Are You Feeling "The Bonds of Friendship" With Iraq? Sub title: More Speechifying In Front Of People Paid To Stand In The Audience

The big Dick Cheney spent today, at great taxpayer expense, loading up and firing the Presidential Propaganda Catapult - of course, not in front of a challenging audiance, but some National Guard folks in the wonderful state of Minnesota. So, did he say anything new? Nope. Have a gander:

Our coalition has also put great effort into standing up the Iraqi Security Forces. As those forces gain strength and experience, and as the political process advances, we'll be able to decrease troop levels without losing our capacity to defeat the terrorists. And as always, decisions about troop levels will be driven by conditions on the ground and by the judgment of our military commanders -- not by artificial time lines set by politicians in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)

And so, is he suggesting that any time line he an his boss (since they are politicians in DC) put into place is going to be "artificial?" And what exactly does an "artificial time line" look like?

Every American serving in this war can be certain that the people of our country do not support a policy of passivity, resignation, or defeatism in the face of terror. The United States will never go back to the false comforts of the world before September 11th, 2001. Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness. And this nation made a decision: We will engage these enemies -- facing them far from home, so we do not have to face them on the streets of our own cities. (Applause.)

Sure we agree here, but we don't agree that we need to defend our streets by invading countries that had absolutely nothing to do with Nine Eleven. By the way, is any one else done with these bastards slapping the Nine Eleven Monkey for political purposes? I, for one, am very tired of it.

There is still difficult work ahead, because the terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in the global war on terror. They are running a war against the civilized world. We're dealing with enemies that recognize no rule of warfare and accept no standard of morality. They have declared their intention to bring great harm to any nation that opposes their aims. Their prime target is the United States. So we have a responsibility to lead in that fight.

If the terrorists' prime target is/are on US soil, why do we keep giving them valuable target practice in Iraq?

The United States is a nation that keeps its word, and so we will carry out our strategy for victory in Iraq. America is a good and a generous country, and the conduct of our military is showing the Iraqi people the true character of the United States. Americans in uniform have worked in neighborhoods to make sure that more Iraqi families have electricity, water, and sanitation. They've seen to it that children have classrooms and school supplies. By their openness, and their decency, and their kindness to others in thousands of interactions every day, Americans have built bonds of friendship between our two countries. It's a sign that much is right with the world as democratically-elected representatives work to build a new Iraqi government while the tyrant who filled mass graves and terrorized Iraq for decades and started two wars went from a palace to a bunker to a spider hole to jail.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel any kind of bond of friendship with the Iraqi Nation. Not in the least bit. Moreover, I don't get any sense that they appreciate us there. Nor do I agree that what is happening in Iraq is a sign that "much is right with the world." Is it me, or is the Big Dick leading with the wrong head, or did he lose all sense after fragging his pal?

And last, but not least, we see the Big Dick Cheney hang himself thusly committing rhetorical suicide in public one more time:

Ladies and gentlemen, none of us can know every turn that lies ahead for America in the fight against terror. Yet the direction of events is plain to see, and this period of struggle and testing is also a time of promise.

Oh, and by the way, haven't we heard this speech numerous times over? I'm not going to do the comparisons, but I think a more important question is how much did this speech cost us taxpayers. Again, we see clearly that the ROI is not worth the outlay and there is nothing conservative about these clowns.