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Monday, March 17, 2003
Bush Speech Why are his eyebrows raised? Seems like he's trying to curry favor, to seem earnest, like a 6-year-old angling for candy. Peaceful efforts to disarm have failed "because we are not dealing with peaceful men." Unlike...uh...us, I guess. He dragged out the Al Qaeda "connection" again. Truth means nothing to these people. I'd bet they could get every single Nobel laureate to tell them there is no substanstive basis for this assertion, and they wouldn't pay any attention; they'd only worry what Mr. and Mrs. America think. He's obviously reading from a teleprompter. He's fixed in the middle distance, a little left of center. He refers to himself as "Commander in Chief" without reference to the armed forces. "We believe in the mission of the United Nations." "In the early 1990's," blah, blah, Resolutions 678, 687 -- it's about WMD's again. "All foreign[ers]...including journalists...should leave Iraq immediately." Will they? Is this unprecedented? Probably the Iraqi civilians should leave as well. His eyes don't track together. He reads only with his right eye. The left eye doesn't move. "War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished." Does that include Americans? "We are a peaceful people, but we are not a fragile people." Huh? We have the largest army in the world, and deploy it in over 100 countries. Because we're peaceful? Even if all of our deployments are for altruistic purposes, even if they're there to make or keep peace, it doesn't mean we're a peaceful people. You might have a lot of nice things to say about the big guy with the baseball bat who's keeping two other guys from killing each other, but 'peaceful' isn't one of them. As to the latter part of the quote: we fly into a coordinated national tizzy when there's a report of a shark attack. We can't come to terms with the fact that Shit Happens. We're probably the most psychically fragile population on earth. We are now on Level Orange Security Alert. What's red for? If Saddam's the most significant source or sponsor of terrorism, and we're planning to invade his country, and we assume he's going to fight back, why the fuck aren't we on red? You poke what you tell us is the biggest wasp's nest in the world, and you don't expect to be stung? Do they have to call you on the phone and tell you they're coming for red to be invoked? Are you lying about Hussein and terrorism, or you just monumentally stupid? Geez that guy gets my blood up. 
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