Thursday, September 12, 2002
Today is not Sept. 11, thank God
Hi.
Sept. 11 is over. Spent the day at work, dodging the press coverage. I'll write about what I did yesterday later. I have a few fires here at work I need to control first.
Anyway, I caught Bush's speech to the United Nations this morning. In case you missed it, here's a transcript.
I think a lot of people were looking forward to this speech. Finally, we were going to hear what Bush's case was against Iraq. We would hear evidence on a global stage which would drum up support for Saddam Hussein's removal as the head of Iraq. Make no mistake, Saddam is an brutal ruler and he should be removed, but Bush didn't present evidence why. Bush talked in generalities, trying to pump up the U.N. into taking part in Bush's crusade. After all, Bush reasoned, Iraq was thumbing it's nose at U.N. resolutions. Hey you, foreigners, Bush was saying, aren't you just hot under the collar?
Myself, I thought it was a good rah-rah, "do the right thing, but don't look at the details"-type of speech. Bush missed a few things though.
- Regarding the regime change, Bush didn't talk about what would come next as far as putting democracy in place and rebuilding what would be a shattered nation
- Bush didn't provide direct evidence linking Saddam to terrorism or even Saddam to currently possessing weapons of mass destruction
- Between patronizing phrases and attempts at creating guilt trips on the U.N., Bush taunted the U.N., essentially saying, "Saddam Hussein is dissing you. Are you going to take that?"
- Bush did not make a call for an international coalition
- Bush did not offer other options besides a military one
- Bush made it clear that the United States was going to go after Iraq, and the U.N. could come along if it wanted to
- Bush did not talk about the destabilizing effects an attack on Iraq could bring
- Bush did not mention that the current Vice President did business with Hussein a few years ago, thus giving Hussein the technology to rebuild Iraq
- Bush failed to mention that when Iraq attacked Iran, it was with backing of the U.S., who used Iraq as a proxy warrior during the Cold War
The strange thing is, the world has all the evidence it needs to drag Saddam into the World Court for crimes against humanity when he gassed his own people. As I said before, if the Feds could get Al Capone on tax evasion, the world could nail Saddam on another crime and remove him from power without a bloody military operation which could end with the Middle East in flames.
Update
I added a link to the Cheney-Iraq connection.
Update, of the petty variety
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke before Bush at the U.N. today. On retrospect, hearing Annan speak before Bush is akin to having Nelson Mandela open for Carrot Top.
posted by skobJohn |
9:13 AM
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