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Sic Semper Tyrannis

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Go get 'em Mr. President!

It appears that President Bush is finally fighting back. During the 2004 campaign, Bush never seemed to rebut the charges that he "deliberately misled" America into war. Despite the fact that the 9/11 Commission and virtually every other objective inquity into this has shown that there is no evidence Bush distorted the intelligence, Democrats have repeatedly leveled this charge for political gain. Now, a majority of Americans have bought into this and believe Bush is dishonest. I respect those who disagree with the Iraq War, and am sympathetic to criticisms of how we have handled the post-war rebuilding process. But charges that Bush lied about whether Iraq had WMDs, or that Bush went to war for oil, or even worse yet that he went to war to enrich his buddies at Halliburton and in the oil industry, are just plain ridiculous. It is long, long, long, long, long overdue, but finally President Bush is fighting back. In yesterday's Veteran's Day address, Bush appropriately lashed out:

While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. (Applause.) Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.

They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: "When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security." That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power. (Applause.)

The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. (Applause.) These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. (Applause.) Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. (Applause.) And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory. (Applause.)

Go get 'em Mr. President!