The NYTimes staff editorial blasted President Bush's speech to the United Nations as a "lead balloon" and accused him of wasting a "golden opportunity" to ask for help in Iraq. According to the NYT the President was "inexplicably defiant" and "scolded" the United Nations. It paints a vivid picture. Unfortunately one deeply tinted (tainted?) by the pervasive bias of the New York Times.
Read the full text of the speech here
The President drew a parallel between the Declaration of Independence and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights making a case for freedom and dignity compared with terror and oppression. He reminded the UN of ten years of Saddam's defiance: "...the Security Council promised serious consequences for his defiance. And the commitments we make must have meaning (emphasis added)"
He spoke of the US contribution to the war on AIDS and poverty and highlighted the genocide in Darfur. He congratulated Iraq for rejoining the community of nations and emphasized that "the UN and its member nations must respond to Prime Minister Allawi's request and do more to help build an Iraq that is secure, democratic, federal and free."
Finally, the President affirmed that the proper response to difficulty was not to retreat but to prevail. "And today I assure every friend of Afghanistan and Iraq and every enemy of liberty, we will stand with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes of freedom and security are fulfilled."
That's an invitation for any true friend of liberty to step forward. If the French, the Germans and similar fellow travelers need to be begged to do the right thing or refuse to do the right thing of simply of pique what kind of allies will they be?
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