Posted on 05/28/2005 9:34:45 PM PDT by CHARLITE
ANNAPOLIS -- President Bush yesterday urged Naval Academy graduates to challenge the status quo in the same way he is challenging congressional Democrats to enact his conservative agenda. "This advice comes with a warning: If you challenge established ways of thinking, you will face opposition," Mr. Bush said in his commencement speech at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. "Believe me, I know -- I've lived in Washington for four years.
"The opponents of change are many, and its champions are few, but the champions of change are the ones who make history. Pursue the possibilities others tell you do not exist." It was the first time Mr. Bush has delivered the commencement speech at the Naval Academy since 4 months before 9/11. "When I spoke to the class of 2001, none of us imagined that a few months later we would suffer a devastating surprise attack on our homeland, or that our nation would be plunged into a global war unlike any we had known before," the president said. "The midshipmen I addressed here four years ago are now serving bravely in this struggle," he added. "The new officers who sat in the chairs where you now sit could not have known that their strength and character would be tested so soon."
Mr. Bush rattled off a list of 2001 graduates who went on to serve in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including Edward Slavis, whose battalion helped pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The president quoted the graduate as calling the invasion of Iraq "America's golden moment." Another 2001 graduate became a Navy SEAL who captured dozens of Taliban terrorists in raids throughout Afghanistan. The man went on to guard first lady Laura Bush when she visited Afghanistan, so the president kept his name secret.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.washingtontimes.com ...
ping
To this day I feel a mistaken sense that the most critical capability is to wage W.W. II style campaigns, and epic Cold War battles that never came to pass. It's a hard view to shake.
Now, our southern border, please?
I agree with you. If this president would just secure the borders (north and south) with adequate troops, plus a double, electrified, 20 ft. high FENCE (!!) so that this human flood tide would effectively end - finally - the political consequences would be so outstandingly positive, that no Democrat could possibly hope to win the White House for the next 25 years at least. That's what I honestly and truly and objectively don't understand about Bush's thinking on this one issue!
Thanks for your comments.
Char :)
"That's what I honestly and truly and objectively don't understand about Bush's thinking on this one issue!"
Cheap labor. The grist in the mill of agriculture and much of retail. Close that border tight, and you will have higher wages even for illegals in the US. And that will cut into the bottom line of a lot of business. The Republican Party is many things, but one of the things it is is the party of business.
So, there's a tension between anti-immigration folks, who get angry, and business interests who give money and support.
That border will never be closed.
The Republicans won't do it for the aforementioned reason.
The Democrats won't do it because immigration is expanding their voter base.
Char
As much as I hate to say it, if a next attack comes to that, it will depend upon who wins the PR war...since both parties (as mentioned)are at fault.
And considering how the Republicant's are at PR...
The same thing that has happened in the War on Terror.
An Axis of Evil was declared, a policy of pre-emption declared. And America is bogged down in Iraq and will not touch the remaining two members of the Axis of Evil.
What will happen if something is based on border entry will be the symbolic beefing up of things, and perhaps a reduction of cross border flows for a time. But actually closing the border will provoke serious business losses. In a time of recession (which will happen if there is another 9/11) business will scream.
And there will be denials that Mexicans crossing the border had anything to do with it.
Americans would not have cared about Abu Graib or burning the Koran in December, 2001. By May 2005, they remain the "story" of American excess to all those who want to oppose the war. Attempt to close the border, and all of those pressures will come to bear. And it will be pinched business that makes the case most strongly.
I state things as I believe they are, and not as I think they ought to be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.