Bush "Mis-Speaks" & No One On Fox Mentions It
Reported by Nancy - October 25, 2005 -
As I previously reported, the last hour of FNL today (10/25) was largely devoted to Bush's speech to the Joint Armed Forces Officers' Wives' Luncheon at Bolling AFB. The speech lasted approximately a half-hour & included, in addition to the usual bromides, a couple of lines that just screamed for rebuttal or correction because they were just so patently wrong. Here's one of them.
According to both my notes and the White House transcript of the speech, Bush said:
By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress -- from tyranny to liberation, to national elections, to the ratification of a constitution -- in the space of two and a half years.
Comments: Well, not so incredible, really. Right off the top of my head, as I was viewing the tape, I knew that the US occupation of Japan & Germany following World War II went more smoothly & more quickly. Sure enough, I double-checked a couple of sources & confirmed that the US occupation of Japan began in August 1945; a new Japanese Constitution was written in February 1946; & the occupation officially ended in April 1952. Total time between tyranny & Constitution, 5 months; total elapsed time, about 6.5 years. Similarly, the US occupation of Germany (which is much more complicated because there were 4 occupying powers & the Cold War intervened) began in May 1945, the German states under US control had written a Constitution by January 1946, & the Allied Control Council ceased all activity in March 1948 (except the operation of the Spandau Prison where persons convicted at the Nuremberg Trials were held until 1987). Germany remained under nominal military occupation until 12 September 1990, when the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany, the final peace treaty, was signed by the four powers and the two German governments, restoring German sovereignty.
Hmm, 2.5 years doesn't look quite so "incredible" compared to 5 or 8 months, does it? And is there anyone out there who seriously believes the US will be out of Iraq, leaving it a stable, self-sufficient, independent entity, by May 2009?
For those who are interested in more details, here is an excellent comparison of the postwar US occupation of Japan with the postwar US occupation of Iraq. And here is a comparison of the postwar US occupation of Germany with the postwar US occupation of Iraq
Am I the only one who spots such ... well, let's call them "overstatements" or something equally neutral? I wonder how many in the news media, & specifically how many at Fox, will point out this "overstatement" to their readers, listeners or viewers. Bush & others in his administration have previously compared the US occupation of Iraq to the US occupation of both Germany & Japan. Why are they allowed to get away with it?
NOTE TO READERS: Please stay on topic (why Fox staffers, analysts & contributors never point out these kinds of mistakes in a Bush speech). O/T comments will be deleted. Thanks.
