Saturday, November 19, 2005
He's back!
The Pres's speech at Osan, finished just now, was his best. Not Lincoln or Churchill quality, but as good as anything FDR ever gave.
He's finally pulled out of his below-sea-level Katrina malaise.
No brand-new content in the speech, but a distinct difference in tone: a relentless drive that I haven't heard from Bush in a long time. No fumbling, no uuuuuuuhs, very few A's and THEE's. A second semantic change: instead of "bring them to justice", which evokes images of the ACLU and Judge Ito, he's now saying "hold them to account", which has more of a frontier feel.
One important difference: concentrating more on the enemy as agents of an evil religion, instead of a vague unnamed ideology; and concentrating less on the weapons. The most important of all: he's taking the long perspective. This war began in 1979, and Iraq is just one stage in our too-long-delayed response.
Both of these changes answer the perpetual conservative irritation with Bush's New Tone, which belonged to the liberal mindset. Liberals believe that humans will behave properly if you just set them in the proper environment and take away their weapons. Conservatives understand that the tools aren't the problem; the belief system is the problem. We will win by convincing the army of Allah that their belief system will not succeed under any conditions. ¶ 12:02 AM
He's finally pulled out of his below-sea-level Katrina malaise.
No brand-new content in the speech, but a distinct difference in tone: a relentless drive that I haven't heard from Bush in a long time. No fumbling, no uuuuuuuhs, very few A's and THEE's. A second semantic change: instead of "bring them to justice", which evokes images of the ACLU and Judge Ito, he's now saying "hold them to account", which has more of a frontier feel.
One important difference: concentrating more on the enemy as agents of an evil religion, instead of a vague unnamed ideology; and concentrating less on the weapons. The most important of all: he's taking the long perspective. This war began in 1979, and Iraq is just one stage in our too-long-delayed response.
Both of these changes answer the perpetual conservative irritation with Bush's New Tone, which belonged to the liberal mindset. Liberals believe that humans will behave properly if you just set them in the proper environment and take away their weapons. Conservatives understand that the tools aren't the problem; the belief system is the problem. We will win by convincing the army of Allah that their belief system will not succeed under any conditions. ¶ 12:02 AM
