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Just Another Speech
Watching CNN-Intl. – "Bush Speech – The World Reacts" – this 30 minutes before the speech starts – weird.
8:40pm – blogtime
Top headline on whitehouse.gov: President Bush Marks Fifth Anniversary of No Child Left Behind
8:46pm
WaPo "preview": Bush to Warn That New Iraq Campaign Could Be Bloody – well – with 700,000+ dead Iraqis and 3 million refugees, wasn’t this bloody enough yet?
9:03pm
Bush on:
GWOT, terror, al-qaida, Sunni insurgence is responsible, situation
in Iraq unacceptable, "where mistakes have been made, responsibility
rests with me" (consequences?), failure not an option, 9/11,
Baghdad is key, not enough troops – too many restrictions for them,
Iraqis will deploy in Baghdad, 9 areas, more than 20,000 additional
troops, imbedded with Iraq, mission: help Iraqi troops, difference:
clear and HOLD insteead of just clear,
green light to fight secterians in their neighborhood (Sadr?), time
to act, Iraq government will act, (lame performance – insecure Bush
look – earnestness not earnest), spend Iraqi money,
embeed US troops – 1 US brigade for each Iraqi divisions, al-Qaeda
is in Anbar, wants Islamic "empire", 4,000 additional US troops to
Anbar, Iran provides weapons to Insurgents (any proof?), additional
Carrier Strike Group, diplomacy with Saudi and Egypt against Iran, Rice
to go to ME,
idiology struggle, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestinian territories,
bloody and violent year ahead, Iraq democracy will not be perfect,
consulted with Congress (?), withdrawl would increase need to stay,
will adjust to circumstances, Sen. (Ind., Israel) Lieberman adviced,
dangerous times, "advance of freedom calling of our time", "ensure our
liberty", "sacrifise and resolve", "defide pessimists", "course for new
century" – end speech.
20 min speech form WH library – first impression – LAME
(9:25pm)
Dem response speech (Sen. Durbin):
Bush was wrong, is wrong,
acting against Generals, Iraqis should take over – US should leave,
redeployment will force Iraqis to act
(9:30pm)
CNN has sound, but no pictures, of protests at WH
Obama on: Bush: "no strategy", no military solution, phased
redeployment, setting benchmarks for Iraqis, secure Iraqi borders,
talking about Bush sending 15,000 or 20,000 more troops when Bush just
talked of 25,000+ – (why?)
(9:40pm)
Edwards (D): huge mistake, only political solution, should talk with Iran
Graham (R): Iran would be winner, support Bush, Gen. Petraeus will do good
McCain
(R): excellent speech, new strategy good (what strategy?), no guarantee
for success, war is winnable, going to be tough, increase in casualties
likely, Petraeus + Lieberman good, …
Feinstein (D): Escalation, disappointed by speech, Iraq has never known democracy (wrong)
Warner
(R): speech based on advise, Bush will brief us, objective analysis
needed after briefing, imploding of Iraq would be desaster
CNN: One more comment from each, we have only limited time today, we’ll be right back, ADVERTISMENT!!!
10 second statements:
Graham: Petraeus will ask Congress for more – give it to him
Feinstein: Iraqis have to take over – US out, Israel-Palestine
Warner: biggest challenge since 29 years
Edwards: we don’t know what’s going to happen
(10:03pm)
Speech text via NYT
Whitehouse powerpoint via WaPo
Following crone, there is humor all about, smile!
On topic all the same, as if Sarkozy becomes president of France, F foreign policy is going to take a very sharp turn into neo-con land. It will be subtle, efficient, quick – people will be caught flat-footed. Anyway.
A decrepit, wildly popular rock star, Johnny Hallyday, has just moved to Switzerland for fiscal reasons. Narcissitic, blunt, opinionated, he has complained bitterly about the money France steals from him. He is the first to admit it. People like Isabelle Adjani and Aurelie Mauresmo sweetly murmur that they have come to Geneva because of the tolerance of the Swiss – Aurelie who is a lesbian or the tranquility of the parks – Isabelle, who doesn’t even own a dog. They should be roped in to write tourist brochures, personally signed, bien sur.
This event has created several very entertaining storms that will have far reaching consequences. Le Pen must be toasting himself and the intrepid Marine with his favorite tipple, no doubt a traditional vin du terroir – none of that foreign muck for him.
Let me explain! Segolène Royal has hired as conseiller Arnaud de Montebourg, a populist kook who fancies himself as a crusader. Several press articles stated, or did not directly state, or retracted that they did state, or hinted that, and so on, Sarkozy supported Hallyday’s decamping. Sarkozy has a very interesting collection of friends, Johnny amongst them. So, big deal, Nico, or Sarko, told Jojo ‘it’s your problem man’ or ‘go for it!’ No doubt the little one, the precious darling, Jade, an adopted Viet baby, will love the sparkle of the snow. (Err, what snow?) Sarko’s foolishness unleashed Arno’s tongue and he made a virulent speech about the slimy rapacious Swiss. Rousing, certainly, but also completely inaccurate, amazingly ignorant, defamatory, over the top in spittle and hate. Clueless Sego probably watched from the wings, tugging at the lapels of her white tailleur jacket, or tapping her cultured pearls, anniversary gift from Francois.
This is lesson number two in how to lose an election. If you add up French nationals of voting age who live in Switzerland and work in Switzerland or France, who live in France and work in Switzerland, who live in France or Switzerland and study in Switzerland, the list can go on, and on, who live in the frontalier region, which really is a territory that is very shall we say spécial, and have strong ties, such as a loving Swiss husband, or that coool Swiss health insurance, to CH, and add in a few voting-age dependents, such as Madames who do not work as Monsieur’s salary from Credit Suisse is sufficient for a villa with turrets and magnolia and even a honey colored maid – its more than a million people, half of whom had in mind to vote for Sego, and all of whom are experts in fiscal law.
Every single last man and woman jack of them is pissed as all hell. Newspapers and radio have been battered with calls and email and letters to the newspapers occupy full pages, everybody loves Johnny, even if they despise his music. Rallies are planned! Demos! (Johnny himself is in hospital at present – having something removed. Jade has the sniffles.) Now, Sego groupies hate Sarko, they will never vote for him. Never.
Le Pen – now didn’t he make some good propositions about fishing and maritime law?
Posted by: Noirette | Jan 11 2007 13:51 utc | 55
Rowan wrote: The reason the Democrats cannot oppose this war is that they DON’T oppose the war. They oppose some of the tactics. They’d prefer to “win” as if “winning” was possible from the moment of invasion. They might oppose this particular tactic, sure. But they cannot oppose the logic behind the tactic, and therefore will offer little better than “we’d do it better if we were in charge! Yeah, we’d totally win and the troops would be home in 6 months!”
In the same vein – The Dems in opposition appeared somewhat to oppose the war, made suggestions about tactics, most of which hinged on Bush incompetence at gathering Int’l support (models, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan) as if Bush himself was at fault, and e.g. Kerry would have galvanized the cowardly French (he speaks it after all!), or on the fact that the troops were not ‘supported’ enough, be it military matériel, tours, health, pay, etc. etc.
Better, more, support, care, was needed. Even the mothers of fallen soldiers veered between calling it all senseless, pointing to pre-war lies (huh, obvious lies at the time) and calling for superior ‘support’, more ‘democratic’ efforts (Bush daughters as rooftop snipers?), etc. The only one who seriously proposed a sort of draft was Kerry. Republicans prefer Blackwater and hiring Mexican mercenaries. You buy what you need.
In some ways, the Democrats are more ‘fascistic.’ They are more one-Volk and egalitarian, more attached to a ‘nation state’, more isolationist (e.g. economically) than the Republicans, who prefer biz as usual, globalisation, technological superiority, individualism, natural supremacy of the rich, easy dominance, etc. The Democrats prefer cohesion, communal caring and effort, affordable medicare and young people who will march and die. For, yes, the Homeland. The more the better. Nationalist, semi-socialist…the US will prevail.
It is a good cop bad cop game, that strives to represent, turn by turn, the various strands of mainstream US opinion.
Posted by: Noirette | Jan 11 2007 15:16 utc | 60
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