I can say it was the greatest speech by a politician I have ever heard live. I'm 30, so I don't remember too many of the great presidential speakers and really only remember since the Carter era.
Simplistic. Clint Eastwood like. Not one plan beside military action. Open ended and dangerous. Mission creep could destabilize the whole middle east and lead to us killing millions of people in other countries and thousands more of our own troop after we get Bin Laden and his followers
Oh yeah, forgot to add.. but can they really see all this through... this part right here: By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder. And tonight the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: -- Deliver to United States authorities all of the leaders of Al Qaeda who hide in your land. -- Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens you have unjustly imprisoned. -- Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. -- Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. And hand over every terrorist and every person and their support structure to appropriate authorities. -- Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating. These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. or is it gonna be a big mess?
Glynch, I don't think I've ever met a poster I consistently disagree with as much as you. You'll have to share your views on the Clintons some time, just for grins. You speak like our policy is determined by the President's speech. The main point of the speech was to unite America and to gain support for what we are going to have to do. It isn't going to be easy, but the goal is worthwhile and necessary. Bah! There aren't many areas of the world less stable than the middle east. Bin Laden and his extremist clerics are trying to overthrow all of the moderate muslim and secular governments in the area. If you still think that you can reason with all these people and bring them to see the light of peace, I've got a housing development on the West Bank to sell you. Liberal be gone!
The Taliban will have shown great courage if they refuse these demands, because for all intensive purposes, they just removed themselves from the face of the earth. The irony is that the terrorists will still be alive and active no matter what offensive we take. So we had better be prepapred to suffer the consequences of those actions. We will lose lives. No doubt. In my opinion it's something we must do, and eventually, after a long time, the terrorist acts will be few and far between. I still believe the Taliban will come to their senses. They have everything to lose, and for what, to support something their religion does not even support. It would be senseless not to meet our demands. I can't imagine a group of people that would make such an illogical decision.
I don't think he said enough to quell the ever growing hate crimes against AMERICAN muslims. I wouldn't say it was "The Greatest... blah blah" but it was determined and forceful, heart-touching and patriotic. I was glad to see the creation of the "Office of Homeland Security" I hope that is a success, honest. His demands on the Taliban were unnattainable, thereby leaving military action as an only alternative. I wish our military the best. Those are truly some brave people. Bush has put them in a sticky situation. A transcript of his speech can be found at this CNN link.
I agree - I had hoped that he would speak out against violent attacks like these - they should be treated as terrorism in my mind.
He did say that we shouldn't be treating ethnic groups in our own country any differently because of this. He pointed out that these jackasses are distorting what true Islam is. I've heard him say that "islam is peace" about a thousand times in the last few days. rockHEAD -- I don't believe Bush put them in this situation. Bush didn't ask to have this situation come upon him while he was the leader of the free world. Bush's administration didn't crash jets into a building in downtown NY or in Washington. We didn't put ourselves in this situation...it's the reality we've been forced to deal with. (liberal poster: insert your comments about how we're really to blame for all this and that the blood of US citizens is really on our hands here)
