Presidential Jibber Jabber…
January 10th, 2007That was sheer jibber jabber. My eyes glazed over through the monotonous tone of the president’s speech, made worse by those titleless books on the screen behind him. Did you understand a word of it?
Transcript
AP: Bush Takes Iraq Blame, Says He’ll Send 21,500 More Troops
January 10th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I dislike the man more than ever, after suffering through his speech.
samesther@bellsouth.net
January 11th, 2007 at 8:05 am
RESPONSE OF THE BIRMINGHAM PEACE PROJECT TO GEORGE W. BUSH’S “NEW WAY FORWARD” IN IRAQ
The Birmingham Peace Project condemns the administration’s supposed “new way forward” as more of the same unlawful and disgraceful policy that the American people rejected in the last election and the world rejected from its inception. When Gerald Ford withdrew American forces from Vietnam ending another tragic, unpopular and doomed war, he said that “America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam” but could not do so “by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned.”
As far as the American people are concerned, the war on Iraq should likewise be finished. It was predicated on innumerable false premises from the start and permeated with untruths throughout. We were told Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was developing nuclear weapons and that he had ties to Al Qaeda, both simply lies. We were told our forces would be welcomed as liberators. They have been attacked as occupiers. We were told the battle was over and the U.S. and its allies had prevailed. The bloodshed had just begun and, not only has the U.S. not prevailed, it has no realistic chance of doing so. Yesterday, one element of truth, however distorted, was seen when we were told that “(f)ailure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.” In fact, failure was inevitable and it has been a disaster.
The United States never had a chance of “winning,” because the war was illegal from the start. At George Bush’s command, the U.S. invaded a sovereign country, not threatening us in any way, in violation of the United Nations Charter and in defiance of the entire world. It was launched by a cynical cabal who have seen combat only on their television screens and condemned thousands of young Americans – and tens of thousands of Iraqis – to death and mutilation. Indeed, this misbegotten war has likely killed and maimed more Iraqis than did Saddam’s brutal rule. And while Bush accepts responsibility for “mistakes” that have been made, neither he nor members of his administration have made any sacrifice, much less the extreme sacrifices made by those he refers to, and condemns to continuing sacrifice, as “extraordinary and selfless men and women willing to step forward and defend us.” Those men and women deserve better.
It is impossible to detail all the hypocrisy of the “new strategy” in a short statement. We do know that, while claiming we must succeed in Iraq, Bush places the burden on the Iraqi government to clean up the mess he created and warns that “America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.” Presumably, that means that American patience will wear thin and the Iraqi government cannot rely on our continued “support.”
The United States has two obligations to Iraq. First, it is obliged to leave Iraqis to decide their own future without U.S. troops. Second, it is obliged to pay to rebuild what it destroyed. Any “plan” that fails to carry out these moral imperatives is neither “new” nor a “way forward.” The administration has dressed its doomed, deadly and disastrous policies in different clothes. Its claim that this is something different and decisive is its greatest falsehood yet.
David Gespass
ThePasss@aol.com
January 13th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
How can educated men and women believe that a religeous war can possibly be “won”. These zealots kill each other over doctrine, imagine the Baptists going over to the Catholic church one day and shooting them because they have a bingo game. American Christians are only mildly religeous compared to muslims. That’s why it’s unwinable but winning is not why it was done.
This war was a scam to raise the price of oil so that the oil companies could get richer. Terrorism is only the excuse.