Feedback on President Bush’s speech, December 14, 2005

Feedback on President Bush’s speech, December 14, 2005 It was a good speech. He was spirited and sounded sincere, looking focused most of the time. Since his November 11th Veterans Day speech, which was a turning point, many have wondered why he had not come with this speech earlier. He dwelt on something, fixated on someone. We hope he can have true advisers and not surround himself with White House correspondents because they are not qualified. The President’s poll sank to the lowest in the first week of November. That was right after late October debacle for the White House, oppressed by the White House female reporters day in day out with threats and the a litany of events where the news reporters challenged him and won, leaving on October 28 with a defeated look. The President made it up to them by taking them to the Beach front hotel in Argentina in the first week of November, and the hedonism imagery and chaos of looting and demonstrations by the Venezuelan president plummeted the confidence level to all time low of 36%. The bottomless pit was stopped when he made the Veterans Day speech and Rove came out with a speech the night before. The Korea APEC Summit also raised his image as a leader. Now he segregates himself inside and the reporters outside his domain. We shall see that if when the Iraq votes finish, things will collapse and the hedonism of unrestrained trespassing by the female reporters will flatten his administration by getting rid of Rumsfeld, Chaney, Rove, Rice, etc., and eventually Bush the biggest prize who they hate so much, but must grab him for their selfish aim to fame. At end of October, Harriet Miers, Scooter Libby, and now they want to remove Rumsfeld. I suggest that he enlists his father’s advisers on his team, if he is understaffed because Rove and McClellan are all under attack by the ferocious press. As a president, he is disabled by them. His job is not to try to please them. We can see he is struggling with their wishes and demands. His quote, “As we advance the cause of freedom in Iraq, our nation can proceed with confidence because we have done this kind of work before. After World War II, President Harry Truman believed that the way to help bring peace and prosperity to Asia was to plant the seeds of freedom and democracy in Japan. Like today, there were many skeptics and pessimists who said that the Japanese were not ready for democracy. Fortunately, President Harry Truman stuck to his guns. He believed, as I do, in freedom's power to transform an adversary into an ally. And because he stayed true to his convictions, today Japan is one of the world's freest and most prosperous nations, and one of America's closest allies in keeping the peace. The spread of freedom to Iraq and the Middle East requires the same confidence and persistence, and it will lead to the same results. “ Comparing post-World War II Japan with Iraq was not that good of an example, because while the U.S. made Japan into a peaceful democracy, at the same time much of the rest of Asia was taken over by Communists, and with the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War, and Taiwan Straits battles, Asia was far from peaceful, and always in fear of being taken over by Communists during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The similar risk with Iraq is that even if Iraq becomes a peaceful democracy, this may not guarantee peace and democracy for the rest of the Middle East, as Bush hopes. So he should be careful with his examples. Hopefully, the U.S. will not repeat its mistake with Asia by only focusing on one “trouble spot” while neglecting the greater region. Like C.S. Lewis story, “Narnia”, Bush has a righteous quest for a high ideal, which long term peace in the Middle East. While many share his goals, his strategy can be questioned, and it will be many years before we can truly judge if Bush’s methods are practical. We, in the Western world, have still not learned to cope with different kind of cultures, and we unwittingly ignore or offend them. There were many brave Chinese who led the way to lead their countrymen out of the shadow of colonialism, and yet, they didn’t advocate annihilation of the west. We can’t say that the westerners like the Americans can feel this way toward the Chinese and the Sunni Arabs. Without any benefit like MacArthur’s buttressing of Japan and the Marshall Plan endowment in Europe, China was left into a long struggle of devastation on land, and collapsing economics. The insurgents used this chaos to take over and execute the landlords, good or bad, even the small landowners, so they could take the land for themselves in the name of “the people”. It is always easier to say that the early Republic was corrupt, to justify not giving any help. But one never reads the book on how inexperienced Truman was, as Roosevelt was secretive and never explained his real plans for post-war Asia or Europe to anyone, even Truman. China Nationalists were busy in building and protecting the country, and they happened to have great people who died at inopportune times, and their best minds could not speak English. Because of this drawback, they had to hand over China to the Communists under Stalin and honor the agreement of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Truman. Iran’s President doesn’t believe, or doesn’t want to believe that the holocaust ever happened; this is the same as the western public knowing nothing about the 1937 Nanjing annihilation until Iris Chang wrote “Rape of Nanjing”. To this day, President Bush is still in denial about China just like the Iran President. But we hope God can enlighten these poor souls who can not see the justice and can not feel the righteous pain any normal human being should have. May God instill a sense of ‘human empathy’ to the lost souls.