to win the hearts and minds....

[radfringe]

last week bush* met with republicans, (sorta) he gave a 30 minute speech and then left without taking questions

this was suppose to be a rally of some sort to address concerns from members of his party

tonight he goes to a war college and his speech ( a mini-series of six )is designed to try to convince the 'merican people that after Invading IRAQ 14 months ago -- he really does have a plan

so he'll give his speech and then leave without taking questions

One of the "talking points" initally used to convince people we needed to invade Iraq, was that we needed the win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people

His "gop rally" and the mini-series of speeches show that what he is doing is re-selling the invasion and re-selling his policies to the 'merican people --- he's in a situation where he has to win the hearts and minds of Americans

just my naive opinion -- but it seems to me that in order to win the hearts and minds of Americans and the Iraqi's --- he first has to feed the belly

by Feeding the belly - I mean with more than just food. This means shelter, jobs, education, health care -- and most of all hope.

I expect -- tonight's speech and the rest of them in the series, is going to be re-selling of the Reagan "stay the course" concept. We've been on bush*'s course, we've been on his highway --- and personally I don't like this route.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Good analysis. n/t

[stellanoir]

2. Jon Stewart's retort to neocon Bill Kristol. . .

of all people. . . paraphrasing here. . .Kristol had said that * drove us into a ditch. . .Stewart said so we should trust the guy who drove us into the ditch to get us out of the ditch. . .?

Was funny but excruciatingly, all too true.

I know this exchange has been posted here before but this thread reminded me of it and made me think it was worthy of a repost.

[radfringe]

3. reviews of his speech are in....

and they don't look good

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpirq253818041may25,0,7376782.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines
Bush: More of the Same
The president continues to hope for the best in Iraq without planning for the worst, imagining a democracy that may take decades to build
May 25, 2004


Anyone who had hoped to hear something new - or even to hear that the administration finally understands just how badly things are going in Iraq - had to be disappointed by President George W. Bush's speech last night. It was more of the same: Stay the course. Fight the terrorists. Bring freedom to the Iraqis.

Unfortunately, the five-point plan that the president outlined for bringing self-government to Iraq is more of a wish list than a plan. And the inherent contradiction in what he is trying to do was evident in his first two points.

The first step, said Bush, is to grant Iraq "full sovereignty" on June 30. The second step is to bring security and stability to the country by keeping a force of 138,000 American troops there for an unspecified amount of time.

Clearly, the Iraqis will not have "full sovereignty" if they don't control their own security and 138,000 American troops are there with no sense of how long they must stay.