Zell Miller twists and slashes the truth like a monster from a horror movie.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&e=16&u=/ap/cvn_miller_text
Let's take a look at the whole speech.
Paragraphs 1 - 8 are fine rhetoric that say Zell supports Bush.
Paragraphs 9 - 10 compare WWII to the war in Iraq. There is no comparison. WWII was an attack by a superpowers that threatened our very very existence. Iraq didn't attack America and was not a threat to our existence.
Paragraphs 11 - 15 are a moving story about one persons response to WWII. Once again Bush's war in Iraq is not World War II.
16. >>> Where is the bipartisanship in this country when we need it most?
There can be no bipartisanship when the president who represents all of the people completely ignores all of the wishes of half the electorate.
17. >>> Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief.
The Democrats only want to replace a woefully inadequate president who's failed policies got us into an unnecessary war in Iraq and who's pathetic planning and execution of that war has led to thousands of unnecessary American casualties and which now has the people we "liberated" looking at us as occupiers.
18. >>> What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in? 19. I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny.
The Democrats are still here, but we believe that Democracy is best spread by diplomacy and example rather than by preemptive invasions of sovereign nations. That is exactly the same failed method that Russia used to spread Communism.
20. >>> It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.
Truman proved a Democrat could defend America, but these victories were a result of diplomacy and aid, not of military invasions. The Russians left Iran after getting oil concessions. In Greece we supplied advisers and military aid, but let the Greeks do the fighting for their own freedom. In West Berlin, we stood for our principles and won without firing a shot.
21. >>> Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.
Democrats did work with Bush to fight the danger to America - al Qaeda. Before the war, Iraq was not a danger to America. Once Iraq was invaded, freedom could have been secured with a much smaller cost in lives, money, and American prestige if Bush had even a mediocre plan for post war Iraq.
22. >>> Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. 23. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
Democrats do not see the America as an occupier in Iraq, it is the Iraqi people who we "liberated" who see us as occupiers. This is a direct result of Bush's failed post war policies.
24. >>> Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers. 25. Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.
Europe and South Korea were occupied by invading armies. Iraq was occupied by Iraqi's. There is a difference.
26. >>> Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.
These countries are free because we stood by our principles until the idea of Democracy triumphed over the idea of Communism, not because we invaded with bombs and bullets.
27. >>> Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home. 28. For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. 29. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. 30. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.
Yes, we earned our freedom and our soldiers often do defend freedom when it is attacked by outside forces.
31. >>> No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.
Yes, but he must provide the leadership and resources to make sure that our troops do not look and act like occupiers to the people who are being "liberated".
32. >>> But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution. 33. They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.
Democrats are well aware of all the dangers to America. When you call most of the people, and most of the nations in the world irrelevant, you have a "clumsy and misguided foreign policy" and that is a problem since it has been shown over and over that diplomacy beats bombs in defeating an idea.
