What "rousing" speech?

Bush faces a hostile audience at the UN Tuesday, as he demands the world body fix the mess he made with his war lest the UN become "irrelevant".

Specifically, he will give the UN a big "I told you so", even though it is the world body that has every right to utter those words.

President Bush said on Sunday he would tell the United Nations he made the right decision to go to war in Iraq despite his failure to obtain Security Council backing for the conflict.

"I will make it clear that I made the right decision and that the others that joined us made the right decision. The world is a better place without Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)," Bush said in an interview with Fox News's Brit Hume.

Now while we all expect Fox News to be the propaganda arm of the Bush administration, what about USA Today? Today's edition had this perplexing gem:

When President Bush speaks to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, he will find a much more divided and resentful audience than when he came to New York just over a year ago and surprised the world body with a rousing call to action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

I don't recall Bush ever "surprising the world body with a rousing call to action".

Indeed, Bush's speech was scheduled, and everyone knew the speech was about Iraq. So if there was any surprise, it would've been about the "rousing" part of the speech.

But given the UN didn't give Bush war authorization, so it couldn't have been that rousing.

Looking to news stories from that time, CNN doesn't mention any "surprise" or talk about a "rousing" speech. NewsMax -- a wingnut operation if there ever was one, wrote this:

President George W. Bush's warning to Iraq to obey Security Council demands produced mixed reaction.

The 26-minute speech to the 2002 U.N. General Assembly (almost double the allotted time) only drew some brief and restrained applause in the cavernous chamber.

BBC got some foreign reaction to Bush's speech, and the tone seemed to be "cautious". So said the AP.

So where the hell did this USA Today reporter get that b.s. about Bush's "surprising" and "rousing" speech?

Sheez....

Posted September 22, 2003 07:18 AM | Comments (51)