June 28, 2005

Liveblogging the Fort Bragg Speech

By Demosophist

Good opening. Thanking the right people (our military services). GWOT reached our shores on 9/11. "Murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology... they have continued to kill." Yup.

"They believe we're corrupt. They are mistaken." (Well, not totally.)

"ONLY ONE COURSE OF ACTION: To defeat them abroad before they attack us at home!"

Yeah, baby!

"We are removing a source of violence and instability and establishing a foundation for peace... is the sacrifice worth it."

Well, what will you ask of us?

The bad guys in Iraq are making common cause with similar ne'er-do-wells in Libya, etc. They see the abyss.

"Among the terrorists there is no debate that Iraq is central to the War. The outcome will leave them either emboldened or defeated."

Clearer one could not be.

"They failed to stop the transfer of sovereignty."

They failed to stop the formation of OUR VANGUARD. They cannot stop the advance of freedom. "This will not happen on my watch."

"Defeat an enemy and give strength to a friend."

The VANGUARD!

Iraqi responsibility. We have made siginificant progress. THE ELECTION. They rebuild. Progress is uneven, but real.

30 nations have troops in Iraq. The UN is there. 40 countries have pledged $34 Billion for reconstruction. The Donar Countries.

Iraq is critical. Iraq is critical. Iraq is critical.

Numeber and quality of Iraqi security forces has improved. Operation Lightning. Iraqis want to be defended by their own countryment.

OUR VANGUARD. (Who are we?)

"Our strategy has both a military and a political track... As [they] stand up, we will stand down!"

Good enough. Not complicated. Nancy Pelosi take note.

"NATO is establishing a military academy near Baghdad." Yikes! THE VANGUARD!

Three new steps:

Partnering with Iraqi units.

Embedding coalition teams in Iraqi units.

Working with Iraqi ministries to manage their forces.

(See Mont Ventoux)

Deadlines serious mistake. Wrong signal to allies, our troops, and to the enemy. We need to complete the mission. More troops? If needed.

[But it's not more troops that we need.]

Emerging from tyranny into a democracy. Our VANGUARD. ("We" includes the Arab Middle East.)

Transitional National Assembly must draft a robust and fair constitution, to be ratified by the people, and will then "bind their multi-ethnic society into a democracy."

Wouldn't that be a hoot?

Libya knuckles under. Our strategy to defend ourselves and expand freedom IS WORKING. There will be tough moments that test our resolve. They don't respect sanctuary. They create chaos. They will fail to shark our will. (Probably, most of us.) We're in a confliect that demands much of us. Demands the perseverence of our citizens.

"The rise of democracy will be the ultimate ... victory. We will stay in the fight until... the fight is won."

APPLAUSE APPLAUSE

Our troops can know our people are behind them. At every outpost across the world. FLY THE FLAG.

[OK, he's finially asking something of us. Propagate it. Ring the bell. Let's get it done.]

Loss. "The best way to honor the lives that have been given in the struggle is to complete the mission." Service.

"They" are no match for the United States of America.

Well, keep banging the drum. Good start. Finally asked us for something!

(Cross-posted by Demosophist to Demosophia and Anticipatory Retaliation)

Posted by: Demosophist at 07:35 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 530 words, total size 4 kb.

1 The money quote, I thought, was... "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."

Posted by: Romeo at June 28, 2005 07:58 PM (AHaCg)

2 Great speech, perfectly delivered, crystal clear message. A President's got to do what a President's got to do -- defend America. The leftist-MSM can go play with their moonbats.

Posted by: bill at June 28, 2005 08:03 PM (7evkT)

3 BUSH LIES has been humiliated and cut out like a parasitic leech from Jawa. However, the BUSH said a bunch of malarkey in his speech. What a timid young man, trying to look tough up there. Romeo, those Iraqi troops that America is training over there are infested by insurgents so bad, they can't be relied on. Some recently-trained security forces were heard singing an ode to SADDAM!

Posted by: Downing Street Memo at June 29, 2005 06:29 AM (ScqM8)

4 Some of ours were not that great also ... remember one tossing a grenade in his fellow soldiers tent? You're going to get a few bad apples, the trick is to learn to recognize them and weed them out. Where you work in one way or another you produce a product. In that production you will create waste (defected product) of a certain expected percentage. The same applys in recruiting Iraqi security forces, there will be a certain percentage of rejects. Just as here in the US a certain expected percentage of recruits "wash out" during their basic training. Just weed out the bad ... they have no effect on the good soldiers ability to kick @$$ !

Posted by: Jonathan at June 29, 2005 07:17 AM (6krEN)

5 But I'm confused.. how does Bush know that any America-bound terrorists are going to Iraq enroute to America? Not all planes go through Bagdad y'know. Maybe the terrorists are distracting us over there so they can blow up our refineries here?

Posted by: Downing Street Memo at June 30, 2005 08:38 AM (ScqM8)

6 DSM: how does Bush know that any America-bound terrorists are going to Iraq enroute to America? ....Maybe the terrorists are distracting us over there so they can blow up our refineries here? Because we chose the conditions, not they. To believe otherwise you'd have to consider the choice we made, by as close to a 49-51 percent margin as you can get, a virtual certainty. You'd have to attribute to a bunch of cultists who'd have trouble doing their own laundry (and who apparently attempted to influence a US election in the other direction) a level of foresight that's nearly omniscient. It's vastly more probable that we've simply manipulated them either into making a strategic mistake, or into acting in a way that gives them an inadvertent windfall. And either way they're not nearly as formidable as you make them out to be. In other words you could say that we might have outsmarted ourselves, but there's no case for the conclusion that they've outsmarted us.

Posted by: Demosophist at July 05, 2005 10:09 PM (820MO)

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