Bush Says He'll Keep U.S. on the Offensive

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WHEELING, W.Va. -
President Bush said Wednesday he feels Iraqi political figures need to urgently get a representative government together that can unify a nation now embroiled in civil strife.

"It's time," Bush said. "It's time to get a government in place."

Wait a goshdarn minute, Bush. Didn't you crow last year about how the Iraqis finally had a free and democratic Government. Now you're saying they don't. Which is it: flip or flop?

Speaking for the third time in as many days about Iraq and the war against terrorism, he also said it's important for Iraqi security forces to begin taking the lead in the fight for their future.

"It's the Iraqis' fight," the president told an audience here. "These troops that we're training are going to have to stand up and defend their democracy."

A fight Bush started and doesn't quite know how to stop. Why should the Iraqi Military do anything when they have the U.S. to do their fighting, plus all this neat weaponry coming in, and money. Don't foget the billions coming in. Why should they do anything?

Bush backed his administration's new nuclear agreement with India and reaffirmed his belief that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

Because only the U.S. should decide who has nucular technology...YEAHHHH!!!! Tell'm Bushie boy.

He also said he was upset that an Afghan man is being tried for converting to Christianity. Abdul Rahman, 41, faces a possible death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago. He has been charged with rejecting Islam, a crime under this country's Islamic laws.

"We expect them to honor the universal principle of freedom," Bush said at Capitol Music Hall, an ornate theater downtown. "I'm troubled when I hear, deeply troubled when I hear, the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account. ... I look forward to working with the government of that country to make sure that people are protected in their capacity to worship."

No virgins for him.

Bush claimed success in Afghanistan.

"We removed the Taliban from power, we've denied al-Qaida safe have and that young country, that young democracy is now beginning to grow. Twenty-five million people are liberated as a result of the United States defending itself," Bush said.

He acknowledged, however, that there was more work to be done.

LIKE GETTING BIN LADEN?!?

Bush's remarks about the war on terror comes as violence is on the rise along the rugged Pakistan-Afghan border where
Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding. The violence has sent relations between the two countries to new lows and underscored U.S. difficulties in containing a troubled region crucial to winning the war on terror.

More than four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, an intensifying campaign of bombings, including 30 suicide attacks since the fall, have targeted foreign troops, Afghan security forces and local authorities.

On other subjects, Bush urged Congress to approve a landmark plan to share nuclear technology with India, which has never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

"My attitude is that over 30 years they have proven themselves to be a nonproliferator, that they're a transparent democracy, that it's in our interest for them to develop nuclear power to help their economy grow," he said.

Plus India will be an implied threat to Pakistan, whom we should have overthrown to get to bin Laden but consistency was never a Bush strength.

On the other hand, Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, he said.

Unless they buy one from us...

"They're certainly not a democracy. They're sponsors of terrorism," Bush said, adding that Iran violated safeguards imposed by the
International Atomic Energy Agency.

"They have joined the IAEA, and yet we caught them cheating and they weren't upholding their agreements and they started to try to enrich uranium in order to develop a nuclear weapons program," he said.

Iraq 'n Roll
First, a warning. The arguments here are the same ones you've read about for the past four years but I feel it important that they not be lost to the Bush Fog of Obfuscation. Second, again, said many years ago that the Ends do not justify the Means, especially in the case of Hussein and Iraq. Third, we don't have all the data so this is opinion. But it's opinion based on what we see Bush and his cronies doing, not what they say they're doing. Fourth, we don't have all the information because Bush and his cronies have tried to keep as much information from us as possible. They ask us to have faith in them. Yet their actions violate time and again our faith. Why should we believe them when they lie to us and to the world? In their own way they are as bad as Hussein and others they seek to overthrow.

About three years ago, a friend of mine started a blog. I read it and felt a reaction, a strong reaction. She was pro-Bush, pro-invasion, and very articulate in her writing. I was incensed and decided to start this blog as a rebuttal.

She believed (or "fell for") the arguments put out by Bush that Hussein had WMDs and was a threat to the U.S.. She even blogged that she had definitive proof that Hussein had WMDs and was hiding them in Iraq. I argued that WMDs weren't the reason for Bush actions but I suspected oil.

She claimed also that Hussein had to go because he was treating his people like crap. No argument there - Hussein is a bastard - but it is not the duty of the U.S. to go in and depose every bastard despot. If so, Cuba would've been toppled. North Korea would be toppled. Iraq is, arguably, not as bad as those places so why Hussein?

It had to be oil I said.

You know the rest. Invasion. No WMDs. Lies and distortions by the Bush Admnistration ever since and too much of our money disappearing into "friendly" pockets. Iraq no longer has Hussein but a civil "conflict", an increase in terrorists, no infra-structure, and, instead of welcoming us with open arms, they want us to leave.

When Bush says the U.S. will stay in Iraq for a few more years he is saying that we will have a U.S. military presence - period - in Iraq until we decide to leave. Think Germany.

So the oil may have been only part of it. Bush wants a U.S. presence in the Mid-East but if that's expansionism then what is? And expansionism is precisely what ticks off the terrorists. So, essentially, what Bush has done is made the World an unsafer place by expanding U.S. influence.

Worse, he has revealed the weaknesses of our military and foreign policy. By not finishing up the chase of bin Laden, Bush has shown that the personal bin Laden family connection may have had some meaning. For all his talk about terrorists, Bush has failed to get the big one.

Remember: Hussein was NOT a part of 9/11 or Al Qaeda, despite the numerous attempts by Bush to tie the two together.

By invading Iraq, Bush weakened our forces by splitting them between Afghanistan and Iraq. (He criticized Clinton for doing the same strategy.) He overthrew Hussein in 100 days ("Mission accomplished!!!") but failed to consider the next step to secure the country. He didn't secure the borders.

And in came terrorists and other people who dislike us. But more importantly without Hussein keeping a cruel thumb on people the tribal warfare started up again.

Now, instead of Iraq being a happy place, we have insurgents versus us, Shiites against Sunis against Kurds against us. Really, we could have had the same mess for a fraction of the cost by simply having Hussein and Sons assassinated.

But, again, Iraq isn't about Hussein. It's about presence and probably oil. Think the fighting will die down? Not bloddy likely, not unless the Iraqi Government cracks down severely, much the same way Hussein ruled. Ironic.

And as for my friend who started me on this blog business, she still blogs but you won't find her earlier stuff any more. Like a member of the Ruling Republicans that she is, her earlier works have been removed. Like Bush, she has mutated her view on the War and she hates to be reminded of the hypocrisy that is so prevalent in Washinton D.C..