Liberal Blogosphere Unimpressed by Bush Speech on Iraq

The liberal blogosphere was clearly unimpressed with the President's speech on Iraq last night. Here's a sampling:

From Pacific Views...."Bush gave a self-congratulatory speech tonight on his successes in fighting the war on terror in Iraq. Of course, he mysteriously forgot to mention that he let Zarqawi go before the Iraq war in order to use his continued freedom as a justification for moving against Iraq."

From P.M. Carpenter at Political Strategy and of Carpenter's Commentary..."If there’s anyone present who still believes there isn’t any comparison between this and Vietnam...let him speak now, or forever lose eligibility for the Blindest of the Blind Hall of Fame.

History isn’t just repeating itself. It’s mocking us. Every bloody day we hear this glib administration cite the rosy progress of a perpetually grim situation, with its generals in tow, nodding in self-denying but sycophantic agreement.

Meanwhile we’re back to counterinsurgency improvisations, frontless battles, body counts, indigenous-personnel training, fuzzy justifications, a budget-blasting cost, a seething public at home, world scorn, and just plain disgust with how we got there and why we can’t get out. "

Lowkell at DailyKos writes a must-read on-target analysis of the Bush speech, in which he concludes..."Bush had absolutely nothing new to say in his speech last night. In fact, what is striking is the amount of repetition, like a mantra, of the same words over and over and over again: 'freedom,' 'terrorists,' 'mission,' etc. In other words, the same old same old. No success strategy or exit strategy. No specifics on how we're going to achieve our goals. No new ideas. And, revealingly, no call to sacrifice by the American people despite the fact that we are supposedly in a 'global war on terror....

Finally, I found it striking how President Bush cynically tried to tie support for our troops with support for his policies. That is despicable. Everyone supports our troops, their courage and sacrifice. It's the mission that Americans are questioning in large majorities. (Oh, and by the way, I found it fascinating the troops' lack of applause last night for their Commander in Chief to be rather, uh, interesting.)....

And, no matter how hard Bush and Rove try to talk their way out of it with speeches like last night's, the American people ain't buying what they're selling. As the saying goes: 'fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.' Message to Bush and Rove: we are not fools. "

I couldn't say it better myself. Be sure to read the entire posts from these bloggers.

Come join me in the US Liberals Forum message board. We're having a very lively discussion on Iraq. (And you can see our new look, too. The software was recently upgraded, and it's great!)