He means the opposite of what he said

I've tried to follow the lead of a friend and mentor and not engage in Bush-bashing (even though he, unfortunately, seems to think more highly of the President than I think is merited—but then again, my friend reads far more than I do). (Enough caveats?) In fact, as you may have noticed, I guess I'm turning anti-bashing, period.

One comment from President Bush's speech to the UN today bears critique. (Okay, I know a lot of his comments from that speech bear critique, but only one energized me enough to tap out a critique.) I quote the President: "As the 21st century unfolds, some may be tempted to assume that the threat has receded. This would be comforting. It would be wrong. The terrorists believe time is on their side, so they've made waiting out civilized nations part of their strategy. We must not allow them to succeed."

In my study of history, I've seen that it's usually the people who are right who win out in the long run. Ruinous regimes usually fall, even if it takes 400 years. It's the decent commoner who forebears a dozen generations of decent commoners who eventually wins. The totalitarian overlords are the ones who assert that their life matters more than anything else, that they need to make a legacy, that they need to protect and control everything. The dictator is interested in NOW. The commoner knows that life will grind on as it has for thousands of years, and only faithful plodding will show that time is on their side.

Another caveat: I'm not siding with terrorists. I merely think that using the "time on their side" phrase called President Bush's rhetoric into question. He should have realized that that example never benefits the more powerful side. To critique the "terrorist": Time is on their side, given their communal understanding of life and the idea of one person's sacrifice benefitting the whole. However, they are using the controlling weapon of the powerful totalitarian: death. They have undermined their own cause by resorting to death and violence. There is another class still, the decent commoners of above, who will outlast those who engage in random killing. Time is on the side of the average Muslim. The masses will soon completely tire of death and fear tactics. (See American parallel.)

People want to live decent lives. I want to live a decent life. Is time on my side? Will I outlive our government's fear-mongering and idiotic self-interested bailouts? On that note, sure, people will suffer if our economy collapses. I hope that the steps being taken are merely to parachute the economy back to a reasonable plateau. But the lessons being taught to greedy corporate apprentices is that money is all that matters, and yet it is free to the greedy. Please tell me that time is on my side. I want to live a decent, common life that outlives the current greedy, deathy culture. Just before another greedy, deathy regime steps in to take its place.