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Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Iraq War

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Wed Aug 30, 2006 at 07:47:01 PM EST
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The Wall St. Journal (free link) reports that Bush is planning a series of speeches intended to increase support for the war in Iraq.

President Bush will launch another major public-relations offensive to strengthen support for the Iraq war -- this time likely emphasizing the high stakes and changing nature of the battle more than the progress being made. The series of speeches begins tomorrow at the annual American Legion convention in Utah and will continue through the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and on into the middle of next month.

The new campaign is aimed at framing the Iraq debate over what the White House considers the vital stakes involved in the war and reinforcing public sentiment that favors sticking it out. The speeches will be aimed at rebutting mounting public calls -- from Democrats and even a few Republicans -- for setting some kind of timetable for at least a limited troop withdrawal.

Part of the strategy is to use the speeches to increase Republican chances of victory in November:

The speeches also could help Republican candidates in the fall congressional campaign, despite the flagging popularity of both Mr. Bush and the war. Advisers to the president believe -- and polls reflect -- that while most people say they are unhappy about the way the war is going, they still oppose the immediate withdrawal that high-profile Democrats increasingly favor.

Since when is "immediate" the operative word? I thought the Democrats and most Americans support a timetable for withdrawal at the earliest opportunity -- that is not the same thing as "immediate withdrawal." Bush is trying to make it sound like Democrats would stage a mass and total exit from Iraq tomorrow. While I would be in favor of that, even I recognize that's not in the cards.

Bush should spend less time planning how to sell this misbegotten war and more time on how to exit from it. He should also refrain from pushing the fear button:

....Mr. Bush recently has increasingly emphasized that if the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, the "enemy will follow us home," as he said at a fund-raiser for former football star Lynn Swann's Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign.

Does he think Americans don't get by now that Iraq and al Qaeda are separate entities and that Iraq is not responsible for 9/11?

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    Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Iraq War | 18 comments (18 topical)
    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#1)
    by TomStewart on Wed Aug 30, 2006 at 08:10:45 PM EST
    Sorry, this is not the Iraq war, that ended several years ago. This is the Iraq Occupation, and it needs to come to an end. Soon.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#2)
    by Andreas on Wed Aug 30, 2006 at 08:58:43 PM EST
    The Socialist Equality Party demands the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces. The Democratic Party opposes this and continues to support the criminal occupation. The representatives of both imperialist parties need to be voted out of office.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#4)
    by Repack Rider on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 05:44:03 AM EST
    I like the idea. Keep reminding the people about the debacle in Iraq so we don't have to. Of course, anyone with a memory longer than that of a mayfly will recall that in 2005 the president was going to give a speech every Monday night leading up to the Iraqi election, a series that ended at one with no explanation.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#6)
    by dutchfox on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 07:07:29 AM EST
    Speaking of speech, but of the "free" kind: Vermont student wins free-speech case in federal appeals court

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#7)
    by Bill Arnett on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 09:49:13 AM EST
    bush has so little credibility that I'm sure this propaganda tour will have the same effect as his tours to change Social Security: a total collapse of support. That he lacks the intelligence to appreciate what a fool he is just reinforces the public's impression of him. Lying fool. Worst. President. Ever.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#8)
    by Beck on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 09:49:13 AM EST
    Isn't this the same strategy he used to gain support for his plan to eliminate Social Security?

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 09:49:13 AM EST
    "You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." - George W. Bush George Bush has not only continued a murderous policy that has been pursued by successive US administrations for nearly a century, he has drastically expanded that policy and pushed it so far that we now stand on the edge of an abyss looking into apocalyptic hell. There is greater danger now than there has ever been that the world will tip and fall into that abyss if he and that policy are not stopped, and the US begins to move towards working and living with the rest of the world, rather than attempting to force the world at gunpoint and through bombsights into submitting to its will and its all-consuming and all-corrupting desire for the resources of the planet.
    An examination of the details and consequences of that theme provides a startling object lesson in the pitfalls and conceit of an interventionist foreign policy.
    Admitting that past mistakes and behaviors are what is causing the problem of "terrorism" is the first step to stopping it, and rather than being "America hating", or "appeasement", is in the long run the probably only way to begin a real and honest effort toward protecting and securing the U.S.

    Continuing the same policies and actions that are causing the problem will not remove it, only exacerbate it. If removing the problem is in fact the real goal of the administration. So far George Bush has been oblivious to the problems he creates and has been unwilling or unable to admit his mistakes.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#10)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 09:49:13 AM EST
    Does he think Americans don't get by now that Iraq and al Qaeda are separate entities and that Iraq is not responsible for 9/11?
    About 75 percent do, while 25 percent think that they will be raptured up to heaven after the coming Bush-led apocalypse. The real problem is that about 99 percent of that 25 percent segment are going to vote, while about 35 percent of the remaining 75 percent will. So Rove will be concentrating on firing up the armageddon crowd from now til November. Hopefully, there will be enough of a backlash from the non-fanatics to save us.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 10:26:25 AM EST
    Whis is Bush making this series of speeches repeating the same 'we've got to fight 'em there or we'll be fighting 'em here' line of terrorizing BS he's been spouting all along, in his attempt to boost support for the GOP in the run up to November? Because the've got nothing else to offer. Because they're politically and morally bankrupt. Because they're only capable of playing to the lowest common denominator in anything they try to do. Because they're pandering to the basest grunting limbic reptilian fears of the most uneducated segments of society. Because they're finished unless they can.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 10:26:25 AM EST
    If recent polls on Iraq are acccurate, 60% of Americans are now "appeasers" and/or "terrorist sympathizers". This sounds like a job for the American Legion...oops they're drunk.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#3)
    by soccerdad on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 11:12:33 AM EST
    Its much more likely that you will see a massive escalation, attack on Iran, before you see a withdrawl. The blowback to such an escalation will provide Bush with the tools to engineer enough fear to keep this crime going.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#13)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 11:30:49 AM EST
    This is good news. The more Bush opens his mouth, the worse he sounds. The Bush family fortune was made off of laundering the Third Reich's money.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 12:06:46 PM EST
    I read in some of the other news media that one of Bush's planned approaches is to use the old "we are fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" lie taken out of the Vietnam era that proved so effective. Previously, I believe I posted a comment in that respect, but perhaps it is worth repeating? The "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" is a tired hang over from the Vietnam era that is being resurfaced, dusted off, repackaged, and now being used by the GOP. It was the same rhetoric I heard just before I was sent to Vietnam the first time, and the same drum beat was going on when I was sent back the second time. It was sometime later that I, and the vast majority of the American people, realized we had been suckered into a trumped up war that cost us over 50,000 of our finest. Was it trumped up then? Remember the Tokin Gulf fiasco and the domino effect: if Vietnam falls, all the rest of SE Asia will follow. Well, Vietnam fell, to what we called "our enemy," that had never harmed this nation, and we never had to "fight them here" after all. Nor did SE Asia go to hell in a hand basket any more than its always been. Now, we are again fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here, in another trumped up war, though far more obvious, and again "an enemy" that never harmed nor attacked this nation. First it was those alleged WMDs and the imminent threat. When that failed to materialize, then we have to "take democracy to Iraq," a concept never surfaced nor mentioned in the run up to the war. That idea was invented by this administration as cover for a failed policy, which only because of bull headedness and the objectives of the big business and oil barons continues to cost us lives and fortune. Fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here is as untrue now as it was back then in Nam. History will not look positively on this excuse for a president, his administration, nor,unfortunately, this great nation.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 03:00:04 PM EST
    Did anyone say "Worst . President . Ever" yet?

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#16)
    by Edger on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 03:00:04 PM EST
    Vietnam Vet: Well, Vietnam fell, to what we called "our enemy," that had never harmed this nation, and we never had to "fight them here" after all. Nor did SE Asia go to hell in a hand basket any more than its always been. Of course not. And all that Islam has ever asked for is that the US and Britain stop meddling with "aggressive intervention". In other words they want to stop being killed. All the so-called "terrorist attacks" they have committed have been retaliation.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#17)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 03:37:20 PM EST
    Check this trailer to find out how the war in Vietnam REALLY ended.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 10:38:39 PM EST
    May be the purpose of this series of speeches is to allow more people acess to Bush. Think of the spin and politcal capital if something goes wrong. We could have WW3 with no questions asked. Extreemly curious that the American Legeion, VFW, will allow these chickenhawk draft dodgers to speak to them but would not allow them to join except in W's case he is a legacy. I guess it is not much different than putting on a Nascar jacket or landing on the mission accomplised aircraft carrier in a designer flight suit and a one and only if I may "W" jacket. Which is different than an "IKE" jacket as that was standard issue. I think that is appropiate as this president is special and chosen but the votes are not in about the meaning of chosen and special.

    Re: Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Ir (none / 0) (#19)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Aug 31, 2006 at 11:04:40 PM EST
    They should save that flight suit for the Bush Library. Place it onto a wax figure of the Emperor with the padded codpiece. For a buck you can kick it in the groin.

    Bush To Use Speeches to Bolster Support for Iraq War | 18 comments (18 topical)