President Bush Wants UN to be 'More than Empty Debating Society' in MI Speech

January 29, 2003 | prairiebreeze

[prairiebreeze]

President Bush just gave another GLOOOORRIOUS speech in Grand Rapids MI. In talking about Iraq he stated that he "went to the United Nations because I wanted the UN to be something other than an empty debating society". It was priceless.

He also asks citizens to contact their Senators about putting reasonable caps on medical malpractice so "this lawsuit lottery doesn't ruin our health care".

You'll see transcript of speech soon.

[carton253]

I saw that too... Fox was making it out to be a "adlai stephensen" moment.

[inquest]

Asking them to assume more power over the world is not standing up to them. You might want to take your own advice from your tagline.

[carton253]

In the language of Bushbots, this is called "standing up to the UN".

Ouch! Stop it! You're killing me with that blistering wit! Ouch! Ouch!

[inquest]

I make no claims to wit, just logic. How 'bout you?

[SerpentDove]

How goes it, Mr. Apes? Keeping yourself well, I hope!

:-))

[cake_crumb]

"Dubya was beyond electrifying last night, mostly for content although his delivery was good, too. His choices of what to include in the SOTU were classics."

Indeed he was. It was a POWERFUL speech. I was awestruck.

Here's a great quote, in reference to the UN (and their useful idiots in the anti-war club) and Saddam :

"Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."

[carton253]

I agree with you about the UN. I want to see us out. I don't agree with your over reaching generalization about "bushbots".

[steveegg]

Well you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. (one of the few lucid utterances from the Rolling Stones)

[knighthawk]

The transcript is here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030129-4.html

The best part:

So I call upon the world to come together and insist that this dangerous man disarm. But should they choose not to continue to pressure Saddam, and should he continue to defy the world, for the sake of our peace, for the sake of the security, this country will lead a coalition of other willing nations and we will disarm Saddam Hussein. If need be, if war is brought upon us like I said last night, I want to assure you, particularly those who wear the uniform and those who have a loved one in the military, we will commit the full force and might of the United States military. And for the name of peace, we will prevail. (Applause.)

We will free people. This great, powerful nation is motivated not by power for power's sake, but because of our values. If everybody matters, if every life counts, then we should hope everybody has the great God's gift of freedom. We go into Iraq to disarm the country. We will also go in to make sure that those who are hungry are fed, those who need health care will have health care, those youngsters who need education will get education. But most of all, we will uphold our values. And the biggest value we hold dear is the value of freedom. (Applause.) As I said last night, freedom and liberty, they are not America's gifts to the world. They are God's gift to humanity. We hold that thought dear to our hearts.

This is a great nation. America is a strong nation. America is a nation full of people who are compassionate. America is a nation that is willing to serve causes greater than ourselves. There's no question we face challenges ahead of us -- challenges at home, challenges abroad. But as I said last night, history has called the right nation into action. History has called the United States into action, and we will not let history down.

[Quix]

OOOOOO.

I don't like the sound of that. Setting them up to be more forcefully IN CONTROL TOWARD WORLD GOV!!! SIGH.

At who's expense--besides us freedom-loving individuals!

[knighthawk]

Bush: "I went to the United Nations for a reason. One, I wanted the United Nations to be something other than an empty debating society"

No more UN for US-list

If people want on or off this list, please let me know.

[samtheman]

The UN was supposed to be our last, best hope for peace...It failed.

But something else succeeded: the military might of the USA. That is the best hope for peace in the world and it is working.

We ended Nazi Germany and Facist Japan. We ended the the Soviet Evil Empire. And we will defeat the Islamofacist threat.

[inquest]

I don't hesitate to use that term whenever I see anyone twisting logic to the breaking point on his behalf.

[cake_crumb]

"Perhaps the only good the U.N. can be is to force the axis of weasels to pony up the cash to cover our costs of invading Iraq and saving their arses."

The UN wouldn't do that, even if it weren't mostly run by impotent Muslim men (and a few Anglos).

How much of the promised cost of the FIRST Gulf war was actually paid by all the countries who promised to help finance it?

[prairiebreeze]

thanks for the link knighthawk

[MomwithHope]

My husband, daughter and I were at the Grand Rapids speech and had great seats. It was a wonderful speech. He got more standing O's than I could count. He didn't use a teleprompter that I could see and had no notes. He connected in a very real way.
I LOVED it when at the beginning he introduced 3 local congressmen who had traveled with him from Washington, our new Republican Secretary of State Mike Cox and he mentioned everyone's name EXCEPT our new DEM pro-abort governor Gennifer Granhom. She sat in the front on the first upper level and only applauded a few times, and NOT at all during the standing O on tax relief.
I was surprised she was even there.
All in all, he reinforced his themes from last night's speech. Tommy Thompson introduced him, calling last night's speech "great" and introduced him as our "great" president.

[JennysCool]

Iraq May Chair Disarmament Conference
By BARBARA BORST
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Iraq is in line to take over as chairman of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in May, prompting one U.S. official Wednesday to say: ``The irony is overwhelming.''

Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, issued the comment as officials realized Iraq was in line for the rotating post. India now holds it and will be followed by Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland and Israel as countries take the job in alphabetical order.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Tuesday that the choice of conference leaders is ``a purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order'' with five or six conference presidents each year, each serving a term of about four weeks.

``I think you could expect that from time to time a letter would come up that might raise questions in certain quarters, but it has no political significance, I would say,'' said Eckhard, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, when asked if Iraq holding the job did not seem odd.

The 66-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world's top disarmament forum. It meets annually for 24 weeks in three sessions beginning in January.

[carton253]

I don't hesitate to use that term whenever I see anyone twisting logic to the breaking point on his behalf.

I'll make a note.

[prairiebreeze]

thanks for the link knighthawk

The phrase I posted came from the following: "We're having an honest debate in this country, and we should, about peace and how to achieve the peace. It should be clear to you now, though, that in my judgment you don't contain Saddam Hussein. You don't hope that therapy will somehow change his evil mind -- (laughter) -- that you deal with Saddam Hussein. I hope we can do this peacefully.

I went to the United Nations for a reason. One, I wanted the United Nations to be something other than an empty debating society. (Applause.) I wanted it to address this threat. By a 15-0 vote in the Security Council, they said, yes, it's a problem and he must disarm. But the fundamental question is, when. There's a lot of focus on the inspectors, and we wish them well. But the role of the inspectors is not to play hide-and-seek with Saddam Hussein in a country the size of California.

Between GW calling the UN what it actually is and Tony Blair telling his Parliament that the NK's nukes will have to be addressed after Iraq----whew, what a week!

[prairiebreeze]

**My husband, daughter and I were at the Grand Rapids speech and had great seats.**

Oh I'm green, positively green! :)