by James Glaser
December 19, 2005

President George Bush gave it his best shot. On Sunday night, he talked to the nation about his war in Iraq, and he tried to get citizens back on his side, but George's shot missed its mark.

Once again President Bush stressed that we are fighting foreign terrorists in Iraq, but the truth is that the terrorists are a small minority of those fighting us, and that most of the people fighting our troops are Iraqis. American generals tell us this, as do both Republican and Democrat politicians, who have visited that country.

Bush still tries to tie in Iraq with 9/11. The truth is that no Iraqi was involved in that attack, either in the planning stage or as one of the attackers.

President Bush claims we are winning this war and that we have made remarkable progress. This is not true. I don't like it and either does anyone who wants this war over now, but the truth is that Iraq is worse off now, than when we got there. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed, hundreds of thousands wounded. Untold numbers are displaced, thousands are detained in prisons. Almost 20,000 brave American troops have been killed or wounded fighting for the Iraqi people.

Bush said we have to defeat and capture or kill the leaders of terrorism, where ever they are. Well we were trying to do that in Afghanistan. We attacked Afghanistan in order to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack on our country. George Bush pulled our troops away from that job so they could attack Iraq, and Osama is still out there, a hero for terrorists the world over.

Bush claimed we had to attack Iraq, because Saddam Hussein had attacked his neighbors. Truth be told, Saddam Hussein had not attacked any country for over a decade before George Bush became president. George should have known this, because his own father put together the coalition that defeated Saddam.

Our country has tarnished our image the world over with our torture of Iraqi citizens. We have destroyed much of that country. Iraq produces less electrical power now, than when we first attacked. They produce less oil and must import gasoline. Iraq has 40% unemployment, and almost every family in the country has suffered from this war. Over 70% of Iraqis want us out of their country.

Yes, we did capture Saddam Hussein and have put him on trial, but we captured Saddam, not the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people were not thirsting for freedom or democracy. The Iraqi people were not fighting Saddam, and we were not backing an Iraqi revolution against Saddam

President Bush keeps claiming that more and more Iraqis are trained to defend their country, but our Generals tell us that the Iraqi police are infiltrated by Muslim militias, and there are still very few, less than a hand full, of trained Iraqi army battalions, but President Bush puts that number at 125 battalions. George Bush is either grossly uninformed or he is lying. In a talk to PBS's Jim Lehrer Friday night, Bush lied to the nation and the world, when he smiled and said, "We don't torture." We do torture. We have all seen the photographs and there are soldiers in prison right now, convicted of torturing Iraqis.

This Sunday night speech by President Bush was another example of a standard Bush speech, where he once again tried to instill fear in the American people. George Bush claimed if we don't fight the terrorists in Iraq, they will be heading to our country. George has been fighting terrorism for over four years. In less time than that, the United States defeated both Nazi Germany and Japan.

George Bush has no plan for victory or even a definition of what victory is. George will not tell the Iraqi people when we are going to take our troops and walk away, but instead says we will stay as long as it takes. The Iraqi people have no reason to hurry up and defend their own country. They don't have to hurry, because they have our troops out there spilling American blood fighting for them.