Two very important speeches were delivered today. One was delivered to the people of the United States; one was delivered to Britain’s House of Commons. I’m glad I had the chance to watch both of them.
President Bush made what we must now consider the definitive Administration case for war on Iraq. Robin Cook made what I consider to be the definitive case against. (I have not found a transcript of the latter, but there is a RealVideo archive.)
I want to encourage everyone to watch or read both. Cook’s speech is a textbook example of how to disagree with governmental policy without being unpatriotic. Bush’s speech, considered objectively, was probably the strongest he has ever made. I suspect most reading this will have read the Bush speech by now; take the time to watch Cook, too.
Edit: trimmed down Cook transcript; Bush transcript. The Cook transcript removed some of the interesting bits, so you should still watch the RealVideo.
3 Comments
Ned: I can’t believe how much good will and moral authority this President has squandered, on his obsession with Iraq.
From Bush’s speech: “Our good faith has not been returned.”
Didn’t we slip US spies into the inspections teams? Is that really ‘good faith’?
Well, it’s not clear to me that we can hold Bush responsible for what Clinton did.