The Command Post
2004 US Presidential Election
« AP Poll: Bush By 7 | Main | American Research Group Poll: Bush Leads Pop. Vote; Kerry Leads in E. College »
September 24, 2004
Bush | Flash: Afghan Army In Najaf! (??)

I may or may not love our president, but I often love his candid style. Every once in a while, though, he serves up a softball for those who think his elevator don’t go all the way to th’ top, as he did yesterday.

From yesterday’s Bush / Allawi press conference (FOXNews):

[Bush speaking] The prime minister said something very interesting a while ago and it’s important for the American people to understand. Our strategy is to help the Iraqis help themselves. It’s important that we train Iraqi troops. There are nearly 100,000 troops trained.

The Afghan national army is a part of the army.

By the way, it’s the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the work there.

There’s a regular army being trained, a border guard being trained, their police being trained. That’s a key part of our mission.

But I think the world watches America. We’re an influential nation, and everybody watches what we say. And I think it’s very important for the American president to mean what he says.

That’s why I understand that the enemy could misread what I say. That’s why I try to be as clearly as I can. I don’t want them to be emboldened by any confusion or doubt.

I’m pretty sure he meant the Iraqi army, not the Afghan army, just to be clearly …



Posted by Alan at September 24, 2004 07:42 AM | TrackBack
Comments

God help us all.
GWB a man I admire as long as he keeps his mouth firmly shut (In public). A good, potentially great leader of the free world, but please , please , cut the sound bites.

Senator Kerry, a great man for the sound bites, pity about the lack of any vision, purpose or consistency. Other than that a great man???

A few years back in the UK we had a similar problem with Tony (I’ll be whatever you want me to be Blair). The world’s greatest flip flopper. Suddenly he went through a sea change. He received a major dose of integrity and backbone.
He began to speak to the English speaking world.
He spoke without Churchillian eloquence, but with a plain determination. I imagine that most Americans knew that they were not alone , when he spoke post 9/11. i imagine that few were unmoved when he led the UK, alongside the USA into deposing the foul Taleban regime in the “Stan”.

Mr Blair is not a great orator, but perhaps his PR team should speak to GWB’s team.

Both are men , who are forcing through the issues of the 21st century, forcing through with vision, with courage, with character. DON‘T LOSE IT WITH SILLY SOUNDBITES.

Sir, speaking as a friend , and a lowly Brit. You owe yourself better.

Posted by: max [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 09:09 AM


I’m pretty sure he meant the Iraqi army, not the Afghan army

Perhaps this word confusion epidemic is catching. Rumsfeld recently confused Osama and Saddam twice in one speech:


Reuters: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein twice in a speech on Friday about the war against terrorism.

ok, ep

Posted by: elvispresley2k [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 09:25 AM

Funny, Max: Here in the States TB is widely believed to be an orator of exemplary quality.

Posted by: Alan [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 09:46 AM

A little about perception, I was talking with some one from
Wales in the U.K. and mentioned the fact that we had freed millions and millions of people in the Middle East. The response from this average school teacher was ” This is an illegal invasion.” Well, so it’s illegal to free people and it’s illegal to defend North America and other free places in the world and it’s illegal to fight terrorism, Boy, confusion reigns, what is the issue how can people be against this war against evil?

Toni Blair made one of the better speeches that I’ve ever heard, I mean his Defense of Values speech.

I think that if it were 1939 all these nay savers would have been in Neville Shameberlen’s camp and then after that they would have been in one of Adolph’s camps if it were mot for people like Winston in that day or like Toni or George in this day.

Posted by: augurwell [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 03:58 PM

Ya know… The president might mangle a word or two, and become confused occasionally, but we all make mistakes.

I’ve become more attuned to the message rather than the messenger. Compromise has its place, but in this case, our President KNOWS who the enemy is whilst Senator Kerry has no clue.

Posted by: Cap'n DOC [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 07:21 PM

Well said Cap’n DOC…..sorta shows where you stand ALAN. What is this CBS? Maybe Ms Catsup Teresa can come and call you a scumbag huh?
Oh, thats not a reportable instance…I see…

Posted by: dickmr [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 24, 2004 10:58 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.


Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)