The court scholar serving Hermann of Thuringia.

The court scholar serving Hermann of Thuringia.
The scholar

2005/12/12

Fisking Bush's latest speech

So, let's see what owwer glorious
leeder
has to say today. My last quick reading didn't
dredge up anything new or very interesting. Let's see what we can
come up with this time.




We're taking the fight to those who
attacked us and to those who
share their murderous vision for future attacks.


Really? America is attacking al Qaeda? Where?
As I recall, the al Qaeda member Zarqawi is the Iraqi "Scarlet Pimpernel"
who's sort of here, there and everywhere, forever present, yet
uncatchable. Many doubt he even exists or is even alive. In
any event, the real-life Zarqawi was operating in the area of Palestine
and only became an active opponent of the US after the US occupation of Iraq, in
June or July of 2003. "...murderous vision", eh? I suppose
one could take that to mean the members of the Iraqi insurgency who
were not actively shooting at American troops on September 11th,
2001. It's an idea that sorta lumps everybody over there into one
big, vague, indeterminate group of "bad guys".



Yet the terrorists have made it clear
that Iraq
is the central front in their war against humanity.


Wow! They're fighting all of humanity? They must be
underworld demons, then. This is the kind of thing I'm referring
to when I talk about Bush & Co making "hysterical"
statements. I don't mean hysterical in terms of funny, I mean
hyserical in terms of Bush & buddies running down the street,
naked, screaming and flailing their arms. The most interesting
thing about these sorts of utterly hysterical statements is that
neither of Bush's prime-of-life, college-graduate daughters are serving
in the Army, fighting in the desert along with everybody else.
Neither is the daughter of Hillary Clinton, the big Democratic
war-hawk, for that matter, indicating that neither Bush nor Clinton
considers the Iraq War to really be any sort of big deal. How is
Iraq the "central front?" Bush has never specified this, despite
his having used the phrase dozens of times.



Last month, my administration released a
document called The
National Strategy for Victory in Iraq


They did indeed do so and an unimpressive document it was. It's
been described as a string of cliches. It contains no deadlines
and no strategies. It was considered so embarrassingly
devoid of useful details
that even Republican Senators Santorum and
Hagel came out against it.



I'm traveling with United States
senators. They are always quick
to hop a ride on Air Force One...

... particularly when they don't have to reimburse the government.


Hmm, I guess this lne might have come off as funny at the time.
Don't know, since I'm just going by the cold text, but it sounds
awfully mean-spirited and dismissive of any advice that Congresspeople
might give. After all, they're just grubby opportunists grabbing
a free ride when and where they can. Congressman John Murtha (D-MA) reponds
anyway (Video).




Our founders faced many difficult
challenges, they made mistakes,
they learned from their experiences and they adjusted their approach.

Our nation's first effort at a governing charter, the Articles of
Confederation, failed. It took years of debate and compromise before
we ratified our Constitution and inaugurated our first president.

It took a four-year civil war and a century of struggle after that
before the promise of our Declaration was extended to all Americans.


Oh good Lord! Is Bush saying the US is going to be occupying Iraq
for the next century or so?!?!? Big, big difference here.
America after the Revolutionary War was independent. America was
NOT occupied by a foreign power "helping" us or "guiding" us until we
were "ready" for freedom. Americans made these choices and
mistakes by themelves. That's simply not true of Iraqis under
American occupation. Unfortunately, the US motivation for
remaining in Iraq is crystal clear. US corporations are hesitant
to invest in Iraq because as it stands, any investment made there now
stands at great risk of being nationalized the moment Iraq obtains a
truly legitimate government, on that truly represented the Iraqi
people. Bush has been trying to square a circle. He has
been trying to arrange a genuinely popular, truly representative
government that nevertheless favors American corporate privileges and
allows the American government to control the Iraqi economy.
Sorry for not sharing his optimism and "can-do" spirit, but I don't
think it can be done.



Just over 2 1/2 years ago, Iraq was in
the grip of a cruel dictator
who had invaded his neighbors, sponsored terrorists, pursued
and used weapons of mass destruction, murdered his own people and,
for more than a decade, defied the demands of the United
Nations and the civilized world.


First off, where is the evidence that Hussein EVER sponsored
terrorism? Military analysts have remarked that Hussein's army
was modeled on the Soviet Red Army. The Red Army was of course
under absolute, iron-fisted control. Why on Earth would Hussein
trust a bunch of rag-tag, undisciplined terrorist-types to carry out
his policies? Why would he expose his country to the vengenace of
countries who could trace attacks back to him?

Second, Hussein did NOT defy the UN. It was demanded of him that
he produce a complete accounting of all of his weapons. He
delivered a 12,000
page document
to the UN that detailed all of the weapons that
he had on hand. The US made many complaints about this document
and claimed that it fell "far, far, far, far short" of listing all of
the weapons the US "knew" Hussein had. Those complaints have not
withstood the test of time. Nothing has been found in Iraq that
seriously deviates from that 12,000 page document. Hussein
disarmed Iraq in accordance with the demands of the UN.



Gentle reader, please understand that I'm only two pages into Bush's
speech and alread I've found a whole passle of lies and
distortions. Bush has AGAIN produced a speech that hides and
distorts far more than it tells. A speech that lies and spins and
covers up far more thn it informs and educates. The guy is a liar
and a fraud and should not be regarded with any respect at all.

No comments: