Salon: "Cindy Sheehan does not appear to have fazed President Bush"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Aug. 23, 2005 | Cindy Sheehan does not appear to have fazed President Bush. His recent drop in the polls has not changed his rhetoric. But as he showed on Monday, his fidelity to a well-worn message -- a determination to succeed in Iraq at all costs -- now leaves him in danger of sounding sharply off key.

Before thousands at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Salt Lake City, President Bush offered his first formal speech on Iraq since antiwar protestors, led by Sheehan, began to dominate the news by camping outside the president's Texas ranch. The president said nothing new of substance. In fact, he stuck so closely to year-old speeches that his words were as redundant as they were sculpted: "We know that freedom is the future of every nation," Bush said, "and that the side of freedom is the side of victory."

He appeared to dismiss wholesale the concern shared by a growing number of Americans that the U.S. is losing the war on terror, and suggested that the impulse to reconsider the Iraq war is a sign of weakness. "Once again, the American people have been steadfast and determined not to lose our nerve," Bush told an audience of thousands of veterans. "And once again we have had confidence in our cause."

It was a message that clashed with the current political reality. Polls show that a majority of Americans may well be, as the president bluntly put it, losing their nerve when it comes to Iraq. Two weeks ago, Gallup revealed that a combined 56 percent of Americans believe the president should withdraw either some or all of the troops stationed in Iraq. Similarly, 54 percent believe it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq in the first place. And an unprecedented 57 percent of Americans believe the war has made America more vulnerable to terrorism -- while only one-third of Americans believed it had made the country safer. Political observers say the gulf between the White House message and the reality on the ground in Iraq may be hurting the president, whose job approval ratings hover near record lows. "When he said that stuff a few years ago he was saying it at a time when most of the American people gave him the benefit of the doubt," said Ret. Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University. "Now he begins to sound stale. He begins to sound false."



http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/08/23/bush_speech/index.html

[whistle]

1. Who is the whiskey faced commander shrub is hugging

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. Here's the caption:

"George W. Bush talks with Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander in Chief John Furgess during his visit to the VFW national convention in Salt Lake City Monday."

[mikelewis]

6. VFW Commander-in-Chief John Furgess

"The Reserve Officer Training Corps brought Furgess into the Army in August 1965. He remained until July 1970. Serving as an officer with the operations end of the Radio Research Unit (otherwise known as the Division Support Company) of the Americal Division, he was based at Chu Lai from October 1967 to October 1968.

Military intelligence was his specialty, which he practiced through the Army Security Agency (ASA). "My year in Vietnam overshadows all my other experiences in the military" the Chief confesses. "Perhaps my most searing memory of the war, however, is the loss of a good friend, John Fuqua, who was killed by a sniper in 1966."

After several years of stateside active duty, Furgess joined the Tennessee National Guard, retiring as a colonel in 1993. He started with the Intelligence Section of the 30th Armored Division. In 1973, and for the next 20 years, he was with the 194th Engineer Brigade (two companies of which were sent to the Persian Gulf in 1991)."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LIY/is_2_92/ai_n6338545

On edit...
He seems like an okay guy. I think he's just a VFW commander who doesn't want his funding cut even more than it is. I know a commander for one of our local VFW halls. He's a good guy, doesn't like Bush all that much since he's fuckin the vets but he's not caustic in his rhetoric towards him.

[Cha]

2. Is that guy with bush in the pic just

lapping up what stale ol' rubbish bush is spewing?

[Fovea]

3. OMG!

It's a giant walking piece of toast!

[Erika]

4. Bush has no touch with U.S.reality...none at all

It's not his world.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. You couldn't possibly faze the Frat Boy

No demerits for Mrs. Sheehan over that.

You couldn't faze Bush if you told him he was about to drive off a cliff. And after he drove off the cliff, he still wouldn't be fazed. He'd say he's right and he'll stay the course.

[jeff30997]

8. Yep.As dumb as a lemming.