Today, in Michigan.

Obviously Not Looking In A Mirror

I’ve watched a man begun to grow in office.

Just Can’t Help Himself When The Hate Is Flowing

Despite the initial signs of progress on the ground, despite the fact that many reinforcements have not even arrived, Democrat leadership of the Congress is pushing legislation that would undercut the strategy General David Petraeus has just started to pursue.

Never Read A Map

When we debate the war on terror, it can be convenient to divide up the fight by location — and so we hear about, “the war in Afghanistan,” and “the war in Iraq” if they were something separate.

Hoovers of Mass Destruction

Extremists and radicals love vacuums in which to spread chaos.

BFF

I am — you know, I marvel at the fact that on the one hand my dad joined the Navy at 18 to fight a sworn enemy, the Japanese, and on the other hand, his son, some 55 years later, best friend and keeping the peace with the Prime Minister of Japan.

In Memory Of The Thousands Of Americans Who Died Fighting IN Japan

Or how about Japan, a place where we lost thousands of lives and, yet, now they’re a partner in peace.

Drain Bamage

We have fundamental disagreements about whether or not helping this young democracy is — the consequences of failure or success, let’s put it that way. It’s also very important in this debate to understand that even though we have our policy differences — particularly as the young lad that you are — that we don’t think either of us are not patriotic citizens, okay?

They Are Not Laughing With You, Part I

Secondly, I feel very strongly — wait a minute — (applause) — this is a sober forum — or a forum of sober people, I hope. (Laughter.) There is a — there is — I have a fundamental problem with a — look, a lot of people didn’t like the strategy.

My Cat’s Breath Smells Like Cat Food

And then what happened was, the Samarra bombing took place by al Qaeda, which caused there to be a sectarian outrage.

A Product Of The Burnout Theory

And I had a decision to make: withdraw from the capital and just kind of hope for the burnout theory — as you know, I was worried about chaos, and into chaos comes more extremists — or reinforce; I chose to reinforce, all aiming to get to a position where we’ll be able to reposition our forces.

Shoot Me Now

I liked what James A. Baker and Lee Hamilton suggested. I thought that was a good suggestion. And that is to be in a position at some point in time where our troops are embedded with the Iraqi units — in other words, there’s Iraqi units providing security with a handful of U.S. troops — helping them learn what it means to be a good military.

Where He Would Like To Be

Listen, we spent a lot of energy to drive al Qaeda out of Afghanistan; we don’t want them to be able to establish a same type of save haven in Iraq. That’s where I would like to be.

Spectaculars Speculation

Remember, we believe most of the spectaculars, like the ones you saw — I can’t tell you for certain Wednesday’s bombing was al Qaeda. In other words, I don’t have the — I can speculate.

The Planted Question

Q Thank you, Mr. President. What’s the next step for the United States, or even the United Nations, in dealing with the belligerent behavior of Iran with regards to nuclear development?

Chimpy Blows His Cover

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you. Excellent question. You go to school here? No. (Laughter.) I was going to say, give the man an “A.”

I See They’ve Been Using The New Flash Cards

First of all, you do understand Iran is a Shia nation primarily. Interestingly enough, though, only 50 percent of the nation is Persian. A great portion of Iran is Azeri, Baloch, other kinds of nationalities make up their country.

They Are Not Laughing With You, Part II

And Baker-Hamilton recommended that, as I described, a troop presence to help keep the territorial integrity of Iraq, to embed, to train, to be over the horizon to chase down extremists. That’s pretty much what they recommended, and I agree. The problem is — and by the way, on, like, page 70-something in their book, they said: And the United States may have to increase troop levels necessary to be able to get there. And that’s what I did. (Laughter and applause.) Wait a minute, wait a minute — because I realize that we couldn’t be in a position on the troop postures they recommended if the capital went into flames. That’s a judgment I made.

Skip To My Loo

And the reason I do is because — now, there’s a difference between a regional conference, in my judgment, and — I’ll tell you what I hope we can gain out of it — but I do want to address why it’s — I think it would be counterproductive at this point to sit down with the Syrians, because Syria knows exactly what it takes to get better relations with the United States.

What Hamas And Hezbollah Have Got

Thirdly, they’re providing safe haven for — I’ll just say they’ve got — Hamas and Hezbollah have got centers of influence in Damascus.

How Diplomacy Works

Diplomacy works when people sit down at the table and need something from you. That’s how diplomacy works. It is, in my judgment, just talking for the sake of talking doesn’t yield positive results often.

Doesn’t Know What de-Baathification Means

And it’s going to be very important for Prime Minister Maliki to follow through on the new de-Baathification law, for example, which reaches out to Sunnis. People say, what does that mean? Well, the law was passed that basically said if you were a member of the Baath party, you couldn’t participate in much of civil society. And in some provinces, that is — that’s precluded people from being school teachers. In other words, if you wanted to be a teacher, you had to sign up for Saddam’s deal — and yet you might not have been a political person. And so what a lot of folks are watching is to see whether or not there’s going to be a reconciliation with the Sunnis who have been affected by the de-Baathification.

They Will Only Take Necessary Retribution Against The Peaceful Sunnis

And, therefore, an equitable sharing agreement of the people’s resources throughout society will send a signal that this government is not going to take unnecessary retribution against peaceful Sunnis.

It Just, Poof

People said to me — the guy asked a question the other day, you don’t like the opinion polls and all that stuff — I said, any poli
tician who says they don’t want to be popular, you know — you can’t win if, like, 50-plus-one don’t like you for a moment. You can’t make your decisions, however, based on something that just changes; it just, poof.

The Question That Was Not Screened

Q Mr. President, I really appreciate your emphasis on the universality of freedom. I’m wondering if and how the United States can promote liberal democratic reform in countries like Saudi Arabia, and whether you could address specifically whether it is, perhaps, American support for these autocratic regimes that are creating such an Islamic backlash against the United States?

Jefferson Democracy

So when you hear me talk about the freedom agenda, it’s not like, I expect Jefferson democracy to be blooming in the desert.

What The Fuck?

I was criticized by some that upon insisting that the Palestinian elections go forward.

Shouldn’t That Be “An Israeli Democrat Elected Official”?

I’m afraid that Israel will ultimately be overrun by demographics in order for her to remain a Jewish democratic state. And yet, Hamas wins. And you can’t expect an Israeli democratic elected official to negotiate with a group of people who have avowed to destroy them.

People That Prevent A Better Future For Emerging

And hopefully, at some point in time, the situation will get clarified, if the people have another right to express themselves, and that right ought to be, are you for a state or not for a state? Are you going to have people that prevent a better future for emerging from you?

Drain Bamage Returns

And the fundamental question, really, facing in the long-term on this is, will the United States believe that the value system that has enabled our country, by the way, to emerge — and it took us 100 years to get rid of slavery, for example.