Left I on the News

George Bush spoke today and compared the war in Iraq to the American Revolutionary War:

"Our first Independence Day celebration took place in a midst of a war -- a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom. More than two decades [sic] later, it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way -- but at the time, America's victory was far from certain. In other words, when we celebrated the first 4th of July celebration, our struggle for independence was far from certain. Citizens had to struggle for six more years to finally determine the outcome of the Revolutionary War.

"We were a small band of freedom-loving patriots taking on the most powerful empire in the world."

And, of course, he's absolutely right. A "small band of freedom-loving patriots" is able to take on the "most powerful empire in the world" and expel the occupiers from their country, after a long struggle, as was proven in Vietnam and will be proven again in Iraq (and, hopefully, Palestine as well).

But I don't think that's quite what he had in mind. Although one might wonder what exactly he did have in mind, referring to the "most powerful empire in the world" without realizing that that part is played by him and his forces, not by the Iraqi resistance.