I recall a time when George Bush said “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” with no sense of irony as a democratic leader. Same shitty authoritarian mindset on display here
I would also add that isn’t empty talk like “Well he said it once, non biggie”. That statement by POTUS itself drove the national policy other countries. When POTUS says “other nations you are with us or are our enemies”, that matters.
That is a signal the reverberates around with “do we dare to anger USA on this one”. The Afghan war partisipants list is long and contains some not so obvious participants often doing rather small token participations. Which I think is exactly “Well we have to show we are with USA”.
For example here in Finland in the after action report of Finnish participation in Afghanistan tells the reason wasn’t building peace, it wasn’t even combat experience. It was “coalition and alliance building” aka showing USA “we are with them”.
In the after action study one of the interviewed decision makers literally directly quoted:
Yhdysvallat sanoi 9/11 jälkeen: olette joko meidän kanssa tai meitä vastaan.”
United States said after 9/11: You are either with us or against us.
Right above explaining how it was 20 year long very unpopular operation caused losses and achieved nothing in Afghanistan, but hey the Finnish NATO application will go through with flying colors.
The whole time the media blitz was about “Helping and building peace in Afghanistan”. When in reality we went in because USA publicly extorted pretty all of west to show colors.
This isn’t only in Finland in other European after action reports have shown similar “We went in, because Bush publicly demanded show of loyalty”.
Ibram Kendi says the same thing about “anti-racism.” “If you’re not with us you’re against us.” It’s interesting how authoritarians stoke hate no matter their cause.
I recall a time when George Bush said “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” with no sense of irony as a democratic leader. Same shitty authoritarian mindset on display here
Holy shit did he really say that. Jr or Sr?
Jr, addressing congress on September 20th, 2001.
Here’s the exact quote:
“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
I do remember that, shit. I was so young it didn’t click. Damn.
Remember freedom fries? I remember seeing a paper taped to a menu once that said “freedom fries” over what I now know we’re just regular French fries.
Didn’t know why people were calling it that at the time, but looking back… Damn. I wonder how our high school French teacher was doing…
Pakistan proceeding to hide bin laden to exploit the infinite DoD funds glitch introduced by this statement
W. This was just two months after 9/11, as his administration was gearing up to invade Afghanistan.
I would also add that isn’t empty talk like “Well he said it once, non biggie”. That statement by POTUS itself drove the national policy other countries. When POTUS says “other nations you are with us or are our enemies”, that matters.
That is a signal the reverberates around with “do we dare to anger USA on this one”. The Afghan war partisipants list is long and contains some not so obvious participants often doing rather small token participations. Which I think is exactly “Well we have to show we are with USA”.
For example here in Finland in the after action report of Finnish participation in Afghanistan tells the reason wasn’t building peace, it wasn’t even combat experience. It was “coalition and alliance building” aka showing USA “we are with them”.
In the after action study one of the interviewed decision makers literally directly quoted:
Right above explaining how it was 20 year long very unpopular operation caused losses and achieved nothing in Afghanistan, but hey the Finnish NATO application will go through with flying colors.
The whole time the media blitz was about “Helping and building peace in Afghanistan”. When in reality we went in because USA publicly extorted pretty all of west to show colors.
This isn’t only in Finland in other European after action reports have shown similar “We went in, because Bush publicly demanded show of loyalty”.
Sr
Ibram Kendi says the same thing about “anti-racism.” “If you’re not with us you’re against us.” It’s interesting how authoritarians stoke hate no matter their cause.