Bush Touting Postwar Progress in Iraq

[papau]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3243977,00.html
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGADZWOUKLD.html

Bush Touting Postwar Progress in Iraq

Thursday October 9, 2003 3:01 PM
By SCOTT LINDLAW Associated Press Writer

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - President Bush sought to counter rising criticism about Iraq by touting what he sees as postwar progress, but a fresh burst of violence there Thursday did not help his public-relations offensive. <snip>

In the speech to troops Thursday, he was to emphasize signs of progress in Iraq, what Bush calls “the central front in the war on terrorism,'' and what the events mean for “the safety and security of the American people,'' White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

He warmed up Wednesday night with a speech at a fund-raiser in Washington sponsored by the Republican National Convention. “Since the liberation of Iraq, our investigators have found evidence of a clandestine network of biological laboratories, the advance design work on prohibited long-range missiles, elaborate campaign to hide these illegal programs,'' Bush said.


COMMENT: He spoke to a Reserve group - and I am sure the 166,000 National Guard members and reservists now on active duty now feel better.

[Sticky]

1. I rated it a ONE

As I do for any story that starts with, bush touts", bush says, bush declares, bush defends, bush tells....well you get the point.

"Bush said Thursday he was concerned that "perceptions" didn't reflect the reality of "progress" in Iraq"

Hmmmm.....doesn't he really mean he's concerned that "reality" didn't reflect the "spin" ?

[ewagner]

2. Saw some of it on TV

The Guardsmen behind him were politely applauding. There were cheers and whistles coming from the audience and the camera didn't cover the audience (at least while I was watching) My supposition is that the local Young Republican Clubs were bussed in.

[underpants]

3. So the new PR program is to keep telling the same lies?

But it IS a new PR program.

I love that they come out and tell people that they supposedly have a new way to spin the same crap.

[kentuck]

4. I did notice he is still tying 9/11 to Saddam and the war in Iraq...

sumbitch!

[underpants]

6. What the "safety and security" part?

Mmmm that's an implied implication. I would think they would get away from that but they usually supply the old line to be repeated AGAIN and a counter for every article. It's a push-pull thing, the net sum is zero but the FoxNewses of this world still get to hammer the party line home again-usually in the first 20 seconds of the report. Viewers tend to fade out after that.

[young_at_heart]

5. The Pope and millions of others around the world

were against the US invasion and one can only wonder if Bush thinks this PR now will change their minds?

[bushisanidiot]

7. Gee, I Wonder What All The AWOL Soldiers Home for R&R Think of

Iraq's "progress".

AWOL should pardon all those soldiers since he ran scared back in the 70's!!

[papau]

8. Interesting that Bush AWOL never mentioned in Iraq AWOL stories

Seems a natural tie in -could this be media bias?

:-)

[caledesi]

9. Show me the film at 6 of all the happy Iraqis going about their

business if things are going so well.

[papau]

10. Reuters rewrite of above "Bush Says Iraq War Protected U.S. from 'Madman'

Bush Says Iraq War Protected U.S. from 'Madman'
By REUTERS

Published: October 9, 2003


Filed at 11:07 a.m. ET

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (Reuters) - President Bush, in a new push to defend the war on Iraq in face of mounting doubts, said on Thursday he acted to protect Americans from ``madman'' Saddam Hussein.

``I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman. I was not about to stand by and wait and trust in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein,'' Bush said in speech in New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary next year.

``Who could possible think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power?'' he asked, laying down a rhetorical challenge to critics of his conduct of the war.

His speech had little in the way of new arguments, but he and others in the administration were to make their case repeatedly in coming days in the face of criticism that they exaggerated the threat Iraq posed to justify the war.<snip>

[cliss]

11. Yep. That's the way he is.

I'm sure he thinks of himself as an eloquent statesman, down to earth and yet abstract at the same time. He can get the point across, and yet delve in such details as mentioning Saddam or the Al-Qaida and 9/11 in the same sentence. (but there's no connection, see?) Those two nouns just happen to pop up together in the same sentence, about 23 times a day.

YES discerning, sparse, brilliant....(with a little help from some speechwriters). He just doesn't realize how he comes off sounding. The words are there, to be sure.

It's just that the person reading them is such a turn-off that you just can't listen. All you can hear is arrogance. Childishness. Danger-dude.