President Bush gives the doubters a history lesson

In what may be the best speech President George W. Bush has ever given, he hits a grand slam home run with a complete history lesson for his critics. Going back to Germany, then Japan, on to South Korea, and then Viet Nam, Bush quoted the media, generals, a multitude of 'experts' who doubted that those nations would ever be functioning democracies. Bush was in Kansas City, before the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Then as now, people argued that the real problem was America's presence and that if we would just withdraw, [snip]

... "The question now before us comes down to this: Will today's generation of Americans resist the deceptive allure of retreat — and do in the Middle East what veterans in this room did in Asia?" (NYS)

Many democrats have changed their mind about the direction Iraq is headed, having seen real progress for themselves in the last few weeks. However, surrender monkey Harry Reid is steadfast in belief that the war "is lost".

" President Bush's attempt to compare the war in Iraq to past military conflicts in East Asia ignores the fundamental difference between the two," Mr. Reid said. "Our nation was misled by the Bush administration in an effort to gain support for the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses, leading to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our history. While the president continues to stay the course with his failed strategy in Iraq, paid for by the taxpayers, American lives are being lost and there is still no political solution within the Iraqi government."

I don't have a link to the transcripit yet, and I don't know who the speech writer is, but he should get a bonus in his next paycheck. This speech was a winner!

________________________________________________________________________________
Other reading:
Right and Wrong -- Obama: No Military Solution in Iraq, Potbelly Stove
China v The Taliban, The Amboy Times

Have You Thanked A Truck Driver Today?, By R.J. Godlewski (a.k.a. Road Sailor, Good Buddy!)
Tech Tuesday, 123Beta
Being Illegal Not A Crime, Court Says
French Mosque Surveillance Program, Stop Islamic Conquest

Comments

[george]

I guess this is where the 27% is, The ones that are to srupid to read. Bush fought long and hard, saying there was no comparison between this war and the one in vietnam. Now it all changes. Do you even know what the nationalities of the 9/11 highjackers were. Are you surprized that the majority were Saudi's. And who do we attack? Iraq, proven to have nothing to do with 9/11. even the president admits it. Look it up morons. there can be 2 opinions but only one fact. And Clinton? living so far in the past with katrina and walter reed hospital and not raising the pay of soldiers 3 1/2 %. the president felt it was needed. Jesus, who are you people?

[Freedom Now]

Partition sounds like such a neat and clean idea. Its simple, just divide the country into three parts.

Thats a great plan if you want to aggravate the situation.

Who is going to keep Kirkuk and Mosul?

The Sunnis and Kurds will not do without it. Either the Sunnis or the Kurds would lose out on the oil wealth and give up their claims to cities that they have declared they would not abandon.

Turkey has already warned that they would invade Kurdistan if the Kurds form their own country.

The Turkmen of northern Iraq would be very dissatisfied if they are not given a homeland too, but where would that be?

There are a great deal of mixed Sunni and Shiite areas throughout central Iraq. They continue despite the sectarian violence since Al Qaeda blew up the Golden Dome.

Then you have to think about the Iraqis themselves. Except for those in Kurdistan there is no will of the people for such a partition.

What we have here is another Indian partition with even greater bloodshed. In the wake of the partitioning of India there was a tragedy of violence, which would pale in comparison to an Iraqi partition.

Many times the easy way out is much worse than a difficult solution that requires persistence.

[Ortho]

Sure Debbie, you can forward the plan to Washington.

Judging by the hits logged on my site meter, Washington bureaucrats are already wise to my suggestions and thoughts.

[Debbie]

Ortho: What a great plan. Can I forward it to Washington ???

Thanks everybody for the comments. I noticed Bush complimented Maliki in his speech today. Then Maliki made some snide remark about not needing the US as a friend, that he could get other friends in the region ... like Iran. Wow.

[Debbie]

Thanks for the comments everybody. I've been so busy today, just now getting back on the computer. I appreciate the input from each of you.

[Yankee Doodle]

The problem in Iraq is Saudi influence: money, jihadis and expertise.

I suspect that is part of what causes Iran to get involved: Riyadh is an enemy, the Wahhabis call for the death of the Shiites, Bush is seen as a Saudi vassal, and Bush often threatens Iran.

If Bush really wants to win this war, he needs to get onto his buddies in Riyadh.

http://stopislamicconquest.blogspot.com/2007/08/riders-on-storm.html

[Ortho]

I don't know much about history. I know little about politics. But, one thing I know for sure, is that the U.S. did not face close to same number of insurgents in German, Japan, or South Korea as it is currently facing in Iraq.

Bush's vision for a democratic, peaceful Iraq is admirable. It's also dangerously utopian. Furthermore, insurgents vastly outnumber the close to 170,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq. If Bush, the self-proclaimed "war-time President," seriously wants to win this war he should reinstate the draft, institute a war-time economy, form alliances with the world community, train paramilitary mercenary groups, and send more American men and women to Iraq.

Or, if he and the U.S. government does not want to follow this course of action, they should follow Stormwarning's and others' partition suggestion.

[Stormwarning]

I still believe that the near term future for the Maliki gov't is pretty dim, and that a partitioned federal state is coming.

[Todd Anthony]

Good stuff Debbie. Furthermore, this same evidence that President Bush used to supposedly mislead the American public was cited for nearly a decade by the Clinton Administration as well as SEVERAL notable foreign intelligence agencies...