I’m watching CNN and reading Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly, and suddenly a clip pops up showing Bush’s most recent speech. It’s a part of his “support the war, dammit!” tour. The clip they played went to this effect:
There are some in this country who would like to pull out of Iraq, regardless of the situation on the ground. These people could not be more wrong. If we were to do so, the results would be predictable, and they would be disastrous.
Somewhere in there he made a comment about not doubting they’re patriotism. Which is sort of implicitly saying “their hearts are in the right place, but they’re stupid”. I also took a fair bit of umbrage to Bush’s assertion that we want to get the hell out of Iraq regardless of the situation on the ground, when the reality is that we want to get the hell out of Iraq because of the situation on the ground.
But what really got to me was the fact that I found myself mouthing words right along with him. I’d never seen or heard this particular clip before, yet I knew what he was going to say. Look at that quote again, is there any part of it that seems new? Is there any part of it that sheds new light on the situation? Is there anything there that serves to convince war opponents to switch sides?
The man has been making the same speech for a long time. You could almost make a drinking game out of it, except you’d just be drinking nonstop for an hour. It’s pure rhetoric with no substance and nothing new.
That’s what the Iraq debate is. There’s no evolution, nothing changes. The talking points all stay the same. We aren’t leaving until the job is done. The terrorists want us to leave, so we won’t. If we left it would be a disaster and show that America isn’t willing to finish what it starts. Take your pick.
At least we’re avoiding the “stay the course”. Except all those other times.
[tags]bush, iraq, war[/tags]
