The President gave a speech tonight at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska - the speech is a continuation of the same theme that the President has been pushing hard over the last week in response to the lying Democrats in Congress who are trying to falsely assert that the President lied about the rationale Iraq war, forgetting what was said in the past by their own party regarding the threat they, too, thought Iraq posed (see here and here for more). Here’s the text of the speech. Some of what the President said:

Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war — but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people. Leaders in my Administration and members of Congress from both parties looked at the same intelligence on Iraq — and reached the conclusion that Saddam Hussein was a threat. Let me give you quotes from three senior Democrats: First, quote, “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.” End quote. Here’s another one, quote, “The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as [Saddam Hussein] is in power.” End quote. And here’s the way another Democratic leader summed it up, quote, “Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the President’s approaching
this in the right fashion.”

The truth is that investigations of the intelligence on Iraq have concluded that only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world — and that person was Saddam Hussein. In early 2004, when weapons inspector David Kay testified that he had not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he also testified that, quote, “Iraqwas in clear material violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. They maintained programs and activities, and they certainly had the intentions at a point to resume their programs. So
there was a lot they wanted to hide because it showed what they were doing that was illegal.” Eight months later, weapons inspector Charles Duelfer issued a report that found, quote, “Saddam Hussein so dominated the Iraqi Regime that its strategic intent was his alone. He wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction when sanctions were lifted.”

Some of our elected leaders have opposed this war all along. I disagree with them, but I respect their willingness to take a consistent stand. Yet some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They are playing politics with this issue and sending mixed signals to
our troops and the enemy. That is irresponsible.

As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory.

Amen, Mr. President. Amen. Don’t let the DNC liars get away with revising history.

More via Michelle Malkin, Right Wing Nut House, Blogs For Bush, Flopping Aces, Don Surber (who rightly calls the revisionists “situational hawks”, Myopic Zeal, Big Lizards, California Conservative, Powerline, Ex-Donkey Blog, Pirate’s Cove, Lawhawk

Update: Ian at The Political Teen has posted Fox News reporter Brian William’s video report on Democratic hypocrisy on this issue.

Update II: Mr. Hitchens gets it right yet again. On the other hand, the NYTimes desperately spins Bush’s recent comments that have taken the Dems to task for their past statements.

Related Toldjah So posts:

• W tells the Dems to stop rewriting history
• Who’s really lying about Iraq?

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