Bush compares today's wars to World War II efforts

[Tab]

Source: Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - President Bush, linking the wars of his tenure to the deadliest one in history, is asking the country to commit anew to postwar rebuilding.

In an address for Wednesday to more than 1,000 graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Bush frames their futures by drawing back to the World War II generation. He links the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to postwar Germany and Japan six decades ago.

"America has assumed this obligation before," Bush said in prepared remarks released by the White House. "After World War II we helped Germany and Japan build free societies and strong economies. These efforts took time and patience, and as a result Germany and Japan grew in freedom and prosperity and are now allies of the United States."

The result, Bush says, was "generations of security and peace" in the United States.

"Today we must do the same in Afghanistan and Iraq," he says in the prepared comments. "And by helping these young democracies grow in freedom and prosperity we will once again reap the benefits in generations of security and peace."
...
Another difference: It remains in debate within the country whether the pre-emptive Iraq war has bolstered U.S. security or weakened it. Bush has expressed no doubts it was warranted.

At least 4,085 U.S. military members have died in the Iraq war. More than 430 members of the U.S. military have died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department.

The U.S. death toll in World War II was roughly 406,000. Overall, tens of millions of people died. The conflict transformed the globe; chief U.S. enemies of that day, Germany and Japan, re-emerged as major allies.

Bush's speech was expected to compare air power and warfare techniques of World War II and today. He also was to talk about the differences in the enemies that U.S. forces face.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would zero in on one constant — "that freedom has the power to overcome tyranny and transform societies." That theme has underpinned Bush's foreign policy and was the calling of his second inaugural address.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080528/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

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He wants to go down as either a 21st century Churchill or FDR, but he might end up going down as a 21st Century mini-Hitler

[hobbit709]

1. There are similarities

His family and cronies are profiteering off this one too.

[BrklynLib at work]

4. HAH! Excellent point.

[shanti]

22. and that's

what it's all been about :mad:

[iamjoy]

2. Then Start Acting Like It

If this really is like WWII, let's start acting like.

No more new cars, any automobile factory left in the US should immediately be converted to building airplanes, ships and vehicles for the war effort.

How about some rationing? No more wasting gas (if anyone is at today's prices). If you ride alone, you ride with bin Laden.
But, let's not stop at gas. We all need to have victory gardens. If you live in a city apartment, well, you can help tend the one on your building's rooftop, or in the city park.

If this threat really is as great as Hitler it cannot be "fought" by our military alone.

[gratuitous]

9. Taxes should also be raised to pay for the war effort

Yes, even on Bush's base, the haves and have-mores alike should be making the sacrifice to pay for Bush's wars. Or isn't that what Commander Bunnypants was talking about?

[CBHagman]

27. Let's see. Price controls, increased employment...

...rationing, recycling, conservation, a draft, victory gardens, and of course tax increases.

Nope, Bush hasn't the faintest idea of how to deal with a major war, nor does he understand historical analogies.

[BrklynLib at work]

3. There are simply no depths too deep for him to plunge into. What a total embarrassment he is...

to this country, and the human race in general.
He brings to mind the "strange" uncle that one would keep hidden in the attic or the back of the barn when company came...

[rambler_american]

5. Bush compares today's wars to World War II efforts

Why? Is he making as much $ from it as Grandfather Prescott?

[Vinca]

6. If this is similar to WWII, where are all the young and patriotic

Bush offspring serving? Have any of them come within a mile of a recruiting office?

[raystorm7]

7. So far so good! Bush has yet to have his WW3 but Dick sure is trying his damndest.

[KSinTX]

15. No kidding, One of their corporations must have missed the gravy train nt

[Benhurst]

8. If this were really like World War II,

it would have been over already.

And we'd be entering the great post war boom!

Yeah, I see what your saying, Dubya! Let the Good Times Roll!

[Stuart G]

10. He has done this before, and he was wrong before. nt

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Yes, this is just like WWII - only this time we're not the Allies.

[scarface2004]

12. look at the cretin....

prepared remarks.....how pathetic!!

[sofa king]

13. If Iraq were World War II...

... it would have been over on or about December 14, 2006. America's involvement in World War II was only three years, nine months and change.

http://www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertIt/Calculators/Date_and_Time/Date_Time_Diff_Calc.ASP

Moreover, we won World War II. This war can't be won, and never will be.

[KSinTX]

14. McClellan would differ with the Bush assessment

"Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at 'manipulating sources of public opinion' and 'downplaying the major reason for going to war.' "

World War II - Nazi Germany sinking American supply ships and Japan bombed Pearl Harbor

Iraq War - Halliburton, KBR & "Garden of Eden" in Middle East

[Tab]

28. Don't even get me started on McClellan

His book is so self-serving. It may or may not be correct, but compared to him, Ari was a font of information. McClellan dissembled so much and never said anything. He did our country a grave disservice. He is either incredibly stupid. or egotistical. He says nothing when it suits him, and then talks when it suits him.

[KSinTX]

30. I am with you on that - I'm going with egotistical

I suspect he's bitter over being hung out to dry and mainly is being truthful. But there is no valour in hanging with the cool kids while they commit a crime, sit silently during the trial at which they're acquitted and jeopardy attaches, then write a book about what vandals they were. He's a coward, true that, but I'm hoping he's a truthful coward!

[AP]

16. The similarity: British won WW2, but it ended their empire and left them heavily in debt to US

[hatrack]

17. Gosh, it's so sad, Lil' Chimp! You hate your Dad, yet you really want to BE your Dad, don't you?

In particular, you want to milk his record and "his" war for your benefit at every turn.

:puke: inducing in every possible sense.

[2Design]

18. not even close - that one was to take a dictator out - this one put a

dictator in - the bushCo - and wasted lots of lives - they repeat things over and over and people believe their lies

[trusty elf]

19. ...

[Javaman]

20. Yeah, everything now is just like it was then, except....

there was no war declared by congress. We aren't on a war economy. There are virtually no sacrifices being made by the average citizen (other than those families that are having their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers killed daily in Iraq),there are no corps having cut deals in their overhead for munition manufacturing, there is no rationing, there is no conservation, there is no call to help the nation other than to go SHOPPING, etc.

other than that, yeah, it's just like WWII.

:eyes:

[matt007]

21. Delusions of Grandeur.........starring Bushco!

This clown's legacy is going down lower than Nixon's.

[slackmaster]

23. Megalomaniac

:argh:

[bdamomma]

24. does this wackjob even know that this is an occupation

and has lasted longer than WWII what a effing person he is, no knowledge of anything. stupid man.:mad:

[LynnTheDem]

25. George W. bUsh showing his complete ignorance to the entire world yet again.

I envy republicans one thing; their complete inability to mind America being the world's laughing-stock.

[LynnTheDem]

26. World War II was also started by illegally invading an innocent nation.

We could compare bush's illegal war of aggression to WWII...but guess which side that puts America on? Hint: not the Allies.

[indypaul]

29. And to make it more comparable we will initiate Selective Service

Whoops----never mind.

[Zorra]

31. Bu*h is a shallow, meglomaniacal egomaniac with frightening delusions of grandeur. n/t

[daleo]

32. A superpower invades a helpless but strategically important country

Yeah, I see that comparison with WWII.

Then there is the use of torture by the superpower.

And resistance by the overpowered smaller country.

And the quislings.

[Ganja Ninja]

33. Haven't we flushed enough money down his Iraq rat hole?

At the very least before we make any serious expenditures we need to get rid of the incompetent and corrupt GOP cronies that have been lapping up the cash from this gravy train for the last 6 years.

[sofa king]

34. Time for a haiku!

Spring is in the air:
Chickenshit and manure
Or McClellan's book

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x965891


Edit: Wow. This reminds me of that time I woke up in that person's house all hung over and didn't know where I was. Mis-post.

[buckrogers1965]

35. Bush is absolutely right.

There really are a lot of similarities between what is going on today and WWII.

9/11 provided a pretext for Bush, just like the Reichstags fire provided a pretext for Hitler.

Instead of Hitler's communists we had Bush's terrorists as an enemy to blame.

Both orchestrated massive restrictions on individual rights and liberties, claiming the right to kidnap, hold without trial, kill, and torture their enemies.

Hitler and Bush invaded countries in Blitzkrieg attacks / wars of aggression. Countries that were incapable of harming their own countries.

Both had massive propaganda campaigns where they knowingly lied to their citizens. (Thanks for coming clean on that Scott "Goebbels" McClellan.)

I mean, really all that Bush has to do now is have a night of knives, round up a few million "enemies" that are opposing him in this country and attack a few more countries, grow out a little mustache and there won't be a difference between the two men. Hell, throw in a hairless cat, a buzz cut and a monocle and Bush could be a Bond villain.

I guess WWII lasted a lot longer for Germany than it did for the USA though. But it ended a lot worse.

[sofa king]

36. Not sure about that last point.

Germany's part in World War II lasted from September 1, 1939 to May 7, 1945, about 2075 days. Our time in Iraq is now 1897 days.

There are 235 days left in George W. Bush's term as Commander-in-Thief. Thus, by the end of his term in office, should he choose to leave without destroying our Republic entirely, the United States will have been in Iraq longer than its mentor's involvement in World War II.

And, we're both gonna lose, both because our respective evil nations started wars they couldn't finish.