Bush to Compare Middle East with War-Time Europe

[Spazito]

DENVER (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday will compare his administration's war on terror to World War II and cast the Middle East as a critical front akin to war-time Europe, during a commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy, a senior White House official said.


A day after he embraced a new Iraqi interim government as a step toward representative government, the Republican president was also expected to speak in detail about America's enemies such as Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaeda network, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


"He'll say we're fighting the broader war on terror throughout the world, but much like in World War II, when Europe became the critical front in that war, the greater Middle East is the critical front in the war on terror," the official said.


"Events in Europe determined the Cold War; this is kind of the equivalent of that in the Middle East," he added.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=9&u=/nm/20040602/pl_nm/bush_dc

[rfranklin]

1. Hitler started a war, Bush started a war

Perfect comparison of war criminals.

[DoktorGreg]

3. I was thinking reformation....

People often forget how much worse the reformation was than WW2, at least in Europe that is.

[robbedvoter]

2. I thought France warned him to keep his trap shut on this!

Bush warned against comparing D-Day to Iraq

Kim Willsher in Paris
Wednesday June 2, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,14058,1229277,00.html
French officials fear George Bush will inflame anti-American sentiment in France this weekend by linking the D-Day landings with the invasion of Iraq.

Advisers close to Jacques Chirac have let it be known that any reference to Iraq during the 60th anniversary of the Allied invasion of France on Sunday would be ill-advised and unwelcome.

Both presidents will address second world war veterans and VIPs during a service at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy.

"He'd better not go too far down the road of making a historical comparison because it's likely to backfire on him," said a source close to President Chirac.

He added that the French would not appreciate any public mention linking the events and said photographs of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisons did not sit well with the image of D-Day heroes.

[VolcanoJen]

18. June 6 should be damned interesting.

He's been warned... and I doubt he'll bring up the comparison in front of "Old Europe," but at the same time, it's hard for Chimpy to resist slipping "Terra" into a speech...

[Jackpine Radical]

28. The French told him to shut up about Iraq/Europe

when he speaks in France. This speech is at the AF Academy, where he will apparently say for domestic consumption everything the Surrender Monkeys wouldn't let him say over there.

[dedhed]

4. Oh, THAT should be GOOD!!!

Uhhh... let's see. Both wars had tanks?

:bounce:

[vi5]

5. Well in that case, where is the draft?

If anyone makes that comparison then I immediately make the comparison to the sacrifices people had to make back then. Where is the rationing? Where is the draft? Where is the tax hike to pay for the costs? Where are the housewives working on assembly lines?

If this is like WW2 then we should be expecting WW2 sacrifices as well.

[bigfire]

7. The Reality of the War on Terror

The Bushoisie routinely condemn those on the left (but not those on the right, I've noticed) who question the reality of the administration's War on Terror. "This is a real war," they say, and claim that anyone who acts otherwise is helping the terrorists.

In that respect, I claim the administration is helping the terrorists, because THEY are acting like they don't believe it's a real war! As vi5 pointed out, there's no conscription, there's no increase in taxes, there are no efforts to pass laws against war profiteering. Most importantly there are no achievable goals, just "defeating evil." We won't even talk about how we elevated a gang of murderous thugs to the level of an opponent worthy of the United States.

If the Bushoisie aren't going to take the war seriously, why should anyone else?

[Q]

6. Iraq was a war of CHOICE...not necessity...

...and George II* is a fool for even suggesting there are 'similarities'. No wonder he's hated around the world.

[UpInArms]

8. kick

:kick:

[Just Me]

9. He is just,...a freakin' idiot if he does this.

*ahem*,...I know, I know,...he IS a freakin' idiot and he will make this ridiculous off-the-wall totally inaccurate comparison.

I wonder if he'll be "booed" on public television. I hope so!!!

:bounce:

[Mandate My Ass]

10. Putz

He's clueless, of course, but his handlers are going
to allow him to embarrass himself and all of us on
this solemn occasion with his faux cowboy bullshit.

:puke:

I hope they pull a "Bill O'Reilley" on him and just
turn off his mic during his talk.

[mmm]

13. Most Americans will hear this and believe it all

Guaranteed

[Rose Siding]

14. Worse...

They'll believe it AND be outraged at the French for getting pissed about it.

[scared]

15. His handlers write the damn stuff.........

Bush is no more responsible for what comes out of his mouth in these speeches that you or I. It is his HANDLERS who tell him what to say and do.

If someone were to ask him without a script to summarize the comparisons to World War II and our boondoggle in Iraq he would have absolutely no clue how to answer.

[truthspeaker]

11. one big difference:

Poland is a lot closer to Germany than Iraq is to the US. Otherwise the situations are similar.

[Richardo]

12. "Europe became the critical front" News to those in the Pacific, I'm sure

Remember Japan? Bueller? Bueller?

Pearl Harbor?
Iwo Jima?
Coral Sea?
Midway?
Freakin Hiroshima?

How many Allied soldiers died between Hawaii and Burma?


George you ignorant slut.

[denverbill]

16. A better comparison is with Germany's occupation of France.

This is not a fight between near equals. Unlike the Allies versus the Axis in WWII, one side has the best tanks, jets, artillery, armor, surveillance equipment, and all the money in the world. The other side has delapidated rifles, RPG's, and some improvised explosives, and a few boxcutters.

The French underground in WWII was closer to the terrorists we face today. We occupy their land and kill innocents while attempting to kill the guilty. They shoot at us, then put away their guns and mingle back into the populace. Like Occupied France, if a terrorist kills an American, entire towns are subject to punishment. Like Occupied France, Americans arrest people without charges, detain them indefinitely without trial, torture and humiliate them, torture family members, and create new terrorists every time we kill innocent victims.

[booksenkatz]

17. For whose amusement is he going to do this?

Every sentient human being on the planet will guffaw heartily at such a comparison (which is why his core supporters will not). Even the children in my son's preschool know better than to fall for this claptrap.

Go away, you lying, kill-happy, warmongering fraud.

[Tellurian]

19. The Wolves always hide beneath Sheep's clothing to avoid detection...

Everything about Bush has become transparently unctuous. The War on Terror is synonymous with The Christian Crusades, not WWII!

Journalist should be headlining the commonality of the Crusade on Terror setting the record straight for posterity.

(now that the torture and abuse of Arabs has been revealed implicating Bush, Rumsfeld and the Pentagon, in all it's reviled splendor) ..

East meets West.

Fundamentalists vs Fundamentalists.

[PurityOfEssence]

20. So he's equating Islam with Nazism?

That would be a tidy way to excuse Israel's excesses, no?

There's nothing more dangerous than an ignorant person with great power who makes broad pronouncements based on emotion.

[Kellanved]

21. That would be dishonoring the memory of the Allied WW2 Soldiers

He could at least wait until after the D-Day commemorations...

Good point in this video/short documentary (second item on page).
http://www.euronews.net/create_html.php?page=europeans&langue=en

[struggle4progress]

22. Europe compares Bush to War-Time Buzz Bombs!

[homelandpunk]

23. You know why this is SCARY? Because McWarhardon is gonna

actually start comparing WW2 Europe to the activity in the Middle East.... and he is gonna realize piddly Iraq is not LARGE ENOUGH SCALE YET!!
He wants to make this bigger...beyond Iraq.
The signs keep coming in that he is crazier than a shithouse rat, and this is gonna be another one of those things where people are later going to say: "Hmmm...yeah he did say that...how come we did nothing to stop him? It was so clear! We should have known all this bad shit was gonna happen."
Be warned.

[bluedog]

24. Bush drops 'crusade' from Eisenhower's D-Day message

Bush drops 'crusade' from Eisenhower's D-Day message


President George W. Bush compared the war on terrorism to World War II on Wednesday but trimmed one famous Allied message and dropped the word "crusade."

In a speech at the US Air Force Academy graduation, Bush recited part of General Dwight Eisenhower's message to troops ahead of the D-Day landings but carefully quoted around the term, which has deeply negative connotations in the Muslim world.

"'Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force,'" Bush quoted Eisenhower as saying. "'The eyes the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."
sorry from drudge

[acmavm]

25. I wanted a break from what I was doing at work just a couple of minutes

after Yahoo! put this on their news page. Just for shits and giggles I went to read the comments on the article and people were just going nuts. I couldn't believe how fast posts were being generated, there was no way to keep up. And 95% were outraged.
*****
Here is just a sample:

WHILE BUSH DIVERTED TROOPS FROM
by: DELETED by acmavm 06/02/04 04:30 pm
Msg: 75159 of 76796
2 recommendations

the war on terror to Iraq, Al Qaeda has likely acquired a nuke! While we had more robust numbers in Afghanistan we were on the trail of Al Qaeda's quest for nukes, but after troop strength was dramatically reduced we lost the trail.

By the way, this comes from a special ops soldier who voted for Bush. He won't this year.
****

This is pretty indicative of how well his remarks went over.

[drdtroit]

26. He just wants to make sure

that all of the dittoheads can continue to ask the rhetorical question:
"why do they hate us?" :shrug:

[Zhade]

27. In other news, bush spits on the sacrifices of the dead in WWII.

Somebody stop this fucking traitor. NOW!