“Mr. President: He can run and apparently he can hide too!”
Posted : October 29, 2004 at 3:37 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
What you’re seeing here is a cold-blooded murderer of almost 3000 Americans! And he is alive. And he looks healthy. And he is not in prison. And he continues to threaten us!
Do you see how ludicrous it all looks now where on one hand you have an apparently “healthy” Osama Bin Laden running around threatening us and on the other hand you’ve the current Administration’s hollow rhetoric about Saddam Hussain and how “Thanks to this President, Saddam is in prison.” Yeah, Whatever!
This would be a good time to reflect on the following excerpt from the first Presidential debate:
Mr. Lehrer: Mr. President, new question, two minutes. Does the Iraq experience make it more likely or less likely that you would take the United States into another pre-emptive military action?
Mr. Bush: I would hope I never have to. Understand how hard it is to commit troops. I never wanted to commit troops. I never - when I was running - when we had the debate in 2000, never dreamt I’d be doing that, but the enemy attacked us, Jim, and I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us.
I think that by speaking clearly and doing what we say and not sending mixed messages, it is less likely we’ll ever to use troops. But a president must always be willing to use troops, as a last resort. I was hopeful diplomacy would work in Iraq. It was falling apart. There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was hoping that the world would turn a blind eye. And if he had been in power - in other - we just said, let’s the inspectors work or let’s - you know, hope to talk him out, maybe the 18th resolution would work, he’d have been stronger and tougher and the world would have been a lot worse off. There’s just no doubt in my mind. We would rue the day had we - if Saddam Hussein been in power.
So we use diplomacy every chance we get, believe me. And I hope to never have to use force. But by speaking clearly and sending messages that we mean what we say, we’ve affected the world in a positive way. Look at Libya. Libya was a threat. Libya is now peacefully dismantling its weapons programs. Libya understood that America and others will enforce doctrine. And the world is better for it.
So to answer your question, I would hope we never have to. I think by acting firmly and decisively it’ll - it’s less likely use - it’s less likely we have to use force.
Mr. Lehrer: Senator Kerry, 90 seconds.
Mr. Kerry: Jim, the president just said, extraordinarily revealing and, frankly, very important in this debate. In answer to your question about Iraq and sending people into Iraq he just said, the enemy attacked us. Saddam Hussein didn’t attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us. And when we had Osama bin Laden cornered in the mountains of Tora Bora, 1,000 of his cohorts with him in those mountains, with American military forces nearby and in the field, we didn’t use the best trained troops in the world to go kill the world’s No. 1 criminal and terrorist. They outsourced the job to Afghan warlords who only, a week earlier, had been on the other side fighting against us, neither of whom trusted each other. That’s the enemy that attacked us, that’s the enemy that was allowed to walk out of those mountains. That’s the enemy that is now in 60 countries with stronger recruits.
He also said Saddam Hussein would have been stronger. That is just factually incorrect. Two-thirds of the country was a no-fly zone when we started this war. We would have had sanctions. We would have had the U.N. inspectors. Saddam Hussein would have been continually weakening. If the president had shown the patience to go through another round of resolution, to sit down with those leaders, say, What do you need? What do you need now? How much more will it take to get you to join us? We’d be in a stronger place today.
Or, how about this
Or this
I hate politicizing this threat, but it’s stupid not to bring this up in the context of this current elections. What happened to your “dead or alive” promise, Mr. President. What happened to your “you can run, but you can’t hide”, Mr. President?
The fact is Osama Bin Laden is running and he is hiding. Hidding pretty darn well. Cause it’s been more than three years Mr. President and you and your Administration just cannot seem to find him. As for Saddam, what can I say. Thanks, but no thanks!
Current Administration’s Grade on executing War on Terror: F
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004