For those of you who missed it, like myself...
...here's President George W. Bush's remarks before the Military Officers Association of America in Washington, D.C.
National Strategy for Combating Terrorism
by George W. Bush
September 05, 2006
National Strategy for Combating Terrorism
by George W. Bush
September 05, 2006
from the mind of... Eric | 11:13 AM
9 Comments:
Hey, on an unrelated note, I just got around to reading "Mr. Young." I like it. You write fiction much?
Yes, I do. If you want to see examples of my writing go to The Muslin Opaque. The link is in the side bar, in Right Brain Stuff
EL, since you give no commentary on the speech, I don't know how to respond. Suffice it to say I find a lot of the President's logic flawed.
1st I have to question his suggestion that Al-Quaeda or Islamic Extremism can dominate the rest of the world and that America is the only nation recognizing and combating this threat.
2nd the idea that direct military confrontation is the best method to combat this threat.
3rd the idea that the combat in Iraq
a) protects the homeland of America b) is advancing the idea of democracy in the middle east.
4th the suggestion that tipping over the apple cart in reference to Israel/Middle East relationships is a step toward future reconciliation.
I could pull individual quotes and find the relevant rebuttal links, but you don't read things that factually disagree with your prejudices. (I expect instead of a post debating my arguments a diatribe condeming my use of the word "prejudices.")
Of course you do BenT. As for commentary-- I offer it here primarily to benefit myself, for future reference; for posterity's sake, not for the purpose of personal commentary.
No need to get nasty. I've read the opposition party line, and I disagree with it. Vehemently. We both know this. I won't debate these points with you. You'd only accuse me of being narrow minded and I, losing what little self control I have when we debate politics, would only accuse your pot of calling my kettle black. I have to work with you, so let's leave it at that.
Fact is, I like BenT, not his politics.
I also wanted to comment on the administration's ramping up of fear over Iran.
1. The comparison of Iran to Nazi Germany fearmongering. In the 1930's Germany had the 2nd largest economy in the world. Today Iran doesn't rank in the top 50. Israel and Saudia Arabia both spend more on defense than Iran. Iran simply can not launch a conventional war. It is infact vulnerable to it's neighbors. Serious analysts think this is a big reason why the country is pursuing Nuclear weapons.
2. The worst case scenarios say that Iran is at least 5 years from having ONE nuclear weapon. However North Korea already has nuclear weapons and has previously sold military technology to anti-American forces. Some strong rhetoric would actually be realistic about NK as opposed to the hysteria being encouraged over Iran.
3. By the end of next year there will be aegis radar ships in the atlantic capable of tracking an ICBM from Iran. There will also be interceptor missiles on the Atlantic seaboard cabale of destroying such fictional weapons. I say fictional because Iran doesn't actually have missiles that can reach the US or even much of Europe. There are already such radar ships and missile systems in the Pacific.
Also from the President's speech I have to question his quotes from Al-Quaeda. Does anyone think that Prince William is going to give up his throne without a fight. Or Hazni Mubarech. Or Mushareff in Pakistan or whoever is President of the Phillipines. The President should be using such quotes at G-8 summits and OPEC meetings to build international unity on the threat of muslim extremism and the threat of the terrorists who want an islamic caliphate. Instead he spots quotes that still sting would be allies like "those who harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves."
Would he really have attacked Canada or Great Brittain if those cells had acomplished their goals?
Ben T., Fareer Zakaria has a new, rational assessment of Iran out this week. It's linked at my joint, the second post down, I think.
In a nutshell: "It's not 1938."
Fareer = Fareek.
Lash, I've tagged you at my place.
This particular Meme should be interesting to you...
(Your answers would be particularly interesting to me, anyway...)
See you there!
Sigh. Fareek = Fareed.
Post a Comment
<< Home