“And we acted in Iraq, Where the former regime sponsored terror…”
Most of the terror sponsoring activities in Iraq occurred in the 1980’s when Saddam was our friend. There as been no link to Saddam and worldwide terror activities.
“ …possessed and used weapons of mass destruction,”
Again this was in the 80’s. He didn’t use them in the last war and as yet it is not apparent that he even had any.
“…and for 12 years defied the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council.”
Let the record show that Morocco, Israel and Turkey have not lived up to the demands of the Security Council for in excess of 20 years and Croatia, Indonesia, Sudan, Armenia, India, Pakistan and others defy more recent resolutions. I sure hope we aren’t gong to make that criterion for invading these countries.
“Our coalition enforced the international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history.”
Coalition is a stretch and only the UN has the authority to authorize military enforcement of its resolutions. 5,000 dead and unnumbered wounded Iraqi civilians my want to take exception to the humaneness of the war.
“The terrorists became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak”
These guys don’t doubt our military power. The reason that they operate as they do is because they understand our overwhelming strength and are going after our weakness. Unfortunately Bush and his crew has fallen into the trap that they set for us.
“We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power.”
When I look at the makeup of the al Qaeda leadership I see Saudi Arabia as the heart of the terrorist power and funding. Given our policy of supporting dictatorships and Israeli occupation forces in the Middle East we are making enemies faster than we can kill them.
“In Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions.”
If you believe this I have a bridge I want to sell you. Given our track record of supporting dictators in the region do you think the man on the street in Baghdad would buy this?
“Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front.”
Not what he said going in to Iraq. Back then it as weapons of mass destruction and a threat to the security of the Nation. Truth be known, the one thing bush learned from his old man was to not let the war end before the next election.
"Following WWII, we lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany, and stood with them as they built representative governments. …America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit –“
Japan and Germany were real countries and had homogeneous societies. Iraq is another Yugoslavia made up by a bunch of striped suits after WW I. Bush must think that we are all devoid of any sense of history.
“ And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.”
Sounds like the 2003 rendition of the domino theory. I suspect that we are creating more terrorists than we are eliminating. We have brought over 600 of them closer to home in Cuba. Has anyone articulated an end game for these “detainees?” I suspect that this move alone has generated 2400 terrorists who view what we are doing as equal to what the Japanese did in China.
