What G.W.B.Could Have Said at Annapolis

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Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:00:15 -0800 (PST)

What G.W.B.Could Have Said at Annapolis

 

 

 

 

" If Tyranny and Oppression come to This Land, it will be

in the Guise of Fighting a Foreign Enemy. " ~ Pres. J.Madison

 

 

 

" Do Not Fear the Enemy, for your Enemy

can only take your Life. It is far better that you

Fear the Press, for they will Steal your Honour.

That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created

in America by a Horde of Ignorant, Self-Complacent Simpletons

who failed at Ditching and Shoemaking and Fetched up

in Journalism on their way to the Poorhouse " ~ Mark Twain

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_mi_051212_george_bush_comes_cl.htm

 

 

 

 

George Bush Comes Clean;

What the President Really Could Have Said at Annapolis

 

Text of President Bush's speech at the U.S. Naval Academy,

Wednesday, Nov. 30, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:

 

Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

It's good to be back at the Naval Academy. I'm pleased

to provide a convenient excuse for you to miss class.

 

It's the first year that every class of midshipmen

at this academy arrived after the attacks of September

the 11th, 2001. Each of you have volunteered to wear

our nation's uniform in a time of war, knowing

all the risks and dangers that accompany military service.

 

Our citizens are grateful for your devotion of duty. And America's proud

of the men and women at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Whatever their chosen mission, every previous graduate

of the Academy is bringing honor to the uniform

and helping us bring victory in the war on terror.

 

In the years ahead, you'll join them in the fight.

Your service is needed because our nation is engaged

in a war that is being fought on many fronts: from the

streets of Western cities to the mountains of Afghanistan,

the islands of Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa.

 

This war is going to take many turns.

And the enemy must be defeated on every battlefield.

Yet the terrorists have made it clear

that Iraq is the central front in... um... ...

in their war against humanity. And so we must recognize

Iraq as the central front in the war on terror.

 

As we fight the enemy in Iraq... ...ahem. As we fight...

As we fight the enemy in Iraq, every man and woman who...

who volunteers to defend our nation.. uh... deserves...

....you, you all deserve... ...an unwavering

commitment to the mission and a clear strategy for vic...

 

You know... I just have to say... I just... You know,

I just have to say, this... ...this speech I'm reading...

I just have to say, this is... this speech is...it's bullshit.

 

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Yes, you heard me right – and, no,

don't you Secret Service goons dare drag me off this stage.

You boys just sit back down. Karl, Andy,

all you admirals, you do the same now, you hear?

 

I want to tell you something. Nobody understands the pressure

I deal with. Nobody knows the weight I carry on my shoulders,

24/7. Not even former presidents, at least the ones still

living. It's not just the burden of being commander-in-chief

or leader of the free world I'm talking about.

It's so much more than that.

 

Every day I get up and go here or there, to this place or that,

and they stick these freakin' speeches in my hand,

and I read them, and people even applaud

and have their picture taken with me. But they know

– a lot of them – they know. And I know they know.

And now you're gonna know that I know, too.

 

I want to tell... Karl, I mean it.

You just sit down and stop agitating all over yourself.

And you either turn this microphone back on

or I'll just stand here and shout what I have to say...

 

That's better. I want to tell you a story about something

that just happened to me. An amazing story.

Some of you may know that I once took a walk on the beach

at Kennebunkport that changed my life. Ol' Billy Graham

had a little Come-to-Jesus talk with me – literally

– that changed my life forever. From that point forward

I was able to straighten up and fly right, and I went

from being a drunken soon-to-be-divorcee

to President of the United States. Not bad, eh?

 

Well, what you don't know is that I had another,

very similar, experience on that same beach

just the other week. I went out for a walk,

carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

I just needed a break from the butt-kissers

I've surrounded myself with all kissing my butt,

from the disastrous problems we've created,

and – mostly – from myself.

Sometimes I can barely stand to live inside my own skin.

 

So I'm walking on the beach, you see.

And the Secret Service guys, they know, when I get like this,

they know to leave me lots of space `cause I can get

real ugly real fast, and so that's what they did.

And they'd even let me talk to strangers I might meet,

though they keep a close eye, of course.

 

So I'm walking on the beach one day a week or two back

and I see somebody walking the other way, and he sees me,

and I'm instantly locked into this guy, for two reasons.

One, I know he knows who I am, but unlike every single

other person I've encountered in the last five years,

he doesn't seem to care one bit. And the other is that

I've never in my life seen another person who looked

so totally and utterly calm and at peace with himself.

 

I was drawn to this man like a Texan to bravado.

He gave me a sincere but reserved smile, and we said hello.

He introduced himself, but I'm not sure I got the name right.

Something like `L.S. Berg', I think it was.

I dunno – my head was definitely somewhere else.

 

Then he said, quite sincerely and even compassionately,

" Mr. President, you look awful " . That was weird enough,

`cause nobody ever says that to me, but then another

strange thing happened. I just opened up to this guy

as if he were my mother, my best friend and my personal

preacher all rolled into one. I just blurted out,

" You have no idea the burden I carry " .

And then an even stranger thing happened.

 

He said, " No, you're wrong, Mr. President. I carry

some of the same burden, and I understand it completely. "

 

Lord, I rocked back on my heels.

He said, " Your burden is that you sold a war

to the American people using what you knew were lies.

Your burden is that good, innocent people are dying because

you made a decision that you thought would benefit you,

and you didn't much care about their fate.

But you do now, and it's eating you up from the inside out,

and every additional death is like another lash

across your back, and you cannot find a way out,

and you just want to scream your lungs out. "

 

I was just standing there slack-jawed, whereupon

the most amazing thing of all happened. He said,

" I know all this because the path of my life

has followed a similar though less prominent course.

I know this because I carried, and still carry,

a much smaller but similar burden myself.

But I want you to know, Mr. President, that there is a way

I've found to bring relief, and it's much tidier

than the bottle, more real than religion,

and far more satisfying than either.

 

You can do what I've done, and while you may not ever

be happy again, you'll be happier.

You can do what I've done, and tell the truth.

You can do what I've done, and dedicate the balance

of your life to atoning for your crimes. "

 

And with that he walked away.

 

I mean, he just walked right away from me,

like I wasn't even president. But his words

have not left my head since that day.

They rattle inside my skull like a bag full of bottles

going down a bumpy road. They echo in there

like a cannon shot inside the Astrodome.

I cannot shake what this man said to me, and now,

today – just now – I realize that I don't want to.

 

He was right, and I've been so, so wrong.

I cannot read another one of these ridiculous packages

of canned garbage they put in front of me,

stuffed with more lies than an infomercial marathon.

I have to tell you something, and that something is the truth.

I need to unburden myself and set us both free with the truth.

 

And here it is:Iraq–everything you know about it,especially

everything I've ever said about it,it was all lies.

 

I don't just mean the BS about how we're making progress.

I guess you already figured that out a long time ago,

and still you were sitting here prepared to applaud

at all the right moments, just like your CO ordered you to.

No, not just the progress garbage. I mean the whole damn thing.

 

All that stuff about weapons of mass destruction and links to

al Qaeda meant to justify the war–that was just a bunch of crap. Just as

much crap as we could make, as fast as we could sling it. I can't believe

how many people still haven't figured that out, after all the stuff come

out from O'Neill, Clarke,

Downing Street and more.

 

We lied about everything there is to lie

about on this war, and until five minutes ago,

I was planning to do the same here and now.

 

We lied about going to the UN. The only time we ever

got serious about the weapons inspectors was when

we made seriously damn sure to yank them out before

they could undermine our other lies justifying the war.

 

Even to this day, I run around talking about how we had

UN approval for the war. What a load of garbage that is.

I lied saying there would be an up-or-down vote

in the Security Council, when, in fact, we cut and ran

when it was clear that even stomping banana republics could

only get us four votes out of fifteen for a war resolution.

 

Hell, half of those were us and the Brits.

So we yanked it `cause it wasn't goin' anywhere.

Every time we say that there were twelve years worth

of authorizing resolutions supporting this war, well,

that's just plain bunk. The UN never approved this thing,

and the proof is that we pulled the approval resolution

when it clearly was dead.

 

We lied when we told you that Iraqis would welcome us

with flowers and chocolates. They hate our guts,

just like we'd hate them for invading our country.

 

We lied when we told you that the war would be quick

and cheap, a cakewalk that could be won with a handful

of troops. And we fired or smeared anyone who got in our way

by telling the truth about that, like General Shinseki.

 

We even lied about when the war started. You probably think

it was Shock and Awe in March 2003, but we had actually

started much earlier, trying to bait Saddam into a response.

That's the whole reason we went to the UN, too.

We were just hoping that he would refuse the weapons inspectors.

Anything to get us a war.

 

We're lying to you now about making progress in Iraq,

and we were getting ready to lie to you with today's

big press roll-out for our new `victory' plan.

The truth is it's just the same rehashed snake-oil

that Rove has been peddling for three years now,

gussied up to look shiny and new.

 

Know why? Because we haven't got a clue in the world

how to get out of this thing. As another Texan

in a very similar situation would have said of us today,

my people couldn't pour piss out of a boot

if the instructions were written on the heel.

 

Did you know that my administration is now offering

a purse stuffed with one billion of your tax dollars

to anybody who can figure a way to undo the mess we've made?

I mean, even for fans of `market-based solutions',

that's really ridiculous. National security policy for hire,

and still we draw our salaries. Go figure.

 

But you know what was the biggest lie of all?

Remember how I used to say I didn't want to go to war?

That the war was avoidable, if only Saddam would do

the right thing? How all he had to do was to give up

his weapons of mass destruction? And how he was lying

when he said he didn't have any?

 

I guess you know by now what a load of crap that was.

We planned this godforsaken thing even

before we stole the election of 2000 (which, of course, was

before we stole the election of 2004). There was nothing

Saddam could have done to avoid the war short of high-tailing

it out of Iraq, and we still would have invaded anyhow.

For once, Saddam actually told the truth when he said

he had no WMD, and I lied like a kennel of fat hounds

in summer by immediately calling him the liar boy!

 

There was no way out, my friends. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz,

me – we wanted a war, and we damn-sure meant to have it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sad, sad truth.

And it haunts me every day.

 

Now, in about five minutes, you're gonna be hearin'

all manner of crap from ol' Scotty McClellan over there,

and Rove and Cheney and the rest, about how `the president

is under a lot of stress', and how `he had a temporary

episode but he's fine now', and loads more.

They're gonna try to tell you I went mental today,

and the knock-kneed media is probably going to play along,

and so will half the Democrats, wimpiest party

on God's Green Earth.

 

But you know what? These are the truest words

I've uttered since taking the oath of office five years ago.

And, goddam, I feel lighter for it. Heck, I feel lighter

just being able to say `goddam'!

 

But I also feel sick to my stomach.

I can't believe what I've done.

I can't believe how much blood is on my hands.

I can't believe what history is going to say about me

for centuries on end – `Worst president ever',

some of `em are already saying.

I can't believe the destruction and pain I've let loose

in pursuit of my own power and glory and trying to

for once best my daddy. I can't believe the sickos

I've appointed and listened to.

 

It's disgusting. I don't know about the rest of you,

but I'm gonna need about sixteen really long showers

just to get through the rest of this day.

And, after that, I don't know what.

 

What I do know is that I'm starting my life over now.

I know that I've got a thousand lifetimes' worth of work

to do to fix what I've broken, but less than half a life

left on this planet in which to do it. And so I'm going

to get to work on this, right this second.

 

Anyone got Cindy Sheehan's phone number?

 

 

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra

University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions

to his articles, but regrets that time constraints do not always allow

him to respond.

 

 

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