John Derbyshire a person that I usually agree with goes off the deep end chastising our great President. And I go off the deep end responding to this slight….
The Corner on National Review Online : “I’m on board with the Iraq war. I’ll be voting for George W. Bush in November. The petty sniping at the War & at the administration’s anti-terrorism efforts, the blood-for-oil insinuations, the infantile sloganeering — ‘Bush lied,’ ‘Halliburton’s war,’ and so on — is disgraceful. I’m with this guy, I’m on his side. Still, there is just something about a Bush speech, or news conference, that fails to stir my blood. I’m sorry, but I think the President is desperately, hopelessly inarticulate”
John not sure if you got the memo but the President is a war President. Perhaps you think that means he is having a blast at the Whitehouse right now full of parties, TV, quiet dinners with Laura and easy decisions. I believe what it means is that he wakes up every morning wondering if this is the morning that some detail that got overlooked by his administration allows some band of murderous thugs to murder even more of us on nationwide TV. I believe what this means is that this Christian who proclaims his faith proudly has to walk around with the burden of the deaths of brave young men and women and that this weighs much more heavily on him than you will ever understand. Furthermore this man whose entire family is the target of countless murderous thugs does not hesitate to make decisions that further inflame the desires of those who wish him and his to die violently. This may seem like a light burden to you but I believe less insulated people might understand that the President is part of the walking wounded and that instead of the condemnation of prissy little shits who know nothing of the burdens he carries he deserves our care and our gratitude.
For references on brilliant speeches you may at your leisure review the Speech he gave 9/14/2001; We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation’s sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them? Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history. But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.
Or 9/20/2001; We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions — by abandoning every value except the will to power — they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies?Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.) From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime?Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us. Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.
It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We’ll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day, and to whom it happened. We’ll remember the moment the news came — where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire, or a story of rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.
Anyone who can stand in front of the world and give voice to such tremendous thoughts as these is not inarticulate. Furthermore anyone carrying such a burden as he deserves better from his supposed allies than to join in the petty prissy sniping.
Thank you President Bush…thank you for risking your life, thank you for standing firm in the face of such grave threats to your family and thank you for speaking plainly enough to upset those who believe that the art of words is more important than the meaning and intent. Ignore them when they dont stand by you as steadfastly as you stand by us.
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