Transcript of W's Iraq speech...

(... not sure the point of posting this. If you've read one, you've read 'em all.)

Transcript of W's speech now available on Whitehouse.gov website:
President Bush Discusses Iraq

"al Qaeda" mentioned 12 times.
"Iran" mentioned 11 times.
Frequently mentioned together; e.g.,

"Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest threats to America in this new century -- al Qaeda and Iran."

"On the other hand, if we succeed in Iraq after all that al Qaeda and Iran have invested there, it would be a historic blow to the global terrorist movement and a severe setback for Iran."

Wow - who knew? - We invaded Iraq to fight Iran!

... and it's really no longer note-worthy to observe that W continues to conflate the so-called "al Qaeda in Iraq" with bin Laden's al Qaeda.
[... and for what it's worth: I'm betting bin Laden's al Qaeda has invested almost nothing in Iraq - other than giving an endorsement to the so-called "al Qaeda in Iraq"! Osama just gets valuable free publicity whenever W mentions al Qaeda!... on the other hand, we've poured more than $500Bn down this very large drain.]

[tangential aside: The first of W. Edwards Deming's 14 Points is Constancy of Purpose. W's invocation of Iran as raison d'etre for staying in Iraq is far, far removed from "Iraq has WMD" and "Saddam is bad"... in fact, it seems to represent a discontinuity in W's vision of his Iraq misadventure.]

Stop the madness!