Go on the offensive over this shameful distortion of the record, Mr. President. You owe it to our soldiers and Marines who are fighting for the reasons that both sides of the aisle agreed were valid only three short years ago. Call those senators and representative out by name and ask them what changed! Quote them and ask them what has changed! Don't let them get away with this charade. Being polite to them has earned you no credit. Passing their legislation and standing with them at the signing ceremony has earned you no credit in their eyes. Force them to face the contradictions of 1998 and 2002 compared with today. Grind their noses in this shameful switch and don't let up until they are beaten. If you don't, you risk the abandonment of our troops who loyally fight an honorable war.
I've been frustrated that these sudden opponents have abandoned the pledge they made to our military to back them not just at H-Hour, but to Victory Day:
So the question is, when giving consent to wage war, don't those who give that consent have an obligation to maintain that consent until victory? Was there a clause in the Congressional declaration that said it sunsets in 2006 or is there a subsection that allows for a reversal at the 2,000th casualty? And the American people whose support for winning is dropping, the same criticism holds. If our enemies ever believe our people have a particular threshold where we retreat, we guarantee resistance to reach that threshold.
And now on television, President Bush is hitting on these very points, quoting the newly anti-war from before their change of heart, and reminding them of their duty to back our troops until we win.
Yes! Well said, Mr. President. Keep on saying it! Defend our actions, our motive, and our honor. Defend what our troops fight for even today. Don't let the opponents get away with this gross distortion of the record that could risk all we have achieved.
V
There is no substitute for Victory.
UPDATE: Here's the White House link to the speech. The counter-attack, in essence:
While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. (Applause.) Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.
They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: "When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security." That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power. (Applause.)
Instapundit has a lot of good comments and links here.
Of course, the Democrats have a solid defense. I believe them!
