It's almost embarassing, how easy it is to poke holes in the Dubya 'story' when he is in "Commander In Chief" mode and preaching to those he thinks are converted. Take this, from a recent masterpiece at Camp Hood:
The terrorists have made Iraq a central front in the war on terror. Because of your service, because of your sacrifice, we are defeating them there where they live, so we do not have to face them where we live.
Two sentences, both familiar soundbites from other speeches...and 100% crap.
1) The terrorists have made Iraq a central front in the war on terror.
No, George, they didn't YOU did. YOU confused the War on Terror with the War On Iraq, so that the Coalition were fighting "twin wars". Everybody including your own cabinet members agrees that there were no ties with al-Qaida before the US invaded. Zarquawi, by your own military's intelligence reports which have always been freely available, did not reach out the hand of alliance to Bin Laden until he realised that "the enemy of his enemy" might be his friend. Don't you remember the news reports, Mr. President?
2) we are defeating them there where they live, so we do not have to face them where we live.
Ummm....George? We thought your story was that the people of Iraq were freedom loving but it was foreign terrorists crossing the border from Syria and such that were fuelling the insurgency. Which is it, George?
Then there's the real killer:
As Iraq's new government assumes increasing responsibility for the stability of their country, security operations are entering a new phase. Iraq security forces are becoming more self-reliant and taking on greater responsibilities. And that means that America and its coalition partners are increasingly playing more of a supporting role. Today, more than 150,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained and equipped, and for the first time, the Iraqi army, police and security forces now outnumber U.S. forces in Iraq.
Yet his own military admit that more than 271,000 combat effectives and analysts believe that less than 20,000 of those Iraqi servicemen are effective as a combat force. Even Congress doesn't believe the figure of 150,000 is serious. There are more combat effectives in the various armed militias belonging to the factions and tribes. It is telling that the second largest contingent of armed pernollel in Iraq now (50,000) are the private security hired by US companies - they outnumber the entire rest of the Coalition, excluding the US.
Nevermind the worrying Army admission that until March of this year they had no detailled plan for defeating the insurgency and were just winging it!
Like free people everywhere, Iraqis want to be defended and led by their own countrymen. We will help them achieve this objective so Iraqis can secure their own nation. And then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned.
So now you know...the troops will be home when Iraq can secure it's own country against both internal and external threats. Some of the likely threats, such as Iran and Syria, are pretty sophisticated. So far, pretty much nothing has been done about anything other than internal security and it is likely to take just as long to build up the heavy equipment a functioning national defence force needs as it will to secure the country and restore it to functioning. To date, Iraq has a few outdated tanks and no air force other than a couple of recon planes. No-one has given any serious planning to building a defence force. It's going to be a long time, people.
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