Posted on 01/09/2007 8:46:18 AM PST by Reagan Man
I've heard this "most important" speech so many times my ears are glazed over.
By the time this is all over I suspect the Bush administration will have done such a thorough job wrecking its credibility that Osama bin Laden will be able to win the White House as a Democrat in 2008.
Yea OK and after this last chance President Bush will have just as much last chance time as the Democrat's 100 hours.
I expect that Bush will offer a little something for everyone. The so-called "troop surge" is doing a great job politically by "bringing on" the fight over defunding the troops and forcing the Democrats to "cut and run" just like Republicans always said they'd do.
Most people on the left wants him to fold his hand and walk away. Ain't gonna happen because he's hold all the aces and the Iranians are looking for cards up their sleeves. In fact, the joker card is the only one left for Iranian president and when the chips are down, he loses big time.
When is the State of the Union address? I know it's coming up any day now.
When the GW has to counter all of the disinformation from the press about the war it makes his job alot harder. I do think he should always make the point of the terror connection that was strong in the old Iraq. The meetings that were had with the Iraq intelligence and Mr. Atta were not for tea and biscuits. The terrorist training facilities in Iraq were not movie sets.
The liberal media, Democrats, and pro-Muslim groups here have all undermined Bush's confidence and weakened his ability to wage a full-scale war.
Don't forget the ones on the right who want him to fail; in fact, they're hoping he fails.
You can see who they are on this forum; a lot of them post nothing except threads detrimental to the president and the GOP.
Gonna have to wait for the second 9/11 to get that. Or maybe the third.
Sorry, hope you and yours aren't at ground zero....
We will know if the president is serious if his proposal for a " new way forward" contains observable measurable goals, milestones, and timelines to assess if the new plan is working. The White House credibility on Iraq is mighty thin judging from the Midterms and Iraq was primarily the cause. The reason, at least in my view, is the WH oversold the war and kept painting rosy scenarios that never materialized. The electorate has grown justifiably cynical.
Personally,I am not hopeful about the situation in Iraq. The difference between what the White House is saying and what I am hearing from troops returning from Iraq is too large a gap to be bridged. Candidly, I think some fundamental mistakes were made early on that now make the situation irretrievable. Anything being said now is more likely to be a domestic political solution than a military geopolitical solution.
We all know the most important speech from the previous president: "I did not have..."
In Howlin-speak, "the ones"=conservatives.
BS; I'm a conservative, too; just not one that is willing to cut off my nose to get Hillary and liberals elected like you apparently are.
I've always had several issues with the Bush administrations handling of the post invasion phase. For starters, the US military exists to fight wars. The US military should not be employed as policeman to the world, nation builders/nation rebuilders, or to spread democracy to the Islamic world. And that segues into my biggest bone of contention. As a nation, the Iraqi`s have proven they don't believe in a future of freedom and liberty for their country. Therefore, the major failures in Iraq do not fall on the US military. The Iraqi people have failed themselves.
Here are the three things Bush needs to emphasize in his speech to have any chance of convincing America that he is right:
1. The American soldiers and marines, the majority of whom have been saying that we are winning in Iraq and that it would be a very big mistake to leave now.
2. The Leftist Press, and it's propaganda drum-roll of pro-enemy defeatism, and how they have been ignoring the message that's out there, from the soldiers and marines, available to anyone who is really interested.
3. A detailed list of the terrorist connections to Saddam and to the current death-squads in Iraq.
He won't bring any of these points into his speech in any meaningful way.
His speech will fail.
However, the policy will not be abandoned, because the rats know in their hearts that Bush is right on this one, and we will get the extra troops and we will continue kicking ass on the Iraqi front in the WOT.
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