His best speech ever

Full text here. Some of President Bush's speaking appearances in the past have been absolutely painful to watch (he's not the orator Adolf Hitler was, as the CounterPunch crowd would say), but he seemed genuinely confident and resolute this evening.

I wish Bush had explained that the WMD issue was just one of several reasons for the invasion of Iraq, and I'm also a bit surprised he didn't address the allegations about Guantanamo Bay. Aside from that, I couldn't argue with any of it. In particular - and maybe I'm reading a bit too much into this - I was thrilled to see him acknowledge Saudi Arabia's role in the fight against Islamofascist terror:

Some of the violence you see in Iraq is being carried out by ruthless killers who are converging on Iraq to fight the advance of peace and freedom. Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others.
[...]
Across the broader Middle East, people are claiming their freedom. In the last few months, we've witnessed elections in the Palestinian Territories and Lebanon. These elections are inspiring democratic reformers in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Considering he was holding hands with Crown Prince Abdullah not too long ago, I think this is a sign of progress. Let's hope he's finally putting some pressure on.

Posted by damian at June 28, 2005 11:03 PM | TrackBack