Author: jp

“America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth. Across the generations, we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation’s security, and the calling of our time.
So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”

— From President Bush’s second inaugural speech, January 20, 2005

Iraqi youngsters display an election pamphlet, as a British soldier on patrol in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, looks on, Wednesday Jan. 2005, as Iraq heads for national elections scheduled for January 30.(AP Photo/Odd Anderson, pool)

Children examine election posters displayed on a campaign vehicle as Kurdish women’s rights activists raise election awareness among poor and often illiterate women in suburbs of Arbil, Wednesday, Jan. 26. 2005. Kurds are expected to attend the forthcoming elections in Iraq in overwhelming numbers thus strengthening their position in the interim Iraqi parliament. (AP Photo/Sasa Kralj)

From Powell gives bleak assessment of Iraq security problems, by Guy Dinmore in Washington for the Financial Times, January 13 2005:

According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. “We’re losing,” Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.

Or, directly from Mr. Freeman’s mouth, by way of the transcript of his appearance at the recent Capitol Hill Conference Series on U.S. Middle East Policy, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the War on “Terror”, January 11, 2005:

Anyway, the other day I understand that someone went into the Oval Office – someone known to everybody here, a rather senior person who is on his way out of the administration – and was asked by the president what was going on in Iraq, and said, with his characteristic bluntness, we’re losing – and was asked to leave the office forthwith and not continue the discussion.
So there’s a question about what is going on in Iraq, and perhaps the competition between reality-based analysis, much disparaged in Washington these days, and hallucinatory optimism, which is the alternative.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, January 26, 2005:
Bush adds $80 billion to wars’ costs; Afghanistan, Iraq tally would pass $300 billion if OKd
But what to make of this, dated a whopping three months earlier (Friday, October 1, 2004), from the Washington Post‘s analysis of the first Presidential debate between candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry:
Few Factual Errors, but Truth Got Stretched at Times

Kerry suggested that the United States has spent $200 billion on Iraq, largely because it supplied the bulk of the troops. This was an exaggeration because it combined the amount already spent — about $120 billion — with money that is expected to be spent in the coming year or requested by the administration.

In case you’re interested in researching more of Candidate Kerry’s various lies and deceptions, rest assured that various media outlets displayed an eerie amount of non-prescience last fall. Why not comb through the following links, as well? They’re each chock full of documentation of Kerry’s $200 billion mendacity…
Distortions and Misstatements At First Presidential Debate, Bush and Kerry both have problems with the facts at their meeting in Coral Gables, (FactCheck.org)
A Primer for Tonight’s First Debate, Both Bush and Kerry Have Set the Stage With Some Misleading Claims, (Washington Post)
Some key claims in debate and how they really stack up, (Knight Ridder/The Seattle Times)
Reality Check: Distorted Debates, (WCCO TV)

Highlights from “Americans View Bush Speech Differently”, by Angie Wagner for the Associated Press, in which a wide swath of senior citizens’ opinions are made available.
First up is Jim Swafford, 62, of Nashville, Tennessee, who sounds a bit, well, focused on the issues. Or at least one issue. One very closely guarded, paranoid issue.

“He’s trying to take my Social Security away from me, and he’s lying about it,” said Swafford, a semiretired owner of a hair salon. “I don’t like to listen to him anymore than I have to to find out what he’s trying to take away from me.”

How about an overarching sense of relativism?

In Rio Rancho, N.M., Bush’s speech was on in the cozy recreation room of the Harmony House Residential Senior Living Home. Phyllis Cline sat smiling in her wheelchair, excited she made it back from a doctor’s appointment just in time.

Or denial? Nihilism? The sense you’re going to die soon?

Joan Keck, 72, wasn’t having any of it.
“I’d rather sit and read this book about cats than listen to this,” said Keck, gesturing to her book. “I could truly care less.”