Bits and pieces from yesterday’s address to the U.N. by President Bush:
The Taliban was a sponsor and servant of terrorism. When confronted, that regime chose defiance, and that regime is no more.
- News 24, South Africa: Taliban Takes Control
- Financial Times, UK: Taliban’s shoots start to sprout from roots that the US failed to eradicate
- Pak Tribune, Pakistan: Afghan Govt helpless against Taliban activities
The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It used those weapons in acts of mass murder, and refused to account for them when confronted by the world. The Security Council was right to be alarmed. The Security Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its illegal weapons and prove that it had done so. The Security Council was right to vow serious consequences if Iraq refused to comply. And because there were consequences, because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace, and the credibility of the United Nations, Iraq is free, and today we are joined by representatives of a liberated country.
Do I even need to link to anything? We’ve found no evidence of nuclear or biological weapons. The rationale for war has shifted over the months from “Saddam has WMDs” to “Saddam’s making WMDs” to “Saddam was planning to make WMDs” to “We’re liberating the people of Iraq (because all our other justifications haven’t panned out [and oh yeah, just ignore the fact that the country’s in worse shape than when it started])”. And yet Bush still hauls out that excuse for his actions. It’s almost laughable, except for what has been done in the name of those nonexistant WMDs.
The Iraqi people are meeting hardships and challenges, like every nation that has set out on the path of democracy.
Hardships and challenges that include losing valuable contracts to rebuild their own nation to American Bush-backed companies that charge ludicrously inflated prices.
Across the Middle East, people are safer because an unstable aggressor has been removed from power. Across the world, nations are more secure because an ally of terror has fallen.
That “unstable aggressor” may be removed from power, but do we know where he is? Or where Osama bin Laden, the man that we believe was actually behind the 9-11 attacks is? They’re both loose, and while the U.S. occupies Iraq, more and more people in the middle east see us as an occupying force creating a police state. In other words, the bad guys. I certainly don’t feel any safer now knowing that every day more and more people, sick of what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, may be searching out other people loyal to Saddam or bin Laden and planning ways to take their revenge on the U.S.
Our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq were supported by many governments, and America is grateful to each one.
Of course, many of those governments were as bad as or worse than Iraq. Such fine company we keep.
Our international coalition in Iraq is meeting it responsibilities. We are conducting precision raids against terrorists and holdouts of the former regime.
And they’re conducting less-precise, but equally effective, raids against U.S. and U.N. forces in Iraq.
Our coalition has made sure that Iraq’s former dictator will never again use weapons of mass destruction.
Considering that he’s on the loose and we don’t know where he is, I’d almost expect that he’d be more likely to find WMDs now if he is free to travel around and make good contacts on the black market than when he was busy holding the reins on a country that wasn’t able to work on a WMD program due to international supervision.
We’re training Iraqi police and border guards and a new army, so the Iraqi people can assume full responsibility for their own security.
Of course, it’ll be easier for them to do their jobs if we’d stop accidentally shooting them.
The old regime built palaces while letting schools decay, so we are rebuilding more than a thousand schools. The old regime starved hospitals of resources, so we have helped to supply and reopen hospitals across Iraq. The old regime built up armies and weapons, while allowing the nation’s infrastructure to crumble, so we are rehabilitating power plants, water and sanitation facilities, bridges and airports.
Now wouldn’t it be nice if someone would flip this around and do the same for the U.S.?
That’s enough. I’m only about halfway through his address, but something tells me it doesn’t get any better from there, and I’ve got to get ready for work. You get the point, I’m sure.
The King is a fink.
(via Kos)