Text of the President’s Speech
He laid it out so plain even a liberal should be able to understand:
The war reached our shores on September 11, 2001. The terrorists who attacked us and the terrorists we face murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression by toppling governments, driving us out of the region and by exporting terror.
To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali and elsewhere. The terrorists believe that free societies are essentially corrupt and decadent, and with a few hard blows they can force us to retreat. They are mistaken. After September 11, I made a commitment to the American people: This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom. We will take the fight to the enemy.
- Daimnation says His best speech ever
- Citizen Smash liveblogged the speech and ends his post with HOO-RAH!
- The Moderate Voice says it was a solid speech but won’t convince the waverers, much less the critics.
- PoliPundit says it was “extremely good”, but public perception will depend on the media spin.
- INDC Journal says, “The speech was Bush’s most cogent articulation of the strategy, difficulties and stakes in Iraq to date …”
- What Can Brown Do For You? says Bush must continue to take his message directly to the people.
- Bill Hobbs says that Bush effectively dismantled the arguments for a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, and also posts a pre-speech statement from my congressman, Marsha Blackburn.
- Donald Sensing was underwhelmed.
- Outside the Beltway has a pretty good blogosphere reaction roundup.
- JustOneMinute blogs Pelosi’s reaction, as well as the reaction of the children (ages 8-11) who watched.
- For those of you missed it, the Political Teen has the video.
When the going gets tough…
What did you expect to hear? The president’s speech tonight has been described as “treading water”. Of course he is treading water. What else can he do? He made it plain to us, over and over again, that this would be a long, tough fight.
What a bunch of malarkey. When the president says “these people” are “seeking to remake others in their own image,” just who do you think he is talking about? When he says that “these terrorists have dangerous weapons and will stop at nothing,” just which terrorists do you think he is talking about? He is talking about himself. Iraq NEVER threatened the US, EVER, and was NOT a part of Al Qaeda or 9/11. When finally is everyone going to learn that? Of course, it’s nearly impossible to learn that when the president himself keeps linking the two. The military is nothing more than cannon fodder for Bush and the people in the Pentagon. Rumsfeld is quoted as saying just that. Our brave American soldiers are killing civilians by the hundreds and giving their own lives or limbs for the biggest LIE ever perpetrated on the American people. God help us if we were to find ourselves with a REAL threat, having exhausted our own military in a bogus war.