Informant38

First thing this morning the President on his knees. It was horrifying, but like the scene of an accident through the safety glass of the family minivan it was distant, or seemed distant, unconnected, far away. Other.
He said at least 5 times in 3 minutes the phrase "terrorists and Saddamists".
This was so rote and intentionally done, and so woodenly read it was scary, like seeing your father humiliated in public, made to say something that humiliated him by the saying of it, like hearing him apologizing to a thug for something that was not his fault, that he hadn't done, just because the thug was threatening and willing to hurt him if he didn't.
Later he quoted Senator Joseph Lieberman extensively as to Lieberman's position on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Very extensively considering how often things are displayed as the sports-analog contest of two opposing teams now.
Lieberman evidently said things about the country not "losing its will" and not "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory".
Lieberman's support for the invasion, what we're supposed to be calling the "War in Iraq", part of the larger "War on Terrorism", isn't too hard to understand, but it's taboo - you can't talk about why he would betray the principles of social justice and humane concern that have been traditional characteristics of Democratic politicians.
Later Bush talked about a letter that someone almost magically intercepted from the head of Al Qaeda, written by someone named I believe Zarhawi, who had written it to someone named Zarqawi, detailing in moronic and stilted clarity the goals of Islamic terrorists generally and Al Qaeda specifically.
It had something to do with Iraq, and with jihad, and Somalia was in there, and the Americans were evil - but there was no mention of Israel. At least by the President. Maybe there was a mention of Israel in the moronic and stilted letter he quoted from and paraphrased but he didn't feel it was as important as the mention of Somalia.
I could see that in some senses because Somalia was a kind of American failure and the President might have wanted to remind his people of the possibility of failure now, again.
But since it's well-known that the Israeli government's vicious and inhuman treatment of the Palestinians was and no doubt is still one of the principle accusations of Al Qaeda, and a source of grave concern to Arabs and Muslims generally, it seems incomplete to talk about the aims of Al Qaeda without mentioning it.
On FOX the post-game show was interesting, it had someone whose name I didn't catch saying nothing of importance other than "Hurray for the forces of good!" and "Go big guy!", and then it had for much longer and more in depth William Kristol, doing that lob/smack batting exercise with the mediagenic hostess.
William Kristol was doing his best to project confidence and control. He also used the key phrase "Saddamists and terrorists", probably in an effort to solidify the effect of the President's hammering that phrase into the public vocabulary. Though Kristol followed it up with "rejectionists" which I guess was supposed to mean those who aren't supportive of the destruction of Iraq in the name of Judeo-Christian military supremacy.
I'm not real clear on exactly what Kristol meant by "rejectionists" all in all, I didn't get to hear him expand on it because by that time my scalp was so tight with shocked dismay I had to get up and hobble around some, to keep my head from exploding.