Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Presidential Address Commentary

Several things struck me as I listened to Bush speak tonight. First was what a horrible public speaker he is even after 6 years in office, but the others are more important. (The full text of the speech can be found at The Drudge Report.)
Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.
This comment was something of a surprise just because Bush has been so reluctant to admit any mistakes. It is, however, probably the best move he could make for the party as a whole at this point.
This new strategy will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings, assassinations, or IED attacks. Our enemies in Iraq will make every effort to ensure that our television screens are filled with images of death and suffering.
This says to me: "It's gonna look bad, but take my word for it that it's really getting better. Believe what I say, not what you see."
To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.
I thought that in a democracy the outcome of votes in a legislature were the result of debate and the act of the members of the legislature, not the dictates of a foreign president. I guess I was wrong. . .
Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
I have to wonder, what exactly does this mean? Especially the "seek out and destroy" part. We obviously can't afford to start wars with two more countries at this point. I certainly hope that is not what he intends.

More commentary can be found at Poliblog and my thanks to Steven for posting a link to the text of the speech so that I didn't have to find it myself.

Update: The video of the speech is available at The Washington Post website

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