Hi all; President's radio address, with Bilow commentary:
Transcript: Bush Outlines Iraq Strategy
President Bush's weekly radio address, September 13, 2003
Good morning. Two years ago this week, America suffered a brutal attack. We will never forget the burning towers and the smoke over Arlington Cemetery, and the passengers who rushed the hijackers. Yet history asks for more than memory. On September the 11th, 2001, we began a war on global terror that continues to this hour.
In the decades before that terrible day, the terrorists conducted a series of bolder and bolder attacks in the Middle East and beyond. [Bilow: The truth is that terror attacks in the Middle East continue to grow bolder since after 9/11. Bush has made zero progress.] They became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak, and would never offer a sustained and serious response. They now know otherwise. [Bilow: By this logic, the terrorists should be giving up. Instead, they blew up 4 bombs in Iraq just in the past month or two.
Together with a coalition of nations, we have struck back against terror worldwide, capturing and killing terrorists, and breaking cells and freezing assets. In Afghanistan we removed the Taliban regime that harbored al Qaeda. In Iraq, we defeated a regime that sponsored terror, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and defied the United Nations Security Council for 12 years. [Bilow: Funny that Bush is accusing Sadam of supporting terror here, but unlike in the case of Afghanistan, is failing to name the actual act. This is because there is little connection between Saddam's Iraq and terror. What he's doing is trying to make Iraq a part of the war on terror despite the fact that Al Qaeda has flocked to the place only since Saddam was prevented from burning them out.] We have helped to liberate people from oppression and fear.
Today, with our help, the people of Iraq are working to create a free, functioning and prosperous society. [Bilow: The Iraqis must think of this as quite a joke.] The terrorists know that if these efforts are successful, their ideology of hate will suffer a grave defeat. So they are attacking our forces, international aid workers, and innocent civilians. Their goal is to drive us out of Iraq before our work is done. They are mistaken, and they will fail. [Bilow: This is an interesting semantic error. The only belief of the terrorists that he mentioned is the paragraph is that "the terrorists know that if these efforts are successful, their ideology of hate will suffer a grave defeat". So is Bush saying that if our efforts in Iraq suceed, the terrorists will not "suffer a grave defeat"? My guess is that the speech just wasn't written very carefully.] We will do what is necessary to win this victory in the war on terror.
We are following a clear strategy with three objectives: Destroy the terrorists, enlist international support for a free Iraq, and quickly transfer authority to the Iraqi people. [Bilow: Notice that he fails to include as an objective the idea of giving the Arabs fewer reasons to resort to terror. Like with Hawkmoon, Bush sees no possible solution except the one that leads to bloodshed and defeat.] Through a series of ongoing operations, our military is taking direct action against Saddam loyalists and foreign terrorists. [Bilow: Notice that Bush is ignoring the various other groups shooting at us in Iraq.] One major effort underway right now, called Operation Longstreet, is seeking and finding our enemies wherever they hide and plot. Already, this operation has yielded hundreds of detainees and seized hundreds of weapons, [Bilow: As is evident from the photographs of the Iraqi street celebrating the destruction of our military vehicles, there are millions of Iraqis giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and the enemy is undoubtedly in possession of millions of weapons. Those "hundreds of weapons" don't make a hill of beans in a country that is saturated with machine guns.] and we will remain on the offensive against the terrorists. [Bilow: Note how the President says we are on the offensive even though it is clear that it is the terrorists that are the ones acting, and that we are only reacting. It is the terrorists that are bombing us, not us them. It is the terrorists that are destroying (our) pipelines, not us destroying theirs. What Bush is doing here is trying to create an illusion of success out of a tissue of failure.]
We are expanding international cooperation in rebuilding Iraq. [Bilow: This is pure BS. The truth is that over the past few months, the number of foreigners in Iraq has gone down as they have begun getting targeted by the rebels. Maybe what he really means to say is that we are attempting to get other countries involved in the tarpit.] Today in Geneva, Secretary of State Powell is meeting with Secretary General of the United Nations and representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council. They are discussing ideas for a new resolution to encourage wider participation in this vital task. [Bilow: Translation: Bush's previous resolution got shot down in flames, now he's seeing what kind of deal he can get.]
And we're moving forward on a specific plan to return sovereignty and authority to the Iraqi people. [Bilow: It's amazing that they've been planning this war for a year or more and they still do not even have a "specific plan" to return sovereignty. Maybe Bush is indirectly admitting that the Administration's plan, before the Iraqis began shooting at us, was to maintain control over Iraq for the "forseeable future". But to admit that there is not yet any specific plan is an indication of gross failure.] We have created a governing council made up of Iraqi citizens. [Bilow: Some of these jokers are wanted for fraud and haven't been in Iraq nearly since before I was born. Nor are they generally accepted by the Iraqis as good representatives.] The council has selected a committee that is developing a process through which Iraqis will draft a new constitution for their country. Day to day operations of many government tasks have been turned over to ministers appointed by the Governing Council. And when a constitution has been drafted and ratified by the Iraqi people, Iraq will enjoy free and fair elections, and the coalition will yield its remaining authority to a free and sovereign Iraqi government. [Bilow: It will be interesting to see what the "coalition" will do if the Iraqis vote in an Islamic republic.]
We have a strategy in Iraq and a mission. [Bilow: This is an interesting comment. Bush's problem is that the war has gone so badly that it is generally believed by the American public that there is no strategy and only an ill-defined mission. Certainly the admission that there is not yet any "specific plan" to return sovereignty to Iraq is an indication that the claim that there is a strategy is a bit exaggerated.] We will fight and defeat the terrorists there, so we don't have to face them in America. [Bilow: The simplicity of this argument ignores the claims by both the British and American secret intelligence services that invading Iraq would inflame the Arab world and revitalize the terrorists. If our being in Iraq were a simple matter of "fighting the terrorists", the President might make sense here, but the fact is that our troops do very little fighting of terrorists in Iraq. What our troops doing when they shot up all those Iraqi policemen? It's not like our killing so indiscriminately is gaining us any friends in the country.] And we will help transform Iraq into an example of progress and democracy and freedom that can inspire change and hope throughout the Middle East.
Thank you for listening.
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-- Carl |
