False Assumptions On Planet Bush

I posted my original thoughts (below) on the SOTUS as I read through the speech. But looking over it again, I am struck by how many of Bush's sentences simply do not make any real sense at all. He throws out shallow generalisations and false assumptions so often that your mind becomes numb to them.

He has been doing it for years, of course, but this speech was so packed tight with misconceptions (or lies) that it stands as a showcase of pure fantasy.

Just take a look at all the following quotes. Every one is deserving of closer scrutiny.

Yet one question has surely been settled — that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy. From the start, America and our allies have protected our people by staying on the offense...

Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite...

The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat. But whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter the innocent, they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill Americans ... kill democracy in the Middle East ... and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale...

This war is more than a clash of arms — it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our Nation is in the balance. To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and come to kill us. What every terrorist fears most is human freedom — societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies — and most will choose a better way when they are given a chance...

On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle...

We are carrying out a new strategy in Iraq...

We did not drive al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq...

If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country — and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.

For America, this is a nightmare scenario. For the enemy, this is the objective. Chaos is their greatest ally in this struggle. And out of chaos in Iraq would emerge an emboldened enemy with new safe havens … new recruits … new resources … and an even greater determination to harm America. To allow this to happen would be to ignore the lessons of September 11 and invite tragedy. And ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East … to succeed in Iraq … and to spare the American people from this danger...

Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq...

The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others...

We have a diplomatic strategy that is rallying the world to join in the fight against extremism...

American foreign policy is more than a matter of war and diplomacy...

This is a decent and honorable country...

the State of our Union is strong...

our cause in the world is right.

This "volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps" idea sounds pretty scary too, IMHO. An armed and trained domestic army of wingnuts, eager for "a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time"? Sounds like the first step towards a Republican militia. And that's ON TOP OF his plans to expand the military and throw more money at Iraq.

Bush is a war president all right. And Bush's USA is a dangerously war-loving nation, with an economy that is dangerously dependent on the war machine, and a foreign policy dangerously dependent on sticks, not carrots.

This man must be removed from office. The USA must plot a new course and show the world a new face.

PS: Best headline so far is from SMH:

Give war a chance: Bush

And WaPo makes a good point:

Yet his approach contrasted with the last two presidents to address an opposition Congress after their parties lost midterm elections. Ronald Reagan conceded "serious mistakes" in 1987, as did Bill Clinton in 1995. Clinton moved to the middle so conspicuously that the opposition leader who gave the official response noted that he "sounded pretty Republican." Although Bush acknowledged two weeks ago that "mistakes have been made" in Iraq, he appeared unchastened last night and took no responsibility for his party's defeat or errors in office.

Be sure to read Juan Cole's excellent rebuttal too.