Connie Dean – 9/30/04

This page was last updated on September 30, 2004.

‘Who is Bush kidding?’; Connie Dean; Beaver County Times; September 30, 2004.

This is the third anti-Bush rant for Ms. Dean during September.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Watching the press conference of President Bush and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi last week was literally unbelievable.

“With the news of escalating violence in Iraq, beheadings, more car bombs and American soldiers being sent home daily in flag-draped coffins that we are not allowed to see, I was amazed to hear President Bush say, ‘Freedom is winning in Iraq, things are getting better,’ and, ‘Only a handful of people in Iraq are willing to kill to derail the process.’”

[RWC] In her assessment, Ms. Dean ignores the 15 of 18 provinces PM Allawi says are calm enough that elections could be held “tomorrow.” Those 15 provinces hold 70-75% of the Iraqi population. Doesn’t that sound like things are getting better? Don’t get me wrong; it’s a hard and slow process.

The head of U.S. Special Forces in Iraq stated the anti-Iraq forces number considerably less than 10,000 though he wouldn’t say how much less. That’s 10,000 out of country of nearly 25,000,000, or 0.04%. Though less than 10,000 are not a literal handful, they are a relative handful. I don’t mean to diminish the killing that less than 10,000 terrorists can inflict, but the image folks like Ms. Dean try to convey is that of widespread Iraqi opposition to freedom when in fact more than 99.96% of Iraqis are working for freedom.

If things were going the way terrorists wanted, why would they have to keep trying to derail the process?

“It reminded me of Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf (a.k.a., ‘Baghdad Bob’), standing there with bombs going off behind him and saying, ‘American forces are not entering Baghdad, no, never.’”

[RWC] What is it with the Bush bashers? When they aren’t comparing President Bush to Hitler, they compare him to a lying buffoon.

“Who is Bush kidding? It appears he is kidding about 48 percent of the electorate who would follow him off a cliff if that were where he chose to mislead them. He now says that disagreeing with his assessment and pointing out the obvious will embolden the enemy.”

[RWC] This is the second time in two days that a letter writer called stupid those of us who support President Bush.

“However, the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq and the multitude of ensuing blunders that followed, not the least of which was leaving the borders open for terrorists to pour in, was like a gold-embossed invitation to al Qaida.”

[RWC] So, it’s better for terrorists to stay safe outside Iraq where they would be free to attack defenseless civilians than it is for them to come into Iraq where they have to confront the U.S. military? That’s an interesting strategy.

For what it is worth, it is not the “Bush-Cheney” war. It is our war.

“Instead of concentrating our efforts on the war on terror in Afghanistan where al-Qaida was in some disarray, Bush thought it wiser to leave the capture of Osama bin Laden to Afghan war lords and shift the bulk of our resources to Iraq for various stated reasons, none of which were based in fact.”

[RWC] Those 20,000 troops – about 10,000 Americans – tracking al-Qaida down in Afghanistan would probably disagree that President Bush left “the capture of Osama bin Laden to Afghan war lords.” This excludes the thousands of Pakistani soldiers working the Pakistan side of the boarder.

“That, Mr. President, emboldened the enemy. Al Qaida was left alone to regroup and recruit and we are paying with loss of American lives every day.”

[RWC] Is killing approximately 2/3’s of al-Qaida’s senior leadership leaving al-Qaida alone? In case Ms. Dean missed it, our allies and we capture and/or kill members of al-Qaida on a regular basis. All you have to do is pay attention to the news.

“It’s time President Bush stops blaming the words of others and starts taking responsibility for his extremely poor judgment and misguided actions.”

[RWC] Whom is President Bush blaming for what, and please provide the supporting data?