"Bush Likens Iraqi Action to Transition in 40's Japan"

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/national/10bush.html

Bush Likens Iraqi Action to Transition in 40's Japan

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: December 10, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 9 - President Bush suggested Friday that history will vindicate his decision to invade Iraq, saying he believed that a half century from now, it will be regarded as important a transition for the world as the democratization of Japan was after World War II.

"I'm absolutely convinced that some day, 50 or 60 years from now, an American president will be speaking to an audience saying, 'Thank goodness a generation of Americans rose to the challenge and helped people be liberated from tyranny,' " Mr. Bush said. " 'Democracy spread and the world is more peaceful for it.' "

<<snip>>

"We have got a strategy for victory and we'll see that strategy through," he said, drawing on lines from recent policy speeches. "We will defeat the terrorists in Iraq. We will not let Al Qaeda take a stronghold - get a stronghold in Iraq. We'll help this country develop a democracy, which will send a powerful signal to people in Damascus and Tehran."

<<snip>>

Many outside experts and even some of Mr. Bush's own aides question his reliance on the comparison, noting that Japan was a unified state before World War II, but that Iraq has always been divided along religious and regional lines.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

:sarcasm:

since he'll be dead anyway, or raptured, or whatever. I'm curious, how many American soldiers died in Japan once the occupation began.

I think we're far more likely to see a similar scenario to what the British experienced there, early in the 20th Century.

I think it was 678.

it would be dripping out of his ears . . .

and the gall to think he's going to have any kind of historic legacy -- "thank goodness a generation of Americans . . ." RIGHT. Try "I did it, I did it!"

damn jackass.

could never have thought of them. I have thought from the beginning he is merely a puppet. I am surprised his nose doesn't grow longer with each speech.

it won't be because of BushCo.

Their intentions have never had anything to do with nobility.

Even when his handlers put words in his mouth, he still manages to sound like an idiot. They're all idiots, pretty much.

It's like the rapist is saying: No, wait a minute, yes I did rape that women, but let's just wait and see how th kid turns out. Maybe he/she will grow up to do great things. And if that happens the rapist is vindicated.

Again, the ends justify the means.

in light of the fact that there's more of an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq than before we invaded...

But strip him of any claim to divinity?

What possesses our media outlets to just report such dunderheaded blather from an ill-informed misanthrope in such a straight fashion? Nobody calls this idiot on his asinine comments, nobody says he's just talking out his ass.

on cable news can say "Did you see him make that oh-so-apt historical analogy? What erudition!"

we still had the Japanese attacking our soldiers. And we still continued to lose lives...

Oh, wait...

Iraq attacked us, just like Japan (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
They both did it as a craven surprise attack on our soil (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
We declared war on them and bombed the hell out of them
They cried "Enough, we surrender!!!"
We occupied them and turned them into democracies with thriving economies

Is this man delusional, or what???

The only thing missing in the Iraqi scenario are the atomic bombs....uh-oh :scared:

Well, at least he's not comparing present-day Iraqis to America's Founders.

but cheney did.

Considering he was a history major in college, he seems to know nothing of history.