Let Me Paraphrase President Bush's speech tonight:

[DVaut1]

First 7 minutes:

"Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq + Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq +Terrorism + 9/11 + Iraq."

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Next 7 minutes:

"Partsian disagreement = defeatism"

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Sendoff to the conservative Christians:

"God is not dead...Merry Christmas"

[Exsubmariner]

You still make me sick. It's reassuring that some things never change.

[DVaut1]

[ QUOTE ]
You still make me sick. It's reassuring that some things never change.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry m'am, I'm just being my naturally defeatist self; what can I say?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

It was more interesting to hear a Republican senator in the Arms Comitee saying that Iraq can't be won militarily in his comment afterwards. That's what I many and others who know something about this region/culture has claimed for a while and now it seems to slowly sink in.

[Stu Pidasso]

[ QUOTE ]
It was more interesting to hear a Republican senator in the Arms Comitee saying that Iraq can't be won militarily in his comment afterwards. That's what I many and others who know something about this region/culture has claimed for a while and now it seems to slowly sink in.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can't be won militarily. It can't be won politically. A combination of the two is neccessary for victory. Its also the strategy we have been following since the start.

Stu

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It was more interesting to hear a Republican senator in the Arms Comitee saying that Iraq can't be won militarily in his comment afterwards. That's what I many and others who know something about this region/culture has claimed for a while and now it seems to slowly sink in.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can't be won militarily. It can't be won politically. A combination of the two is neccessary for victory. Its also the strategy we have been following since the start.

Stu

[/ QUOTE ]

Please explain how you feel that two losing strategies can be combined into a winning one?

[The Don]

This is pretty much accurate. My roomates were watching it in the other room and just listening to it put me on some major tilt [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

[Stu Pidasso]

They are not two losing strategies. They are elements of an overall strategy for victory.

Sometimes you need a combination of elements to produce a good result becuase to use each element individually can be disastrous. Example, ingest pure sodium or pure chlorine and you might die. However you have to ingest sodium chloride to live.

Another example, Trying to flee a predator that is faster than you is an ineffective defense. Releasing a smoke screen is also an ineffective defense. However an octupus combines these two ineffective defenses into an effective defensive strategy.

Need more examples?

Stu

[The Don]

[ QUOTE ]
They are not two losing strategies. They are elements of an overall strategy for victory.

Sometimes you need a combination of elements to produce a good result becuase to use each element individually can be disastrous. Example, ingest pure sodium or pure chlorine and you might die. However you have to ingest sodium chloride to live.

Another example, Trying to flee a predator that is faster than you is an ineffective defense. Releasing a smoke screen is also an ineffective defense. However an octupus combines these two ineffective defenses into an effective defensive strategy.

Need more examples?

Stu

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. One problem though.

I can also combine playing blindfolded with tying my hands behind my back in a basketball game. They are both losing strategies, but they won't combine to help me win at all.

How are these strategies (political and military intervention) going to combine to stop terrorists?

If I am a terrorist, is the fact that the US sets up puppet (anti-terrorist, at least) governments in Iraq and Afghanistan going to stop me from killing Americans if I want to? I mean, after all, my government doesn't consent to it.

Additionally, is the fact that the US military is using force to install these governments going to deter me?

Face it. It isn't that difficult to get into the US. It isn't that difficult to kill a lot of people once you are here. If individuals want to do it, then they will, and there is nothing the US government can do about it. Bush needs to admit that he is wasting money and lives with this boogieman known as "The War on Terror."

[Stu Pidasso]

Hi Devault,

I didn't watch the speech tonight. However I did read the excerpts from CNN . Heres how they highlighted it

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush acknowledged deep divisions and difficult progress in Iraq Sunday night, but urged Americans not to give in to "defeatism" and "despair" over the conflict


911 wasn't mentioned in the CNN article. Was it mentioned at all in the speech? If it was a major point I'm sure it would have been mentioned multiple times.

Foxnews had the following summary

WASHINGTON — Elections in Iraq last Thursday were "a landmark day in the history of liberty," and set the stage for the first Arab democracy in the Middle East, President Bush said Sunday night in a prime-time television speech from the Oval Office.

FoxNews also had no mention of 911 in its article.

Devault, I bet if you reviewed the transcript of the speech, you would be pretty embarrassed about the summary you provided for us here.

Stu