From Gen. Tommy Franks

[dude1394]

Gen Tommy Franks did not have a prime time spot but he was pretty solid.

...
The global War on Terrorism will be a long fight. But make no mistake — we are going to fight the terrorists. The question is, Do we fight them over there — or do we fight them here? I choose to fight them over there.

Some argue that we should treat this war as a law-enforcement issue. Some say we should fight a less aggressive war — that we should retreat into a defensive posture and hope that the terrorists don't attack us again.

Well, my wife Cathy and I are simply not willing to bet our grandchildren's future on the "good will" of murderers. I learned long ago that hope is not a strategy. In the years ahead, America will be called upon to demonstrate character, consistency, courage, and leadership.

Lincoln once said, "Character is like a tree and reputation is like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

Citizens and friends, I've been with this president in tough, uncertain times. George W. Bush is "the real thing."

[dude1394]

From beldarblog. Man this blog just gets better and better.

[quote]
Thanks, Gen. Franks, for thanking our coalition partners

I'm not sure whether anyone else at the Republican National Convention made this same point or not, but I was extremely pleased to hear Gen. Tommy Franks deliver these lines:

And we have not been in this fight alone. President Bush has built the largest coalition in the history of the world — nations united together against terrorism.

Some have ridiculed the contributions made by our allies, but I can tell you that every contribution from every nation is important.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking our Coalition partners for being there when America and the world needed them most.

The only thing that could have made this better would have been a more explicit reference to Sen. Kerry calling the allies who've joined us in Iraq a "fraudulent coalition" and, even worse, "some trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted." This latter wasn't an off-the-cuff remark, but a carefully crafted — even word-smithed — insult. I don't know how Sen. Kerry failed to throw in, for good measure, that all of their mothers wear army boots with heels rounded at the back. I suppose Sen. Kerry can deliver such barbs in several different languages to give them their full effect — and doubtless his unblushing bride could translate them into a few more.

On second thought, I suppose that Gen. Franks had the taste, decency, and diplomacy not to repeat these insults even for the purpose of condemning their maker. But I continue to wonder how Sen. Kerry expects to do such a fabulously better job of international diplomacy than Dubya when Kerry's gone out of his way to insult the countries that, by definition, have been our most steadfast allies. Tony Blair might have the manners to pretend not to have noticed — but I'm sure he did, as did the leaders, and people, of a great many other countries whose soldiers are putting it on the line every day along with our own forces in Iraq.

Update (Sat Sep 4 @ 8:30am): I just watched my videotape from Thursday night of Dubya's acceptance speech, and I'll swear he was reading my mind, even if he left out "bought and extorted" from the Kerry quote.

As a result of that speech, there are some tough hombres from El Salvador who are nodding their close-shaved heads and slapping palms with their brothers in uniform and shouting — well, whatever their equivalent for "Hoo-ah!" is. Their mothers are saying, "That's my son he was talking about! My son, he's been fighting for freedom!" In some small town you or I have never heard of in Italy, there's someone who maybe has had second or third thoughts about her country's support of the Coalition in the past, but who is telling her husband over breakfast this morning, "That needed to be said, what the President said ... and did you hear, did you hear, what that Kerry called us?" An icy Heineken or three will be hoisted in Rotterdam for the President of the United States; an icy vodka shot glass or four will pound down empty atop a Gdansk tabletop, and the words "Reagan" and "Bush" will be heard.

And Tony Blair will have his poker face on, but I'll bet you when he watched the speech, he nodded and pointed his finger at the screen and thought, maybe even said under his breath, something inscrutably British and definitely approving about cowboys and honor and friendship.