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July 02, 2005
I only caught snippets of President Bush's Fort Bragg speech on the news during the week. I read it this morning after returning home from doing the household's shopping at the Central Market in Adelaide.
I presume that Bush's speech, which was give before an audience of 740 troops in North Carolina, was directed at shoring up support amongst the wavering Republican base as the constant trickle of US casualties works its way through the noise of contemporary American politics.
It is a speech to rally flagging domestic Republican for the war---being supportive of the war is patriotic---because the case being made is just not convincing. Consider this link between 9/11 and Iraq:
Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania.
Note how the weapons of mass destruction have been replaced by murderous ideology. Tis an ever changing rationale for the Bush crusade.
This link was then reinforced by Bush:
We are fighting against men with blind hatred and armed with lethal weapons who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality. They take innocent lives to create chaos for the cameras. They are trying to shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September 11, 2001. They will fail.
There is nothing in the speech about the US about turning Iraq into a bastion of American military power in the Middle East. Nothing about putting empire ahead of democracy.
What is also left unsaid is that Bush created the terrorism groups in Iraq through his little war and continued occupation. It is the US empire that has turned Iraq into the battle ground against Islamic fundamentalism. Under Saddam Hussein the all dissent and rebellion was repressed by a totalitarian police state.
Al lot of the speech consists of American-style freedom and democracy preaching, though there is less emphasis on freedom as God's plan for mankind. There is also is a great emphasis on an exit strategy for the US, though little was said about a phased retreat through negotiations with the enemy. (Who exactly are they going to negotiate with, if not the terrorists?)
Does the exit strategy mean the US will allow Iraq to slide steadily ever deeper into Iran's orbit? I wonder what the Israeli's think of that scenario?
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Yeh the speech was odd. Even if they are trying to lay their paws on their base again, it was pretty poor. I recall reading that apparently this Administration thinks Vietnam was lost because the Administrations of the day thought the war was lost and let that seep into the media. I dont think they give the American people enough credit.
Americans arent stupid. They know that there has been sustained violence in Iraq for the last several years. They know that the Administration has changed their tune on the "why" constantly, yet not changed their tactics as the situation has demanded. The American smoko room knows, and has opinions on this. Bush bleating the same line over and over wont cut it.
There is also genuine discomfort that America has tortured people. Americans do believe they are good people and that their nation represents them by being a "good" nation. Torture is alien to the American view of themselves, and the practices that have gone on at Abu Graib and Guantanamo are quite simply, "not American".
Bush is treading dangerously here, he is playing Americans for fools, and no-one likes that. I suspect his polls are currently reflecting that sentiment.