BUSH at West Point: Long War Just Started

Bush understands the enemy........but is reticent to call it by it's right name, IMAO. His speech to the West Point graduates who were the first to enter the elite Army school after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacksf is seminal.

Bush Tells West Point Graduates Terror War Is in Early Stages

President George W. Bush, marking the fourth anniversary of his doctrine of preemptive military force, said the war against terrorism is in its early stages and will rival the Cold War in its length and difficulty.

``The war began on my watch, but it's going to end on your watch,'' Bush said in a commencement address today to 861 graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. ``One day the world will celebrate your achievements,'' he said, acknowledging ``setbacks and challenges'' in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Bush alluded to Iran and Syria as governments that aren't adopting democratic principles. ``The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people and every nation,'' he said.

Bush compared the spread of communism during the Cold War to the more recent rise of Islamic radicalism, recalling the pressure Democratic President Harry Truman was under sending troops around the world in a ``struggle between tyranny and freedom.''

``Like America in Truman's day, we are laying the foundation for victory,'' Bush said. Terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction post a threat ``as great as the Soviet Union.''

Today's West Point graduates were the first to enter the elite Army school after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Speaking at the academy in June 2002, Bush said the Cold War policy of deterrence ``means nothing against shadowy terrorist networks'' and America must ``be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.'' Ten months later the U.S. invaded Iraq and toppled its then-leader Saddam Hussein. More here

Full text: President Delivers Commencement Address at the United States Military Academy at West Point

U.S. DRAFTS INTEL SCENARIOS ON IRANIAN NUKES

Comments

[pastorius]

Bush may be reluctant to use the correct name for our enemy, but he knows who our enemy is. In his press conference with Tony Blair the other night, he referred to our enemy as the "Islamic fascists"

This, of course, is not the first time he has used such a term.

Also, we can note the dearth of references to a "Religion of Peace." It's too bad he ever started that meme, but I think he actually counted on getting more real support, from the American Islamic Community, than we have ended up receiving.

And, while I am on that topic. WTF, Muslims. Get off your butt and start fighting with us. You earn your reputation. And, your reputation is what will carry you through the hard times ahead.

In Europe, Muslims are playing a very dangerous game in keeping quiet. Europe's tendency towards fascism does not bode well for a silent Muslim community in the aftermath of a large terrorist attack.

[corndog]

Great post, pastorius.

Moagadishu, and the expulsion of the Russians from Afghanistan were the pretexts for the attack on American soil on 9-11. The attack occurred not from an abundance of hatred, but from a profound lack of respect. Osama knew the Americans would come to Afghanistan, and all they had to do was make Americans bleed, and they would run, was what the template said.

Not only did Afghanistan's Taliban fall, Pakistan was turned, and stabilized. Not only did American soldiers bleed, but not run, after routing the Taliban they went to Iraq to take out al-Qaida's fall-back position. The Arab street was then cowered by the extraction of Saddam from that spider hole, and there went Osama's support group. I maintain that the "war" actually ended right there, because this was the culmination of a series of psychological consequences to the enemy. No amount of spinning and distortion by the American media can change the effect of these consequences in the mind of our enemy.

We have had no attack on our soil for four years because we have erased the original reason the enemy felt obliged to attack us, and we have exacted consequences such that a repeat 9-11-style attack is now off the table. Fear now pervades the enemy camp. This is a mop-up operation and has been since Saddam was captured, in my opinion.

[turn]

Another good post, pastorius.

Your final paragraph begins, "In Europe, Muslims are playing a very dangerous game in keeping quiet."

And methinks WTF? I guess you meant decent, moderate, law-abiding Muslims. Not the riotous, flag-burning, slogan shouting Muslims we hear from daily.

I can't know for sure why the vast majority of Muslims virtually everywhere won't speak out against the unspeakable that's been done--but I have an idea that might come close to the mark.

Islamists live among them. The decent folks are caught between a rop and a hard place (bad pun notwithstanding). If they speak up, a loved one could come into harm's way.

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I'm sorry, corndog, but I can't agree. This is a multi-front asymmetrical conflict; I agree with our President--it's going to go on for a long, long time. And it went on for years prior to 9/11. Mogadishu, 1st WTC bombing, Khobar Towers, African Embassies Simulblast, USS Cole.

Multi-front after 9/11. Bali, Madrid, London. We've been spared by a balance of only two factors--good intel that's stopped an unknown number of attacks (can't be published) and dumb luck.

There was never a "pretext" for September 11. There is and was one primary reason. We are hated for our ways. We are hated whether we're in Saudi or when we've left. Our minds are not bent in a submission to God, but to a crazy notion that we possess a Divine Right to freedom and free will.

These are indeed merely the early years in what may well be a multi-generational war for (Western) civilization. And it won't end when either party is just too bloodied to remain on a battlefield--21st Century weapons are not that forgiving.

The country that would set itself as the leader of a Pan-Islamic Ummah is one that has been preparing to conduct the symmetrical portion of this war--similar weapons and tactics as opposed to hit-and-run assymetry. That would be Iran; a country whose bellicose leaders are going to continue to escalate threat and provoke the U.S. and Israel until we have no choice but to respond with action.