Sunday, November 12, 2006

Will the real G W please stand up?

In a Veteran's Day speech given last year, president Bush attacked critics of the Iraq war and accused them of rewriting history. He attacked democrats and others. Little of the speech actually resembled a Veteran's Day speech, one that would be geared towards honoring ALL veterans of ALL wars, and sounded much more like a chance to launch a partisan attack under the cover of the Holiday.

Yesterday, President Bush signalled that a change in government leadership was not a sign that we were weak. He commented on past wars, not just the present one. His speech, while containing moments that arguably were partisan (such as his insinuation that he felt obligated to clarify that a switch to a democrat-controlled congress was not a sign of weakness), was less a political speech than last year's, and more of what one might consider a Veteran's Day speech - remembering the past, supporting the present.

My question is - which is the real president? Is he the divisive finger pointer, or is he the bipartisan cooperator, who wants what's best for the country and the military and not just what's best for the republicans? I hope that it's the latter, or at least that he can play at being the latter for the next two years. Those who went to war for all of America deserve that.

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