While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. (Applause.) Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: "When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security." That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power. (Applause.)
The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. (Applause.) These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. (Applause.) Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. (Applause.) And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory. (Applause.)
Excuse me, but I do think it is legitimate to question the pretext we were fed to go to war. Questioning is not anti-patriotic, but is indeed, fundamentally patriotic. We demand the truth, and the answers, not more rhetoric backed up with fanfare from a screened out and sympathetic audiance.
On another note, if you do bother to review the speech, it looks as though he has some very crafty speech writers working for him. I don't trust them either.
3 comments:
Excellent post - I'm in the middle of reading the speech now.
To use something like Veteran's day - something that honors my grandfather, uncle, and other members of my family and yours, to single out war critics, to single out DEMOCRATS by name - is to me, disgusting.
Lest we forget this is the purple heart bandage crew who had NO problem minimizing combat injured veterans.
Lest we forget this is the same group who went ape-shit over Clinton's Kosovo war, and completely dismantled that rationale to be equivalent to a sex cover-up.
Bush's rhetoric continues to get more disgusting, more insulting - and it's to the point where I blame the people who buy into it - your neighbors, your coworkers - more than Bush himself. If people didn’t buy into this, his rhetoric would be completely powerless.
Bush is not intelligent enough to concoct this strategy - he has a team of people behind him who make him move like a puppet, as he has no foreign or diplomatic knowledge whatsoever.
And that very team depends on people to buy into the bullshit. Blame the people, and blame them right to their faces.
I wholeheartedly agree, Jeremy. It gets tough when it's old friends who've become dismayingly righter-winged over the years, and family members whom you love who need to be confronted, but I think you are correct. Also, I think they must espouse Bush et al's immoral and indecent lack of values, which makes it easier for me to break with them. How could anyone with even a speck of intelligence, humnity and/or common sense still believe this crew in the White House?
The leadership didn't support the troops before the war and they don't stand behind them now
... their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. - G W Bush
Unarmored Humvees, Vietnam-era body armor, radios and rifles. No raising taxes to pay for the venture. No reinstating the draft. No provision for an adverse reception, (flowers in the gun barrels, etc.). No use of CS gas.
Let's you and him fight. GWB is a utopian coward. Same as Osama.
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