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President Rose Colored Glasses spoke to the American Legion today, saying the following (via NYTimes):

“In the coming days, I’ll deliver a series of speeches describing the nature of our enemy in the war on terror, the insights we’ve gained about their aims and ambitions, the successes and setbacks we’ve experienced, and our strategy to prevail in this long war,” Mr. Bush said.

We have a strategy? Really?!?  Could we start using it? 

President Bush also said the following about Iran (via WaPo):

"We know the depth of suffering that Iran’s sponsorship of terrorists has brought," Bush said. "And we can imagine how much worse it would be if Iran were allowed to acquire nuclear weapons."

"There must be consequences and we must not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said. He said the world faces a "grave threat from the radical regime in Iran."

Not to minimize the threat that a nuclear armed Iran could pose in terms of stability in the region, let alone the effect that an addition to the nuclear club could have on other nations wishing to advance their standing via a security strong arm, any action that is taken by the United States in the wake of the ginned up, fact lacking crap that we put forward to publicly justify the conflict with and subsequent occupation of Iraq…well, it had best be as solid as humanly possible and positively airtight. Because the US has so little credibility now due to the Bush Administration’s bungling "big stick and not much else" approach to foreign relations, we have no high ground left on which to stand without a serious rebuilding of our credibility based on nothing but rock solid claims from here on forward.  (And all of Fred Fleitz’ hot air claims aside, the evidence on Iran is even more sketchy than Iraq’s was.  And that is simply not good enough.)

Repeating something over and over does not make it true. Any more than clicking your heels together three times and saying "There’s no place like home." works outside of Oz, the land of technicolor magic and the Lollipop Guild. And ginning up a conflict with Iran based on sketchy evidence is no more legitimate than how it was done for Iraq — just because you got your way once, Mr. President, it doesn’t mean that you were right. It simply means that Congress and the American public were too weak or too trusting to see it coming.

But you don’t get a pass this time.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…shame on me and every other person, including every elected representative that allows it to happen in the name of maintaining their own personal power chair.  And if all the GOP has in its election pocket is a hope that the 9/11 anniversary will make all of us run around like Chicken Little and pray for them to save us, well they have another think coming. 

Please.  I’ll be damned if I’m going to run scared into the night because the terrorists are coming.  My family comes from tough Irish stock — we’ve faced down the British on two continents, and we don’t run from a fight.  Neither do we let someone else dictate how we live our lives.  As if I’d trust this bumbling crew of incompetent Republican boobs to adequately park my car at this point.  Keith Olberman was correct — this bunch of Neville Chamberlains are not fit to stand in the shadow of Winston Churchill and FDR. 

I’ll take a genuine leader — one who says "I have nothing to fear, but fear itself," or one who asks "not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."  A real President doesn’t just stand up and say "be afraid, and leave it to me to take care of everything."  That’s what a control freak or an abusive partner does, and I’ll take neither, thank you very much.

It’s time for all of us to feel empowered — and it’s time for the GOP to learn the meaning of accountability.  You don’t get a pass to continue to be an abysmal failure without consequences.  Had enough?

(Oh, and the irony of the above photo?  The headline popped up below President Bush just as he delivered another rose-colored assessment of how things are going in Iraq.)

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