[O29] Bush slumps, blames Muslims; all out for antiwar protest on Oct. 29!!

[Keith Rosenthal]

Friends,
   It is clear that Bush is ramping up his rhetoric calling the war on Iraq a war on "Islamo-fascism" and "Muslim terrorists." (see article immediately below)  He is doing this because his support continues to slump in the polls even further and a majority of Americans continue to see his presidency and the war in Iraq as a failure and a liability (see article at bottom).
   Now is the time to organize and fight back against Bush -- and to clearly state that we will not fall for Bush's attempts to scapegoat Muslims and Arabs in the Middle East, but instead, are determined to stand strong against the real reason for the war: the construction of US Empire in the Middle East, which includes the establishment of dozens of permanent military bases in Iraq and the control of Iraq's strategic oil resources.  
   All out for the antiwar protest on October 29th on the Boston Common!  Tell your friends, neighbors, and relatives, to join the historic movement to end this brutal war and to demand: "Not one more death!"  Go to www.oct29.org for more information!
 
--keith
 
Bush says defeating Iraq insurgency is criticalWarns militants could use country as base for terror
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff  |  October 7, 2005

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday that defeating the insurgency in Iraq is critical in order to prevent Islamist militants from seizing control of the country as a base to ''establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia."

Seeking to shore up dwindling public support for the war, Bush's speech before the National Endowment for Democracy sought to lay out, in detail, why the bloody struggle between US forces and insurgents in Iraq is linked to Islamic terrorist networks responsible for deadly bombings against civilians from London to Bali. The perpetrators, the president said, are groups whose ''clear and focused ideology" of ''Islamo-fascism" is ''evil, but not insane."

''The terrorists' goal is to overthrow a rising democracy, claim a strategic country as a haven for terror, destabilize the Middle East, and strike America and other free nations with ever-increasing violence," he said. ''Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and their allies at the heart of their power, and so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq."

Bush's speech was part of an event commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but it also came amid a surge of bombings in Iraq ahead of the Oct. 15 vote to ratify the nation's constitution. Meanwhile, American military fatalities approach 2,000, public opinion polls indicate that support for the war -- and Bush's job approval ratings -- were at or near all-time lows, and more than 100,000 protesters surrounded the White House two weeks ago, demanding an immediate end to the war.

A study by the Congressional Research Service released yesterday estimates the Bush administration is spending about $7 billion a month to wage the war on terror, and costs could total $570 billion by the end of 2010. The report arrives as the Senate is ready to give President Bush $50 billion more for military operations.

The speech generated a chorus of criticism from Democrats, who accused Bush of using Sept. 11 to justify the Iraq war, even though Iraq had nothing to do with the Al Qaeda attacks. Some analysts have said that the insurgents fighting the United States in Iraq are not foreign Islamist fighters but primarily Iraqi Sunnis who want to drive out an occupier and restore their domination of the country.

 

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/07/bush_says_defeating_iraq_insurgency_is_critical?mode=PF

 

 
Bush's falling poll numbers
By Thomas Oliphant  |  October 7, 2005

WASHINGTON --SINCE WE ALL know — from President Bush himself, no less — that he is such a selfless leader that he never even peeks at opinion polls, let’s take a naughty glimpse at the latest anyway.

This stuff is from Zogby International, and it’s current. On the fighting in Iraq, Americans who think Bush is doing a good or excellent job are just 36 percent of the sample. Those who say fair or poor are now above 60 percent — 63 to be precise.

Those numbers don’t come close to explaining why Bush has suddenly become vocal again on security issues — the Rose Garden (twice) and the Reagan Building (once) having been the sites of speeches just in the last week.

The real reason is to be found in the numbers on what used to be considered the president’s strongest suit — the so-called war on terror. These are the numbers he used to bludgeon John Kerry last year as someone who could not be trusted to ‘‘keep us safe,’’ in order to scare the devil out of just enough voters to win reelection. From the immediate aftermath of 9/11 right through this spring — and even while the rest of his numbers were beginning to crumble under the weight of ineptitude and worse — the terrorism numbers held strong.

No more. They had been eroding for weeks, and the abysmal performance of government during the Gulf Coast hurricanes — exposing a stunning absence of ability to cope with catastrophe — probably accelerated the decline. At any rate, the latest Zogby numbers on Bush and the war on terror — in line with all the other data that pollutes the political landscape — are 49 percent good or excellent and 50 percent fair or poor.

The problem the president has faced in the Rose Garden and at the Reagan Building here yesterday is that there is very little he can do about this mess except talk. He has all the money he wants (even though it is money the government doesn’t technically have). He has all the power he wants. There is nothing more to get except those elusive results. Blaming somebody else for his woes isn’t much of an option anymore.

The real problem is not so much the opinion polls as the fact that the clock is ticking in Iraq toward that awful moment when it becomes clear that the country no longer trusts Bush on the subject or no longer supports an open-ended military involvement or both.

 

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/07/bushs_falling_poll_numbers?mode=PF


		
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