Bush's Speech a Bad Nixon Re-Run
By Chuck Muth (09/14/07)
Despite the impressive and persuasive testimony of Gen. David Patraeus earlier this week, President Bush addressed the nation directly Thursday night for the eighth time on Iraq and delivered his least persuasive case to date. His position can be summed up thusly: The troop surge is working, therefore, we’re ending the troop surge and reducing our troop strength.
What the…?
The troop surge was announced nine months ago. The full contingent of additional boots on the ground has been in place for about six months. It hasn’t resulted in “victory,” but it has resulted in some positive progress. Therefore, instead of maintaining the additional, effective troop level, the president told the enemy Thursday night that he was going to begin the process of reducing our troop strength back to the level where they were effective.
What the…?
Here’s what else I heard in the president’s speech: Iraqi troops are being trained to fight their own battles (Vietnamization?), peace is at hand, and the troops will be home by Christmas. When the president said “Return from Success,” I heard “Peace with Honor. It was like watching a bad Richard Nixon re-run.
President Bush desperately wants us to believe that “winning” in Iraq will make us safe - as though there are no Islamic jihadists in caves anywhere else in the world plotting to kill Americans where we breathe. Not only does the president want us to believe Iraq is the key to victory over Islamic fanatics, but it’s a democratic shining city on the Middle Eastern hill.
Sorry, but that dog just won’t hunt.
Not that the Democrats are any better. Sen. Jack Reed came on after the president to give the Democrats’ response, which can be summed up in one word: Retreat!
While the president argues for staying the course, the Democrats argue for changing the course. Alas, the course they have in mind is skedaddling with our tails between our legs, pots and pans clanging on the ground behind our Humvees, all under a bleached, freshly starched white flag flapping in the desert wind. These guys make cheese-eating surrender monkeys look like Audie Murphy (google it kids).
The fact is our enemy is a world-wide scourge of barbaric religious fanatics stuck in the 9th century who want nothing short of the absolute and total destruction of Western civilization. You can’t reason with these people. You can’t negotiate with them. Like a rabid dog, the only thing you can humanely do is put ‘em down, thus eliminating the threat.
Coincidentally, that’s exactly what the surge has apparently been accomplishing. While Americans have tragically been losing about 1,000 soldiers a year, the president informed us in his speech that since the surge, the enemy has been losing about 1,500 fighters a MONTH. This is no time to fall back and hold onto our previous position. This is the time to crank it up yet another notch and bring the enemy to its knees. Not just in Iraq, but anywhere in the world where he breathes.
To quote Gen. George S. Patton in the Oscar-winning film bearing his name: “I don't want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Let (the jihadists) do that. We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're gonna kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose.”
It just doesn’t get any more eloquent than that.
Had THAT been President Bush’s message to the American people Thursday night, I’d have been right there with him. But it wasn’t. So I’m not. If you’re not going to hold onto Johnny Jihadi by the nose and kick him in the ass, why fight at all? Is this a war, Mr. President…or isn’t it?
Chuck Muth
Copyright 2007 Chuck Muth All rights reserved.
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