On September the 11th, 2001, we saw what a refuge for extremists on the other side of the world could bring to the streets of our own cities. For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq.
Perhaps he should be paying more attention to Pakistan and Afghanistan if he's serious about going after terrorist havens.
He then went on about how al Qaeda in Iraq threatens to "[take] down Iraq's democracy" yet that contradicts what the Pentagon said less than one month ago about al Qaeda's status:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army has replaced al Qaeda in Iraq as "the most dangerous accelerant" of the sectarian violence plaguing Iraq for nearly a year, according to a Pentagon report.
Attacks by Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias jumped 22 percent from mid-August to mid-November, and Iraqi civilians suffered the bulk of casualties, according to the quarterly report released on Monday.
The average number of attacks reported each week jumped during that period from nearly 800 to almost 1,000, the report said.
The two most prominent militias -- the Mehdi Army and the Badr Organization -- are armed wings of Shiite political parties whose support is crucial to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The Mehdi Army in particular "exerts significant influence in Baghdad and the southern provinces of Iraq and on the government of Iraq," and fights periodic battles with Badr supporters, according to the report. The Badr Organization is affiliated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
And one of the army's Lt. Generals in Baghdad had this to say about al Qaeda in Iraq last April:
Al Qaeda in Iraq and its presumed leader, Abu Musab Zarqawi, have conceded strategic defeat and are on their way out of the country, a top U.S. military official contended yesterday.
The group's failure to disrupt national elections and a constitutional referendum last year "was a tactical admission by Zarqawi that their strategy had failed," said Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who commands the XVIII Airborne Corps.
"They no longer view Iraq as fertile ground to establish a caliphate and as a place to conduct international terrorism," he said in an address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Vines retired without giving a reason in December. Perhaps his premature evaluation hastened that departure.
Regardless, it's obvious that Bush chose to focus on what most Americans are most familiar with on an emotional level - that al Qaeda bogeyman - rather than tackling what is one of al-Maliki's biggest challenges: dealing with Sadr and his militias (not to mention those death squads in his Interior Ministry). Maybe Bush thought that was a bit too complex for Americans to figure out - speaking as he often does as if he's the country's social studies teacher instead of a president who's supposed to be informing his citizens about what's really going on.
As for the rest of his drivel, much had already been leaked to the press - most likely because his television audience has been dwindling and most Americans did not want to hear that he has ignored their strong voices echoed via the 2006 elections that they wanted the US out of Iraq. Why bother watching a president who doesn't care what you think and continues acting like he has some sort of political capital left to spend on whatever he wants without consequence? Most people would probably rather bang their heads against a wall for the 20 minutes it took for that speech than agonize through yet another display of pompous Bush arrogance.
Is it 2008 yet?
No comments:
Post a Comment