"If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way."
There's been a lot of press about Senator Jim Webb's fantastic response to the SOTU, and if you haven't seen it, here's where you can watch it. I thought Webb's speech was fantastic -- a simple, straight-forward, yet hard-hitting, explanation of the Democrat's position on Iraq and the economy and where Bush has gone so tragically wrong. Although his discussion of Iraq was fanatastic, I also liked his point that Bush has mentioned energy independence in every one of his SOTU addresses, yet nothing was ever done about it by Bush or the Republican Congress.
A couple of Webb's statements stood out for me:
With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged
war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war
began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away
from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq
would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner
of the world.
There you go. Doesn't get any more straight-forward than that. Webb then had a very moving section about a picture that he showed to the camera:
I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for
more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain,
flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from
Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used
to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three
years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas
or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of
the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my
father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps,
serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine
helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry
Marine in Iraq.
And then Webb connects it with what has happened in Iraq and in Washington:
Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve
and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On
the political issues - those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life
and death - we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they
would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives
against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into
harm's way.
We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us -
sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the
threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in
defending it.
And then the final point, summing up the party's position on Iraq better than almost anyone else has done:
The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings
from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff
of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose
jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in
national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the
predictable - and predicted - disarray that has followed.
The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.Financially.The
damage to our reputation around the world.The lost opportunities to defeat the
forces of international terrorism.And especially the precious blood of our
citizens who have stepped forward to serve.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being
fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one
step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous
withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift
toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off
the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our
combat forces to leave Iraq.
And Webb closed the speech this way:
Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the
situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th
century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The
so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the
national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening
revolt.
Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow
Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper
corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the
other." And he did something about it.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be
President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had
fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had
commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became
President, he brought the Korean War to an end.These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world.
Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both
areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the
way.
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek had similar praise for Webb's speech here. It's hard to disagree with his main point:
Something unprecedented happened tonight, beyond the doorkeeper announcing,
"Madame Speaker." For the first time ever, the response to the State of the
Union Message overshadowed the president's big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb,
in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism—with
personal touches—that left President Bush's ordinary address in the
dust.
I really like this Jim Webb fella.
