A speech meant to rally public support doesn't answer key questions[MSNBC]

[truthisfreedom]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5057065/

A speech meant to rally public support doesn't answer key questions
White House repackages stalled U.S. policy
ANALYSIS
By Robin Wright and Mike Allen
Updated: 4:56 a.m. ET May 25, 2004

With only five weeks before the transition in Iraq and five months before the U.S. elections, President Bush last night called for more patience, more time, more resources and more support to transform troubled Iraq.

But Bush did not provide the midcourse correction that even some Republicans had called for in the face of increasingly macabre violence in recent weeks -- from the assassination of the president of Iraq's Governing Council and controversy over dozens killed by U.S. warplanes at a purported wedding party to the grisly beheading of an American civilian.

Nor did Bush try to answer some of the looming questions that have triggered growing skepticism and anxiety at home and abroad about the final U.S. costs, the final length of stay for U.S. troops, or what the terms will be for a final U.S. exit from Iraq. After promising "concrete steps," the White House basically repackaged stalled U.S. policy as a five-step plan.

In effect, the president said his current plan is good enough to win...

<snip>

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

1. Game Over

If last night represents the "best thinking" in the White House on this subject, there is virtually no way this administration is going to win re-election. People who tuned in last night were looking for answers to hard questions and what they got was puffery. Our troops are dying and our credibility in the world has died along with them, but all Bush can offer is a rehash of the same failed policies along with a healthy dollop of "Stay The Course."

Let's work like hell to put this Administration six feet under come November.

[saigon68]

2. At least the torture rooms are eliminated

And the flower shops are open again.

[AnnitaR]

3. Stick a fork in him... he's done!

When MSRNC rakes him over the coals like this you know it's over! The media has turned on him finally and they were the only thing keeping him afloat for the past few months anyways.

It's now John Kerry's to lose.

[izzie]

4. Only saw a clip and odd things happen to me if I watch this man

My head drops forward, mouth hangs open, my arms grew long and drag on the ground and I start to groan so I will just have to read about this.

[callous taoboy]

14. Great description, Izzie.

My friend and I were channel surfing and we popped in for one second during which we caught one of his manglings of the prison's name, eliciting a "Doh!" from my friend.

[teryang]

5. Win what?

This attempted wiping out of the followers of Al Sadr will be a rallying cry to kill Americans for decades. They are on the wrong side of a learning curve right now but those who survive will provide a virtually unlimited supply of more savy fighters. I infer from their apparently poor performance that they are not skilled in the use of explosives.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. Going after Muqtada was the turning point...

...and going after Muqtada in the Shi'a holy cities will go down in history as the point in which the war was lost for the Americans. The only hope of victory we had was having the Shi'as behind our efforts. And we FUBAR'd that... badly.

[UpInArms]

12. when they shut down Sad'r's paper -

that was a dreadful mistake - after touting "democracy" in Iraq, to so obviously suppress opposing views was more than enough to convince the Iraqis that they had just traded monsters.

To then put out the "dead or alive" on Sad'r, icing on the cake.

*Co built the "resistance" in Iraq from the ground up - protecting only the oil on invasion, shocking and awing, mocking their civilization and culture, the list is endless and culminates with the exposure of the "rape and torture" rooms of Abu Ghraib.

To fail to recognize one's failures is to be unable to rectify them. No change can ever be made without a throrough examination of all of the facts - no picking and choosing of the ones you want to "highlight" and say "look over there, it's a painted wall, that makes it all better".

Walls can be painted over hundreds of times, people's lives cannot be given back, feelings and emotions that are scarred last longer than the broken bones - there is no way for us to win acceptance by the Iraqi people unless and until we make amends for all of the things that this PNAC crowd has wrought against their country.

[progdonkey]

8. killing terrorists

They still are in the mindset that the insurgency, like al-Qaeda, has a specific, finite number of people. Remember that whole thing about Bush having the pictures of fifty members of al-Qaeda in his drawer that he would cross out as each died? This was how he gauges success: 40 out of 50... almost done... completely oblivious to the fact that 40,000 new terrorists were created by killing those forty.

[KoKo]

25. They had to construct a "deck of cards" to focus the idiot. Like a little

kid one can't give them too much at one time or they get distracted. Problem is it seems all of them don't have much brain range beyond focusing on a deck of cards with terrorists names and picture..:-(

[Don_G]

6. As I Understand It

This is the first of weekly speeches until control of Iraq is "handed over." This ineffective speech may not sink him, but the next few will unless Rove allows Dimbo to say something new and of substance.

That won't happen IMHO.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. With all the resources of the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT...

...at their disposal, and they still couldn't come up with a new plan???

The Bush administration is chock full o' NITWITS!

[Don_G]

11. I Don't Know About Nitwits

I'm certain that each and every member of his upper cabinet will leave the White House with millions in their Cayman Island banking accounts.

[Journeyman]

23. With the way this speech flopped. . .

I wonder how many more "weekly speeches" we'll see from this DimBulb. It wouldn't be the first time the Cabal promised something then didn't produce.

[dusty64]

9. Same old shit different day.

On the bright side for the regime, it looks like the UN is about to give them the cover in Iraq.

[4dsc]

13. Did anybody expect anythinl else

from these neocons who have their heads up their collective asses?? I didn't and I don't expect them to change..

Let just hope enough people realize the failures of this administration and vote them out!!

[arwalden]

15. No Mid-course Correction Will EVER Come. -- Bush Believes GOD Talks To Him

and the divine instructions that come to him from GOD are infallible. He believes that he's INCAPABLE of being in error.

Bush is an end-time believer and that his actions all fit in with end time prophecies.

He's insane. Dangerous and insane.

-- Allen

[bluedeminredstate]

16. Often in error,

never in doubt. Yep, you summed up his frame of mind just right.

[Hamlette]

17. best line from the article

"He asserted that extremists now see Iraq as 'the central front in the war on terror.'"

Doesn't Bush consider Iraq to be the central front in the war on terror? Then...is Bush the extremist of which they speak?

[DFWJock]

18. Did anyone else notice

that the idiot-in-chief would kinda pause after he had spit out what he thought was an "applause line" - only to be greeted with silence...

[Norquist Nemesis]

21. I did...the arrogant little smirk appeared then

a look of bewilderment. I couldn't stomach watching the whole thing straight through but I also have a hard time passing up an opportunity to witness a good train wreck. :crazy: In the end, I kept switching between that and anything else but saw enough.

[gratuitous]

19. Golly, the Oregonian LOVED it!

Our local fishwrap, the Oregonian, which still hasn't quite figured out that this corrupt administration's words don't match up with its actions, thought the speech hit all the right notes, and that even the harshest critics of the administration had to agree with the First Dimwit's main points.

They did allow, however, that it would be really keen if the administration acted on its rhetoric, signalling that someone in the editorial room (could be Sarasohn, but also Landauer) has noticed a small gap between the words and deeds.

For the rest of us in the country who actually listen to our brains, instead of stabbing it with a Q-tip, it's pretty apparent that Stupidhead doesn't know what's happening in Iraq, doesn't appreciate the incredible mess he's made of the country, and that as the major contributing cause of the current problem, the U.S. is not in the best position to be part of the solution, at least under the current management.

[lumpy]

20. 5 point 'plan' a bust., nothing new.

Hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government
Help establish stability and security
Rebuild infrastructure
Draw other countries into military and other participation
Move toward national elections

Bush offers nothing new in the way of a plan.

[David__77]

24. There will come a "Paris Peace Plan" effort eventually.

There WILL be an "about-turn" eventually. The ruling class in this country will force him.

[KansDem]

22. "...increasingly macabre violence..."

THAT'S putting it mildly!

[Catfight]

26. I couldn't and didn't want to watch him say the same crap but...

did he mention God as always and anything about the torture?

[dArKeR]

27. Bush's speech not honest enough - US dailies - IOL

Washington - United States President George Bush's speech late on Monday outlining his plan for Iraq failed to admit any failures and fell short of the bold action needed to convince Americans he is on the right path, two leading US dailies concurred on Tuesday.

Bush's speech would have been good a year ago after the fall of Baghdad, but it has come "after nearly 14 months of policy failures, none of them acknowledged by the president," said The New York Times.

Bush's attempt at convincing an increasingly sceptical American public and Congress was "at least, a beginning... but it's not clear that (his) rhetoric, or the steps he is planning, are vigorous enough to turn the situation around," said The Washington Post.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw1085478482944U262&set_id=1

[Spazito]

28. Here's another good article on bush's speech..

President offers plan that is easier said than done

President Bush (news - web sites) has made a political career of transforming his weaknesses into strengths. A lack of eloquence? He's a straight talker. Not much for nuance? He has a clear vision. Disdain for detail? He's a big-picture leader.

snip

Bush continued to try to accrue stakeholders to the cause, both in his fragile domestic constituency and even more frail international one. He offered the symbolic step of destroying concrete when he announced that the notorious Abu Ghraib prison could be razed as soon as a new maximum-security prison could be built.


His five-point plan, though plainspoken in concept, will be exceedingly difficult in execution. His call for Iraqi sovereignty gave a new government a precise proposed form, but the very fact that it seemed crafted by an American president will be one of the greatest obstacles for its success.


Bush was more vague about the role the U.S. military will play after the June 30 hand-over of limited power, saying only that as many troops as needed would stay as long as required. His call for more international cooperation lacked critical detail as well, perhaps a reflection of how few commitments the administration has been able to score in advance.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&e=4&u=/chitribts/presidentoffersplanthatiseasiersaidthandone