229 YEARS AGO
Friday, July 01, 2005
Two hundred twenty nine years ago on July 4,1776, our great nation, the United States of America in a struggle for what was right and free was proudly born...May we celebrate that freedom which our founding fathers fought for so bravely. The freedom that is inherent in the Stars and Stripes of our revered flag.
Let's all fly our flag on the 4th of July and let us remember our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends who are fighting today for what is right and good. Let's say a prayer for them, for their safe return, their successful missions, for wisdom, strength, courage and peace. Let us also pray for their families, I am sure this Independence Day has an even greater meaning to them as they celebrate while their loved ones are in foreign lands. God bless our troops and God bless America.
As we celebrate July 4th, let's remember why we went to war. Let's pray also for the Iraqi people. I wanted to share this clipping from the Washingon Post with you.
Why Did We Go to War? (from the Washington Post)
In Bush's first post-9/11 State of the Union address (January 2002), he framed Iraq as part of a larger and more enduring problem, the overriding threat of our time: the conjunction of terrorism, terrorist states and weapons of mass destruction. And unless something was done, we faced the prospect of an infinitely more catastrophic 9/11 in the future.
Later that year, in a speech to the United Nations, he spoke of the danger from Iraq not as "clear and present" but "grave and gathering," an obvious allusion to Churchill's "gathering storm," the gradually accumulating threat that preceded the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. And then nearer the war, in his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush plainly denied that the threat was imminent. "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent." Bush was, on the contrary, calling for action precisely when the threat was not imminent because, "if this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions . . . would come too late."
The threat had not yet even fully emerged, Bush was asserting, but nonetheless it had to be faced because it would only get worse. Hussein was not going away. The sanctions were not going to restrain him. Even his death would be no reprieve, as his half-mad sons would take over. The argument was that Hussein had to be removed eventually and that with Hussein relatively weakened, isolated and vulnerable, now would be more prudent and less costly than later.
He was right.
In fact, Bush's case was simply a more elaborate and formal restatement of Bill Clinton's argument in 1998 that, left unmolested, Hussein would "go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal."
That was true when Clinton said it. It was true when Bush said it. The difference is that Bush did something about it.
Let's all fly our flag on the 4th of July and let us remember our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, friends who are fighting today for what is right and good. Let's say a prayer for them, for their safe return, their successful missions, for wisdom, strength, courage and peace. Let us also pray for their families, I am sure this Independence Day has an even greater meaning to them as they celebrate while their loved ones are in foreign lands. God bless our troops and God bless America.
As we celebrate July 4th, let's remember why we went to war. Let's pray also for the Iraqi people. I wanted to share this clipping from the Washingon Post with you.
Why Did We Go to War? (from the Washington Post)
In Bush's first post-9/11 State of the Union address (January 2002), he framed Iraq as part of a larger and more enduring problem, the overriding threat of our time: the conjunction of terrorism, terrorist states and weapons of mass destruction. And unless something was done, we faced the prospect of an infinitely more catastrophic 9/11 in the future.
Later that year, in a speech to the United Nations, he spoke of the danger from Iraq not as "clear and present" but "grave and gathering," an obvious allusion to Churchill's "gathering storm," the gradually accumulating threat that preceded the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. And then nearer the war, in his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush plainly denied that the threat was imminent. "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent." Bush was, on the contrary, calling for action precisely when the threat was not imminent because, "if this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions . . . would come too late."
The threat had not yet even fully emerged, Bush was asserting, but nonetheless it had to be faced because it would only get worse. Hussein was not going away. The sanctions were not going to restrain him. Even his death would be no reprieve, as his half-mad sons would take over. The argument was that Hussein had to be removed eventually and that with Hussein relatively weakened, isolated and vulnerable, now would be more prudent and less costly than later.
He was right.
In fact, Bush's case was simply a more elaborate and formal restatement of Bill Clinton's argument in 1998 that, left unmolested, Hussein would "go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal."
That was true when Clinton said it. It was true when Bush said it. The difference is that Bush did something about it.
posted by Live, Love, Laugh | 4:13 PM
1 Comments:
Well said.
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