[Newspoetry] Bush's Speech

[Editor-Within-Chief]

Good evening. A long year has passed since enemies attacked our country. 
We've seen the images so many times, they are seared on our souls, and 
remembering the horror, reliving the anguish, re-imagining the terror is 
hard and painful. Though admittedly less hard and painful than being bombed.

For those who lost loved ones, it's been a year of sorrow, of empty places, 
of newborn children who will never know their fathers here on earth. And a 
year of more loved ones being lost in Afghanistan, except we don't love 
them as much as we love our loved ones, because I won't mention them in 
this speech, not even once.

For members of our military, it's been a year of sacrifice and service far 
from home. We've sacrificed our democratic ideals so that others may die so 
that we can have cheap oil to fuel the nation whose military killed them.

For all Americans, it has been a year of adjustment, of coming to terms 
with the difficult knowledge that our nation has determined enemies and 
that we are not invulnerable to their attacks. But we have not really 
learned why, because if we did, we would no longer have plausible 
deniability of our war crimes.

Yet in the events that have challenged us, we've also seen the character 
that will deliver us. And we've made a mockery of it.

We've seen the greatness of America in airline passengers who defied their 
hijackers and ran a plane into the ground to spare the lives of others. But 
we have not followed in their footsteps. Instead of sacrificing ourselves 
to defend our people, we've sacrificed others to advance the interests of 
the wealthy.

We've seen the greatness of America in rescuers who rushed up flights of 
stairs toward peril, and we continue to see the greatness of America in the 
care and compassion our citizens show to each other. But we do not as a 
nation show that compassion towards other nations.

September the 11th, 2001 will always be a fixed point in the life of 
America. The loss of so many lives left us to examine our own. Each of us 
was reminded that we are here only for a time. And these counted days 
should be filled with things that last and matter: love for our families, 
love for our neighbors and for our country, gratitude for life and to the 
giver of life. Here's where I could have mentioned love for all people in 
the world, but notice that I didn't.

We resolved a year ago to honor every last person lost. Except for the 
thousands of Afghan civilians we refuse to acknowledge that we've killed, 
not to mention similar lists from our previous war crimes.

We owe them remembrance, and we owe them more. We owe them money. We owe 
them our obligations under international law and international treaties. 
But we will not give them what we owe them.

We owe them and their children, and our own, the most enduring monument we 
can build, a world of liberty and security, made possible by the way 
America leads and by the way Americans lead our lives. We cannot give them 
that, because America doesn't lead that way and Americans don't live their 
lives that way.

The attack on our nation was also an attack on the ideals that make us a 
nation. Our deepest national conviction is that every life is precious, 
because every life is the gift of a creator who intended us to live in 
liberty and equality. But even though we hold this conviction, it's 
inconvenient, so we don't actually follow it.

More than anything else, this separates us from the enemy we fight. We 
value every life. Our enemies value none, not even the innocent, not even 
their own. That's why we'd rather not mention the innocent people we've 
killed in Afghanistan; it makes us sound kind of enemy-ish.

And we seek the freedom and opportunity that give meaning and value to 
life. Why can't we find it? Because we're looking for it in war, which 
offers no freedom and opportunity for its victims.

There is a line in our time, and in every time, between those who believe 
that all men are created equal and those who believe that some men and 
women and children are expendable in the pursuit of power. There is a line 
in our time and in every time between the defenders of human liberty and 
those who seek to master the minds and souls of others. We are on the side 
of the line with those who believe that some men and women and children are 
expendable in the pursuit of power.

Our generation has now heard history's call, and we will answer it. With a 
resounding "fuck you".

America has entered a great struggle that tests our strength and even more 
our resolve. Our nation is patient and steadfast. We continue to pursue the 
terrorists in cities and camps and caves across the Earth. Even though 
they're in Washington, D.C. in the White House.

We are joined by a great coalition of nations to rid the world of terror. 
And we will not allow any terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with 
weapons of mass murder. Except for us.

Now and in the future, Americans will live as free people, not in fear and 
never at the mercy of any foreign plot or power. Just at the mercy of 
domestic plots and power.

This nation has defeated tyrants and liberated death camps, raised this 
lamp of liberty to every captive land. We have no intention of ignoring or 
appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to 
power. They are discovering, as others before them, the resolve of a great 
country and a great democracy. We are resolved to be the only gang of 
fanatics trying to murder our way to power.

In the ruins of two towers, under a flag unfurled at the Pentagon, at the 
funerals of the lost, we have made a sacred promise to ourselves and to the 
world: We will not relent until justice is done and our nation is secure. 
That means we'll never relent, got it? Because we don't care about justice.

What our enemies have begun, we will finish. So: they began destroying 
buildings and killing innocent people, and we plan to continue destroying 
buildings and killing innocent people until we're satisfied.

I believe there's a reason that history has matched this nation with this 
time. America strives to be tolerant and just. We respect the faith of 
Islam, even as we fight those whose actions defile that faith. We fight not 
to impose our will, but to defend ourselves and extend the blessings of 
freedom. In order to do that, we have come up with radical new definitions 
of "tolerant" (intolerant), "just" (unjust), "defend" (strike first), 
"freedom" (subservience to the US).

We cannot know all that lies ahead. Yet we do know that God has placed us 
together in this moment to grieve together, to stand together, to serve 
each other and our country. And the duty we have been given, defending 
America and our freedom is also a privilege we share. And a privilege whose 
associated responsibility we have abdicated.

We're prepared for this journey. And our prayer tonight is that God will 
see us through and keep us worthy. We have resorted to praying because we 
do not have it within ourselves to remain worthy.

Tomorrow is September the 12th. A milestone has passed, and a mission goes 
on. No matter how many oppose it.

Be confident; our country is strong. And ignorance is strength.

And our cause is even larger than our country. Ours is the cause of human 
dignity, freedom guided by conscience and guarded by peace. This ideal of 
America is the hope of all mankind. That hope drew millions to this harbor. 
That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness, and 
the darkness will not overcome it. Even though we're trying.

May God bless America. May God have mercy on my soul.


--
Joe Futrelle
editor-within-chief
http://www.newspoetry.com/