agree that you remember.

Never forget.

And remain vigilant against such travesties happening ever again.

But there is a far cry from doing that and saying, "Give me a free handout because my great great grandfather died in Auschwitz."

For example, the slavery issue today in the US. Sorry it happened. But the facts remain:

1. The whites were not the first to use slaves.
2. The whites are also the ones who freed the slaves in this nation.
3. Nobody today owns slaves.
4. Nobody today was/is a slave.
5. And in many cases, the ancestors of people in the US today were not associated with slave owners.

I can trace my family history back several hundred years on both sides of my family. Not a single one was a slave owner. So why should I have to pay a group compensation for a group of people owning slaves when many of those people can't trace their history back far enough to discovery if their relatives were slaves?

If they want compensation, let them dig up Washington, Jefferson, and areas of the south and make the dead pay their dead ancestors for things that occurred.

That is the only point I was making.

Not just one, hundreds of them.

You must not be a fan of the news because quite a few of those people also happen to be from America and not related to terrorism. Not only that but recently he also got the power to hold any people captured in America in Guantanamo Bay indefinitely.

So those Americans there, at the very least, don't have that right then?

Been there done that....

Such as?

Of course Lincoln wasn't all that friendly to the Constitution either and wasn't all that big on ending slavery.

Who?

Name some.

Go ahead.

And make sure that they are not enemy combatants. Name all these 'hundreds'.

Name them.

You must not be a fan of the law, or reality. Do you know when Habeas Corpus is allowed to be suspended.

Did you know that it was Congress that sent the bill to Bush to be signed?

So, essentially it came about legally, was signed properly, was being used properly, and in rare instances.

NY Times Advertisement

Now I suggest you actually READ that military commissions act and how it applies.

1. the power to detain a non-citizen suspected of connection to terrorists or terrorism as an unlawful combatant.

(hint: You must be a non-citizen...meaning you are NOT american.)

Now, not sure if you have read the US Constitution, but it is the Constitution of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. To me, that means the rights, duties, etc, are not given to everyone...and only applies inside america.

Again, what Americans?

I expect you to provide names, and circumstances, surrounding each AMERICAN who has lost their habeas corpus rights.

With 'hundreds' of them, it shouldn't be hard for you to provide any.


Yet he is often ranked as the 2nd greatest president.