Veteran's Day Vitriolics
I just read an article about President Bush’s Veteran’s Day speech in Pennsylvania and I can’t help but to question its resemblance to certain individuals in the past. First, President Johnson during Vietnam.
"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began," the president said.
Actually, on second reading, it sounds more like Nixon, shifting, paranoid, and angry at anyone who might criticize his policies.
Second, some of his rhetoric seems almost identical to his counterparts in the axis of evil.
"As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them," the president said. "Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory."
Third and finally, Bush sounds like the Captain in Galaxy Quest, an embittered, old actor unwilling to admit his pathetic existence.
"We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory," Bush declared.
Not that George Bush has a pathetic existence per se, but his words simply remind me of such.
All quotes on this page taken from the AP article by Deb Riechmann as posted at news.yahoo.com.
"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began," the president said.
Actually, on second reading, it sounds more like Nixon, shifting, paranoid, and angry at anyone who might criticize his policies.
Second, some of his rhetoric seems almost identical to his counterparts in the axis of evil.
"As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them," the president said. "Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory."
Third and finally, Bush sounds like the Captain in Galaxy Quest, an embittered, old actor unwilling to admit his pathetic existence.
"We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory," Bush declared.
Not that George Bush has a pathetic existence per se, but his words simply remind me of such.
All quotes on this page taken from the AP article by Deb Riechmann as posted at news.yahoo.com.
posted by Thuan30 | 11:54 AM
1 Comments:
I have to disagree. What Bush said was too little too late. For months (years?) he has been on the receiving end of rhetoric from anti-war democrats pandering to their base saying they were duped, it's all Bush's fault, etc.
Many bloggers and political pundits (and myself) have been wondering why the white house hasn't hit back. FINALLY they did.
Maybe it bares some resemblance to Nixon, but I think the insinuations are far different. Bush is not Nixon and Iraq is not Vietnam. All talk of a "quagmire like Vietnam" has been dismissed long ago as worthless, because everything from our reasons to be there, conduct of the war, and efforts now are completely different.
Instapundit has reactions to it. Anklebitingpundits has a great article (must read) on Sen. Barbara Boxer and her revisionism at Condi Rice's confirmation hearings (18 Jan 2005).
Now, I'm not a huge supporter of the Bush administration, but I am a historian. I know revisionism when I see it. I know lies. The white house trying to spin anti-war rhetoric to continue a war that would be ended for the benefit of both sides would strike me as Nixon-ish. A white house belatedly striking down what has become pervasive blatant lying about the history of a war that was obviously stupid to get into but also stupid for both sides to end in its current state does not strike me that way.
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