Fraters Libertas

This Tiger Has Teeth

The President's speech last night was not masterful rhetoric by any means. But it was solid and accomplished what it needed to do. I was quite satisfied with Bush's performance and the way he tied the current situation in Iraq into the broader war on terror especially when he used the term 'Iraqi Theater'. Now where did I hear that before?

Unsurprisingly, the Star Tribune editorial staff was not impressed:

But in the president's speech, which seemed oddly fashioned to be a combination of preanniversary reassurances and a defense of what is happening in Iraq, he offered nothing new in the war against those who carried out that attack. Indeed, he offered very little that was new at all. It was spin, spin, spin.

They still don't quite get it do they? They can't understand why the President would seek to combine the upcoming anniversary of the September 11th attacks with the continuing conflict in Iraq. After all they're completely different events right?

Maybe someday the fog will clear from their eyes but I'm not holding my breath. Meanwhile how about all that spin?

The terrorists became convinced that free nations were decadent and weak. And they grew bolder, believing that history was on their side. Since America put out the fires of September the 11th, and mourned our dead, and went to war, history has taken a different turn. We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power.

Nothing but spin.

In Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly -- yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.

Shameless spin.

The Middle East will either become a place of progress and peace, or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and in other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror, and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.

I'm getting dizzy from all this spinning.

Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated. This will take time and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own nation more secure.

Does the man do anything but spin?

We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.

Please stop the spinsanity!

Again I'm not trying to say this was a great speech by any means and it will likely not go down in history as particularly memorable but I have a hard time understanding how it was "spin". It was the President of the US talking about an ongoing war. Imagine if the Strib editorial board had been around at other moments in history.

The Gettysburg Address? Long winded, empty spin.

"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."? Inflammatory spin.

"A day that will live in infamy."? Exaggerated spin.

The editorial continues on with the usual blather suggesting that if we could just get past all those silly concerns about national sovereignty and let Kofi's Kommandos run the show in Iraq everything would be hunky dory. (Whenever I read about how great it would be if only the UN was involved I am always reminded of Stalin's dismissive quote about the influence of the Pope asking how many divisions he had. The UN? How many divisions does Kofi have?) It ends with one of the silliest claims ever made in a Strib editorial. And yes, that is saying an awful lot.

Indeed, it badly needs to put an end to the rising perception that the United States is a paper tiger.

PAPER TIGER?!?

Yeah I bet that's what the remnants of the Taliban, the ones not already buried under tons of rock, are thinking right now as they get hammered once again last week by Afghan government forces backed by US troops and air power.

PAPER TIGER?!?

That was probably exactly what the five Al Qaeda operatives were talking about as they drove through the Yemeni desert last year right before they were incinerated by a hellfire missile.

PAPER TIGER?!?

I'm sure that what Saddam says as he furtively switches houses four times a day with his pitiful entourage trying to stay one step ahead of the boot steps that he knows are coming after him.

PAPER TIGER?!?

Yup that's the take of the Iranians and Syrians who now can look across their border and see 130, 000 US troops camped next door.

PAPER TIGER?!?

That must explain why the North Koreans are, however reluctantly, agreeing to talks about the stability of the Korean peninsula.

This is the same paper that has ripped Bush for months for being a war mongering, shoot first ask questions later, unilateral cowboy. And now they're concerned that we're viewed as a PAPER TIGER?!?

The tiger ain't paper. The days of the real paper tiger, the days of cutting and running in Somalia, the days of not responding to the Khobar Tower bombings, the days of lobbing cruise missiles at empty camps and aspirin factories, the days of watching the USS Cole limp out of harbor and wringing our hands; those days are over. These days the tiger has teeth and claws and is still a little bit pissed off.