random press conference notes

[geekchick]

How on earth can he say "I hope we don't have to go to war" and keep anything resembling a straight face? Suuuuuure you haven't made up your mind yet.

"We will be changing the regime of Iraq for the good of the Iraqi people." It may in fact be good for the Iraqi people in the long run, but let's not kid ourselves that that's actually why we're doing it.

I'm so glad to hear that you pray daily for wisdom...too bad $DEITY obviously isn't listening to you.

Ha! Best. Question. Ever. Paraphrased: "Obviously not everyone shares your optimistic vision of how this will all work out; do you ever wonder if maybe they're right and you're wrong?" (The answer of course was "Nope".)

Nope, THIS is the best question ever. Again, paraphrased: "Hello? Vietnam? How is this going to be different?"

Oy. Could somebody gag John Warner? Please?

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

This is interesting - I think this is the first time I've seen you vent on the current political situation, at least in your LJ. It's interesting for me to see your views, and I mean that in a good way (even if we disagreed, which I don't think we do, at least in this case..)

I missed the press conference (spent the evening in blissful political ignorance at fencing), but read the transcript this morning. The "freedoms granted by God" thing irked me (gee, I thought Americans got their freedoms from the Constitution, or do we have to ask doG now because Bush & Co. have shredded that document? [cough]), but at least when someone asked him whether the nation should pray, he didn't say "yes".

I agree - the U.S. military is certainly going into Iraq, and soon, and it is insulting to the intelligence of Americans to put on a posture that war is still being merely considered.

[geekchick]

Heh. I had to do something to keep from throwing things at the tv while listening to him blather on, so I opened up my LJ client and kept a running commentary. ;) Watching it was great, if only to see him get all bristly when someone suggested that it seemed like the whole Saddam thing might be a wee bit personal. (Aaron Brown's count of Sept. 11 references in the one hour conference: 11.) I'm not sure why I don't vent more about political stupidity here, actually. Maybe I'm trying to remain in denial and I have to take my head out of the sand in order to type it up. ;)

Not wanting to go to war

[telnar.livejournal.com]

I think that Bush was sincere in saying that he didn't want to go to war -- I just don't think he meant the same thing that you heard.

I know that my own attitude is that there are certain things that I would like to achieve in Iraq: Freedom for the Iraqi people, elimination of weapons on mass destruction owned by the only regime to use them since WWI, reduction of the threat to neighboring states, improvement in the credibility of US ultimatums.... I would love to achieve all of these things without going to war. Maybe there will be a popular uprising tomorrow and Iraq will be run by a democratic government which does not threaten its neighbors. I would much prefer that situation to having to go to war to attempt to reach our objectives.

Of course, I'm not holding my breath waiting for that popular uprising. Realistically, the sort of things that Bush wants to see happen in Iraq are only going to occur as a result of war, barring incredible luck. That doesn't mean he can't hope for the one in a million shot, but I'm sure he doesn't expect it.

Re: Not wanting to go to war

[geekchick]

Yeah, well. I don't think that it's our job to go in and force a regime change overseas so we can set up somebody we like, among other things. I don't think this is motivated in any way, shape, or form by concern for the Iraqi people; if it was and we're so concerned about it, wouldn't you think something would've been done long ago? This isn't a new situation. Why now? Seriously?

And what happens when India decides that Pakistan is a potential danger because they have weapons of mass destruction and pre-emptively wipes them off the map? If it's okay for us to do it, logically it follows that we'd be okay with anyone else doing the same, right?

Why should we be taken seriously abroad when we insist that Iraq be held to compliance with UN resolutions but our president says in pretty much so many words "Screw the UN, we'll do what we want"?