Friday, May 26, 2006
Request to the press:In Bush and Blair's "press availability", the following exchange took place: (emp add) Q Mr. President, you spoke about missteps and mistakes in Iraq. Could I ask both of you which missteps and mistakes of your own you most regret?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Sounds like kind of a familiar refrain here -- saying "bring it on," kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner -- you know, "wanted dead or alive," that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted, and so I learned from that. Will somebody in the press - anybody - please ask the president the following question: What is the proper interpretation of "bring it on"?
posted by Quiddity at 5/26/2006 07:08:00 AM
5 comments
Oh, no. No. No. The real biggie is, "What is the proper interpretation of 'dead or alive'?"
Why would he regret asking for Osama dead or alive?
He was talking about attacks, and he said "bring them on" not bring it on.
He PROMISED us Osama 'dead or alive', he didn't 'ask' for that.
I didn't have a problem with "Dead or Alive". I am a diehard New Dealer whose dearest wish is Single Payer Health Care. Doesn't make me Kumbayah or anti-military. Bob Dole had a point when he called them "Democratic wars". The Republican Party was dragged squealing into World War II. At a time that the Democrats were itching to take on the Fascists the Republicans who were not saying "not our job" were selling to the Nazis and providing them banking services. Not that I would urge anyone to insert "Prescott Bush Nazi banking" into Google or anything. Because what are the odds you would come up with a relevant hit?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html
I still want Osama's head on a spit. Dead or alive and preferedly dead is exactly how I want him. But I was an open and vocal opponent of the War on Iraq because one, it was bound to get a bunch of Americans killed, two, it was bound to get a bunch of little Iraqi girls killed (war is bad for little girls and other living things), and three it was an unnessesary distraction from the real War on Terror. When I read that Bush had chosen to redeploy Special Forces troops in Afghanistan with actual skills in mideastern languages to prepare for Iraq and replace them with reservists who spoke Spanish I literally shook with rage. Apparently "Tora Bora" is Spanish for "Get out of Jail Free".
"Dead or Alive" was not the problem. "I am truly not concerned about him" as an excuse to get Bush's Iraqi War on was. Every war supporter who just swallowed that should be profoundly ashamed of himself. Bush took his eye off the ball with profoundly fucked up results and Osama is still out there laughing at us.
Hey, I am a tax the rich, single-payer health care system, lefty who happens to like my National Security with a fully functioning Army and Marine Corps not bogged down in a single country being bled to death and now unavailable to defend the US against other threats. Sue me.
Look you may or may not see the whole Iraq misadventure as a war crime. But "bring 'em on" was just an invitation for terrorists to kill American soldiers and every single American who nodded their head in approval needs to take that yellow ribbon magnet right off their car. You don't support the troops by inviting fanatics to blow them up.
As far as I am concerned every right wing radio station that distributed "Support our Troops" signs in support of this war can fold those signs sideways and insert them. Because I like my veterans with a full complement of limbs.
|
