George W. Bush compares Iraq to WWII

On Aug 30, AP reporting the following:

“President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists. The president, standing against a backdrop of the imposing USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them and finance new attacks.

"We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. "We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

Appearing at the Naval Air Station North Island to commemorate the anniversary of the Allies' World War II victory over Japan, Bush compared his resolve now to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in the 1940s and said America's mission in Iraq is to turn it into a democratic ally just as the U.S. did with Japan after its 1945 surrender.”

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This has to be one of the most outrageous statements ever made by this president. It is a combination of stating a new goal of protecting Iraq’s oil, which could fall under control of extreme terrorist (I assume this means anyone against the US). This seems like a new goal to me. Then he had the audacity to compare Iraq to WWII, which is amazingly outrageous on so many levels. Once again this demonstrates to me how out of touch this president is with at least half the country. His advisors and inner circle seem to keep him informed with only a limited perspective of what is going on in the real world, based 100% on a conservative agenda. I remember a candidate who campaigned in 2000 as a compassionate conservative and a unifier of political parties. After 5 years I don’t see much compassion from him and I don’t see much unifying. I understand that a president is supposed to look confident and strong, but he takes this to such an extreme that he winds up looking ridiculous with statements like the ones above.

First of all, it could be my ignorance, but I did not know that our goal in Iraq was to protect the oil fields from control of terrorist extremists. I thought our goal was to defeat terrorism, so we can make America safer and prevent terrorist attacks in the future. Either way, I honestly believe protecting the interest of big oil, is probably the closest reason we are actually engaged in this quagmire in the first place, and probably why we went to war in the gulf in 1990 as well. Prior to the United State invasion there has never been any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, there was no terrorist breeding ground in Iraq and Iraq was not on the verge of civil war. Now the two latter scenarios are making the United States a prime target for future terrorists, and Iraq is one or two major political events from all out civil war and I would not be surprised if someone is able to get WMD into lawless Iraq now, and start some kind of major event. Seems like President Bush is developing a place that he is claims he was trying to prevent in the first place; kind of ironic, isn’t it? Now, I am not in favor of another Saddam Hussein like dictatorship in Iraq, but there is something to be said for self rule; allowing people to make decisions about their own future, without an imperialistic power inside your borders, dictating how your government is going to run, and “protecting” their oil fields.

Second, to compare this “war” to World War II is simply ignorant. It would seem that George W. Bush has FDR envy. After the election he tried to revoke the great American safety net known as social security. Now I believe that social security could use tinkering before it goes insolvent. In order to achieve this type of goal someone will need to get agreement from a majority of players in both party’s from both houses of congress, as well as some governor’s to push a major initiative like that through the bureaucracy, but that is another story.

World War II was a global affair before we even got involved. It involved a multiple number of nations banded together for the goal of global domination and the free world’s attempt to stop that from happening. It was about America being attacked by another sovereign nation and having every person stepping up to do their duty to their country. It was about sacrifice and doing the right thing. This current war is with a single country, which we invaded and could not persuade our closest allies to join us. This war seems to be about nepotism (finishing what Daddy couldn’t) and a distraction to take our attention away from the fact that we missed Bin Laden in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2002 and 2003. The President would like us to believe that this war was caused by a direct attack on this country, but time and time again professional non-partisan reports state that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had no connection with Osama Bin Laden and Al-Queida, prior to our invasion and there are no WMD’s in Iraq.

I always will believe that America’s soldiers deserve the support and respect of the American people; after all they are just doing their job. It is a job that is more dangerous then the majority of us face, but they chose to sign up. What we can do is question the motives the government and more specifically the president has for this war and now how we are going to get out of this mess. As far as why we are there, I think he summed it up best when he said we are there to protect oil fields from extreme terrorists, which is no way near the goal of WWII. Case Closed!!