Bush: "Blah blah blah blah blah"

Well, Shakers, I honestly could not even be arsed watching the president's address last night. Every time we watch him speak, Mr. Shakes and I just scream angrily at the television, correcting all his lies and yelling at him what an embarrassment and a tyrant he is. So instead I just read it this morning—and it's a pile of horseshit just as I expected.

The WaPo explains why his announcement about the drawdown of troops is thorough claptrap: "[T]he Pentagon has no choice other than to carry out the withdrawals, unless Mr. Bush resorts to politically explosive steps such as further extending deployments. Another way of describing Mr. Bush's plan is that it leaves every available Army and Marine unit in place in Iraq for as long as possible. If the war were going worse than it is, the deployment schedule probably couldn't have been much different."

And that was about all the substance there was. The rest of his speech was just the usual incantations of "freedom" and "security" and "success," with no regard for anything even vaguely resembling reality. He rounded out the parade of poppycock with an invocation of one of his ubiquitous strawmen: "Some say the gains we are making in Iraq come too late. They are mistaken. It is never too late to deal a blow to Al Qaeda. It is never too late to advance freedom. And it is never too late to support our troops in a fight they can win." Yeah, okay. "Some" who say that the alleged gains we're making are coming too late are talking about how you denied there was an insurgency for about two years, allowing it to bloom and grow in the void of a dedicated counterinsurgency strategy. "Some" aren't saying it's "too late to advance freedom," though they may well (and rightly) be saying that your unwillingness to do what would be necessary to advance it (*cough*draft*cough*) means it's never going to happen, despite your gossamer promises. Et cetera…

Other than that, the only thing worth mentioning might be his expressed gratitude to "the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq." Completely absurd. Even the perpetually ridiculous Chris Matthews couldn't believe that one:


Matthews: The fact we have 36 countries fighting on our side in Iraq must be news to the soldiers over there. I don’t know who these people are or how many divisions they have. All we read about in the papers are American GIs getting killed by IEDs and terrible accidents and all kinds of enemy action over there. … The idea we’re one of 36 countries fighting the war I think is ludicrous and why the President would throw that out there, I think it only opens him up to ridicule.

(There are currently less than 30 countries left in the "Coalition of the Willing.")

Anyway, quite a disaster. There's tons o' stuff at Memeorandum, naturally, discussing the debacle.

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