Through the Looking Glass

The President gave a little speech today - let's have a look, shall we?

Our most important duty is to defend the American people. So we're taking the fight to those who attacked us. We're taking the fight to those who share their murderous vision for future attacks. We will take this fight to the enemy without wavering -- and we will prevail.

OK - where does Iraq fit into this? Apparently the only part of Afghanistan that is now "free" is Kabul. And, let's not forget, Bin Laden is still coming out with his greatest hits.

The enemy we face is brutal. And determined. The terrorists have an ideology. They share a hateful vision that rejects tolerance and crushes all dissent.

They seek a world where women are oppressed. Where children are indoctrinated. And those who reject their ideology of violence and extremism are threatened and often murdered.

The Neo-cons have an ideology, they share a hateful vision that rejects tolerance and crushes all dissent. Tolerance of gays - how silly am I? Don't agree on warrentless wiretapping - tough. Although, this administration may be willing to listen to "ideas" from Congress, they're doing it anyway.

Oppressing women? South Dakota just passed a bill that would make abortion illegal even in cases of rape or incest.

They seek to impose their heartless ideology of totalitarian control throughout the Middle East. They seek to arm themselves with weapons of mass murder. Their stated goal is to overthrow moderate governments, take control of countries and then use them as safe havens to launch attacks against Americans and other free nations.

To achieve their aims, the terrorists have turned to the weapon of fear.

Just replace the terrorists with Bush & Co.

After September the 11th, I looked at the world and saw a clear threat in Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was an enemy of the United States.

Of course, he saw this before September the 11th as well. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

We know throughout history that democracies can replace resentment with hope and respect the rights of their citizens and our neighbors and join together to fight in this global war against terror.

History has shown that free nations are peaceful nations

The rights of our citizens to be spied on, yeah, sure, that's respecting us. And as a free nation we are not so peaceful. You know, invading a sovereign nation and all.

In less than three years, the nation of Iraq has gone from living under the boot of a brutal tyrant to liberation, to sovereignty, to free elections, to a constitutional referendum, and to elections for a fully constitutional government.

Except for a little civil war, the possibility of being blown up at the market, no water, little electricity. It's super, really.

Our efforts in the broader Middle East have been guided by a clear principle: Democracy takes different forms in different cultures. Yet all cultures, in order to be successful, have certain common truths, universal truths: rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, a free economy, freedom of women and the freedom to worship.

Societies that lay these foundations not only survive, but they thrive. Societies don't lay these foundations risk backsliding into tyranny.

First, notice he doesn't mention freedom of the press, because we're still paying for it in Iraq and it ain't cheap. Thanks Mr. Rumsfeld.

Rule of law - pesky, really. The President can do anything he wants, the rule of law is only for poor people.

Under Saddam, Iraq was a country where dissent was crushed, a centralized economy enriched the dictator instead of the people, secret courts meted out repression instead of justice, and Iraqis were brutally oppressed by Saddam's security forces.

Too easy. Replace dictator with Cheney and you're done!

The days in Iraq was going to be difficult and exhausting. We're likely to see a lot of political bargaining.

That doesn't happen under dictatorships. They seem orderly, particularly when one man makes all the decisions and there is no need for negotiation or compromise.

What did the President say this week about Congress proposing legislation to stop/delay the Dubai deal? Did he sound like he was willing to negotiate or compromise?

And when the new Iraqi government assumes office, Iraq's new leaders will face tough decisions on issues such as security and reconstruction and economic reform.

The government will need to provide effective leadership and earn the confidence of the Iraqi people by showing it can protect them. The government will also need to put a stop to human rights abuses by security officers.

By building free institutions and an inclusive society that provides minority rights, Iraqi leaders will bring the nation together and this will help to defeat the terrorists and the Saddamists who are fighting Iraq's democratic progress.

Stop human rights abuses by security officers...mmmmmnnn, perhaps we could try that, too?

It was the status quo in the Middle East that produced 19 hijackers and took planes and crashed them into the Pentagon and the World Trade towers and killed nearly 3,000 innocent people on September the 11th, 2001.

And how has the status quo changed in the countries that the 19 highjackers came from? Oh, we're going to give control of our ports to one of them. Good one Mr. President!

And it's only by giving people in the Middle East the freedom to express their opinions and choose their leaders that we will be able to defeat radical extremism.

We, however, will continue to use the Supreme Court and Diebold to choose ours.

In democracies, elected leaders must deliver real change in people's lives or the voters will boot them out at the next election time.

From your lips to God's ears!

The world's free nations are also worried because the Iranian regime is not transparent. You see, a non-transparent society that is the world's premier state sponsor of terror cannot be allowed to possess the world's most dangerous weapons.

So as we confront Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions, we're also reaching out to the Iranian people to support their desire to be free, to build a free, democratic and transparent society.

Who writes this shit? The most secretive administration we have ever had is telling someone else to be transparent? Oy!