I fell asleep last night with the television on. This morning, as I gradually regained consciousness, I realized that the Chimperator was giving a speech. He appeared to be addressing the troops, but in reality he was addressing the Ohio Patrol Training Academy in Columbus, Ohio. Maybe that explains why all his applause lines fell flat.
Or, maybe it was because a) he has given this exact same speech 500 times, and b) he has lost all his credibility.
I don’t have a copy of his speech yet, but he gave substantively the same speech yesterday:
The attacks did not ‘remind’ us that we are at war. They caused us to go to war. Perhaps, they made us aware that war was being waged against us. But, you have to know something first, before you can be reminded of it.
The last time I checked, Iraq was a nation state. I agree that the ‘insurgents’ are killing innocent civilians. I agree that some of them have a hateful ideology. But, some of them just hate being occupied by a foreign power that is intent on hoarding all the contracts for energy development and reconstruction. They hate having their cities razed to the ground. They hate being raped, tortured, and killed in Saddam’s prisons. The fact that the war was based on a pack of lies doesn’t help, either.
One cannot grow weary enough of this canard. The fact that this logic was effective during the campaign nearly gave me aneurysm. The best way to protect the homeland is not to spend $300 billion in a foreign land. It is not to piss on Korans. It is not to hang innocent people by their arms, or to kick them to death. This logic is roughly analogous to the Soviets thinking they were protecting the homeland by invading Afghanistan.
I have some sympathy for this sentiment. And I know that we can’t just flip a switch and change our longstanding relationships with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other repressive allies. But we have already set up a variety of multinational organizations whose purpose is to promote free and fair elections, rule of law, and human rights. To truly begin an initiative to help the Middle East transform itself toward more representative government, we need the consensus and cooperation of all the developed, democratic nations of the world. Bush has alienated the very countries that we would need to be successful.
His speech fell flat. No one believes his strategy is working anymore.