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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-05-24

The President's Speech

I didn't watch the speech, so I'll have to take others' word for it that it was well-delivered.

But I did read it. I thought it was thorough, hitting the high points of what needed to be accomplished. But it was still a little bit milquetoast, lacking the sort of line that would guarantee morning news coverage.

Like what sort of line might do that, I hear you ask. Well, if I wrote the speech (he he he--thank God, huh?) I might have included a line like this:

after "Our terrorist enemies. . .commit dramatic acts of murder to shock, frighten and demoralize civilized nations, hoping we will retreat from the world and give them free rein" I would have including something to the effect of:

They hope through their unimaginable acts to cause American willpower to waver. Already, they take comfort in those in America who advocate for failure; who seek to absolve the terrorists of their crimes by laying them at the feet of our policy and of our aberrents. They hope to induce us into the same weakness we showed in 1973, when we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and abandoned a friend and ally to the brutality of a misunderstood and misrepresented ideology.

But the America of today is different than it was 30 years ago. America today understands that we are vulnerable on our own shores; that we have a responsibility to safeguard freedom around the world as our best line of defense at home; and that there is no honor in retreat from a just, but difficult war, while there is great dishonor in blindly denying the truth in the interest of fleeting peace.

Something like that. And not a single "yet".
Posted by: Michael / 5/24/2004 11:14:00 PM

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