Does this guy talk to anybody other than captive military and campaign donors? Does he talk about anything other than terror and war? If he was as brave and studly as many of his supporters say, he wouldn't be hiding from other folks or other topics. _____________________ Citing 9/11, Bush defends Iraq war Associated Press President Bush delivered an impassioned Fourth of July defense of war in Iraq, declaring that the United States is "on the offensive against terrorists and all who support them." CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY at this midwestern military base along with thousands of Air Force families and other spectators, the president said Friday that the nation had learned plenty from the pain of the deadly Sept. 11 terror attacks. "Since that September day," he said, "we made our own intentions clear to them: The United States will not stand by and wait for another attack or trust in the restraint and good intentions of evil men." Bush has cited a general threat of continuing terrorism against the United States and a specific threat from Saddam Hussein as justification for the U.S.-led war against Iraq. "We will not permit any terrorist group or outlaw regime to threaten us with weapons of mass murder," he told a cheering crowd of mostly military servicemen and women and their families. "We will act whenever necessary to protect the lives and liberty of the American people." Bush appeared at a star-spangled celebration of the centennial of flight in the hometown of airplane inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright. The site for his speech was just outside the United States Air Force Museum here. The president's visit to Dayton was his 10th trip this year to a key battleground state that will be crucial in the 2004 elections. MORE QUESTIONS The president's patriotic Independence Day speech came at a time when his administration has been getting increasing questions about the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the continuing casualties of troops serving in that country. More than two-dozen U.S. troops have died in hostile action in Iraq since May 1 when Bush declared major combat in Iraq was over and more than 60 have died overall. The government on Thursday stepped up efforts to quell growing unrest in Iraq by putting a $25 million bounty on deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and $15 million on his sons. The Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired anaudiotape Fridaywith a voice purported to be that of Saddam. In the tape, the speaker said he was directing resistance to American forces and called on all Iraqis to support the attacks. Earlier in the week, Bush had challenged those tempted to attack U.S. forces by saying "Bring 'em on," a comment quickly criticized by Democratic presidential candidates. The Bush visit is part of a 17-day commemoration of the centennial of flight that started Thursday in the hometown of the Wright brothers. They made their first powered flight near Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903. The anniversary celebration includes July Fourth fireworks, hot-air balloons and blimps, an air show and a National Aviation Hall of Fame ceremony.
It's funny when people want to say we are involved in a quagmire in Iraq when the reality is that casualities are extremely low.
Wow. What a controversial statement. I think that this topic is too controversial for me, so I'm going to get out of this controversial thread before it gets too controversial for me.
Imagine the President speaking to the military of the 4th of July. What a travesty...what's next? Will he speak to the military of Memorial Day? Will he speak to union members on Labor Day?
Ref, The point is not that he's talking to military on the 4th of July, it's that almost all his speeches are to the military regardless of the date. It doesn't make you just a little quesy to see that every photo op of Bush is in front of a military audience and that his speeches are almost always the same and that he is politicizing the military more than any other President? I get the feeling he wants to be just Commander in Chief without having to worry about all the problems Presidents face... after all, he can hire good people to look after that stuff.
Who cares who he speaks in front of? He could speak in front of the NAACP, and people would say he's just giving them lip-service.
Well, any speech by any politician is lip-service. I'm just trying to get to the point of this thread.
Quit being a drama queen. People die in war and it is sad. But it is also sad when people die and are tortured to death by dictators. If it cost this few lives to liberate so many then it is an exchange that should be made even though it is a sad one. The people who died in this war saved thousands of others who would have died if we did nothing. So quit being a baby and realize that we fought for a just cause.
Yes. I will admit that it is somewhat troublesome. But I will say that he would receive criticism regardless of his audience. Some deserved...some not. Fair point. But what group could he speak in front of that would cause you (or others) to draw a different conclusion? Is there anybody he could speak in front of that would not draw criticism from you?
Well, we had a very good reason to be there, and even overcame our industrial ties to the nazi armament to go fight a good fight. What's the similarity to Iraq exactly? We needed complete untruths to get us involved in an elective war of our making. Or did you read the headlines today? Check out the former US ambasador Wilson's statements. Disgusting.
Much of this could be due to coverage by the press. This and other presidential administrations, including Clinton's, have pointed out that the press tends to get fixated on the story de jour. When they try to talk about other issues, the press pays little attention. It just seems like the war and Iraq is his only topic.
According to the Whitehouse site, of the 8 "major speeches" Bush has made sine 9/11, 6 1/2 have been on terrorism or the Iraqi War. (The 1/2 being last January's State of the Union.) One was on the economy (last January) and another on Education (again last January.) I'd like to see the stats as to how often he has appeared in front of a military audience compared to past Presidents.
I hear you, and I wish you had been running the PR machine for the war. However, this conflict was sold to me on two main bits (covered ad nauseum in thousands of threads, I know): WMD, and connections to Al Qaeda. Even if you had been running the PR campaign, historically, no, the good fight is apparently not toppling dictators who are monsters to their own people. Too many unaddressed examples of this. Blah blah. Sorry, we could rehash this argument. I don't want to derail the thread. The bottom line to the topic at hand is that I really wish Bush would do more press conferences, answering real questions. All of these militaristic pep rallies are kind of creepy, to be honest. A few, okay. But when that's basically all he does? Even if he had served proudly and honorably, it would still be creepy.
Bush is changing his direction with the upcoming election. The Houston Chronicle had an article today about his domestic agenda and how he wanted to give Head Start a face lift (with the hopes of making it better). Head Start was started by LBJ (a Dem) I believe. Sure most of what he talks about is the military. But there are other topics of interest. At least the guy has a firm stace on something - which is more than you could say about most politiciams.
Yeah he was at a head start program the other day. However the ideas he has about head start may be the end to it altogether. By giving the money over to the state with no strings attached they can do away with headstart or at least cut spending on it to nothing.
