On Veterans Day, President George Bush made a speech at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Tobyhanna, Pa. It was supposed to honor veterans for their sacrifice and contribution to America’s freedom. But, the speech quickly turned into another edition of the blame game. The president, in an appalling and divisive move, criticized anti-war protestors for what he called “baseless attacks.”
“[I]t is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” President Bush said.
In reality, Bush distorted the truth about weapons of mass destruction. Bush also made a crucial mistake in limiting his statement to Democrats and interest groups. In the three years since the war began, politicians like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have spoken out against the U.S.’s practices in Iraq, calling for reform in our treatment of Iraqi prisoners. People are speaking out as individuals -not through party affiliation.
The president’s comments were not his first directed at the anti-war sentiment in the United States and abroad, but they were his most public up to this point. Veterans Day celebrates the sacrifice made by U.S. soldiers during all wars.
The president used it to wage another war on Democrats and Republicans who were not trying to “rewrite history,” but were just exercise their First Amendment rights.
As much as the Bush administration tried to seek out a link between the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and Iraq, there was no connection between the two. None of those terrorists were from Iraq.
Still, the Bush administration is using the tragedy of Sept. 11 to justify a baseless war in Iraq.
Bush has said Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and a dictator. That, however, was not the reason the United States occupied Iraq. The United States invaded and occupied Iraq because of the direct threat of weapons of mass destruction – or so Bush said.
Bush argued during his speech that American military operations in Iraq have not exacerbated the terrorist situation here and in the Middle East. Two days after the speech, a husband and wife suicide bomber duo walked into a hotel in Amman, Jordan and attempted to blow themselves up. Only the husband succeeded; his blast killed 56 people, many of them part of a wedding party. Jordan was previously regarded as a neutral nation.
President Bush knows the facts. Anti-war protesters are not trying to rewrite the history of how we were led into the Iraq war; they’re trying to rediscover it. The Bush administration, on the other hand, is trying to hide that history from the American people.
Be the first to comment