A link and some thoughts (I watched his whole speech) I was going to write something about Bush's speech. Then I saw Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and he said what I wanted to say, but (possibly) better. Below, find links from Crooks and Liars to view Olbermann's short and to the point takedown of Bush (windows media format).

Download (1456) | Play (1000)

Now that's fair and accurate.

I actually watched some pregame for the speech. CNN. Not my favorite network but hey, that Wolf Blitzer, he's just so...exciting! Anyway, they had Jack Cafferty on, taking emails, and doing his usual grumpy old New Yorker act. These emails were reader responses to different questions such as, "What was the point of the Iraq Study Group if the President is doing the opposite of what it recommended?" and "Will Iraq be Bush's legacy?" The emails - every single one of them - eviscerated Bush. It was as if CNN was posting a live stream of the diaries over at Daily Kos. And then I realized. Everyone hates Bush now. But he is still moving ahead with his destructive agenda. He has truly created the Imperial Presidency.

Also during the pregame coverage on CNN they interviewed a CNN reporter who had been embedded with the troops who fought that day-long battle with insurgents in downtown Baghdad yesterday. She was asked a question along the lines of, do you have anything good to report. The answer was something to the effect of, "Well, yes, it is clear that the Iraqi troops are learning from the U.S. troops. The U.S. commanders have been trying very hard to get the Iraqis to learn and adopt sound tactics. During yesterday's fighting, for example, the Americans were able to teach the Iraqis, during the fight for Haifa Street, about the importance of the high ground when engaging in a firefight. So American units occupied the high-rise buildings along the street. This gave them better range of fire."

Upon hearing that, I was flabbergasted. Why? A combination of:
-What the hell is this CNN reporter trying to sell and why is she treating us like idiots?
-How absolutely pitiful is the state of the Iraqi Army that a sign of progress is it learning about the importance of taking the high ground in a firefight?
-Isn't it sort of Orwellian that we are talking about something like that and deciding it is worth feeling happy about?

So anyway, 21,000 more Americans are on their way into the fog-of-war dungeon that is Baghdad. They will not have any true sense of who the enemy is, why they are there, and if they are going to make it home. They will be serving in the uniform of a country whose populace is decidedly against their presence there. This place is something that I fear we as Americans are only getting to know. We have, I guess, our own word for it and it is Iraq and that word - Iraq - is and will continue to be so many things. Many painful things. But a previous generation had a word for that too and it was similar, most now admit, in so many ways. And it was - Vietnam.

Labels: politics

  ¶ 10:27 PM