[Mb-civic] Giuliani compare Bush to Churdhill: transcript

[RJ Mac]

--- Harold Sifton <harry.sifton at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Give me a "!*&#@#" break, Giuliani compares Bush to
> Churchill !!
> 
>
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/12880359?source=Evening%20Standard
> 
> I used to have respect for Giuliani, not anymore!
> 
> Bush is nowhere in the same league, nothing what so
> ever in common! This is a "totally" different
> international event!
> 
> How dare Giuliani compare Churchill's WWII
> deeds/actions to Bush's Terrorism/Iraqi fiasco/folly
> ...........
> 
> God save America, truly God please save America from
> Bush and his administration!
> 
> Later H>
_______________________________________________


I have to question this response.  I read the Evening
Standard piece; simple flat reportage and fairly
neutral with it's slim information.  At face value,
nothing that I myself would get riled over.

I did find a transcript of Giuliani's speech and for
the benefit of those on this list, have copied and
pasted it below.  Whatever thoughts anyone may have,
you're all welcome to them, but I think it's important
to expose yourself to all sides of an issue, including
the raw data.

rj

=======================================================

2004 Republican National Convention Speech - Rudy
Giuliani
Transcript

ADVERTISING
The former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani,
delivered a speech on Monday, August 30, 2004 to the
Republican National Convention. 


Welcome to the capital of the World.

New York was the first capital of our great nation. It
was here in 1789 in lower Manhattan that George
Washington took the oath of office as the first
President of the United States.

It was here in 2001 in lower Manhattan that President
George W. Bush stood amid the fallen towers of the
World Trade Center and said to the barbaric terrorists
who attacked us, "They will hear from us."

They have heard from us!

They heard from us in Afghanistan and we removed the
Taliban.

They heard from us in Iraq and we ended Saddam
Hussein's reign of terror.

They heard from us in Libya and without firing a shot
Qadhafi abandoned weapons of mass destruction.

They are hearing from us in nations that are now more
reluctant to sponsor terrorists.

So long as George Bush is President, is there any
doubt they will continue to hear from us until we
defeat global terrorism.

We owe that much and more to those loved ones and
heroes we lost on September 11th.

The families of some of those we lost on September
11th are here with us. To them, and all those families
affected by September 11th, we recognize the
sacrifices your loved ones and you have made. You are
in our prayers and we are in your debt.
This is the first Republican Convention ever held in
New York City.

It makes a statement that New York City and America
are open for business and stronger than ever.

We're not going to let the threat of terrorism stop us
from leading our lives.

>From the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln,
to President George W. Bush our party's great
contribution is to expand freedom in our own land and
all over the world.

And our party is at its best when it makes certain
that we have a powerful national defense in a still
very dangerous world.

I don't believe we're right about everything and
Democrats are wrong about everything.

Neither party has a monopoly on virtue.

But I do believe that there are times in our history
when our ideas are more necessary and important for
what we are facing.

There are times when leadership is the most important.

On September 11, this city and our nation faced the
worst attack in our history.

On that day, we had to confront reality. For me,
standing below the north tower and looking up and
seeing the flames of hell and then realizing that I
was actually seeing a man a human being jumping from
the 101st or 102nd floor drove home to me that we were
facing something beyond anything we had ever faced
before.

We had to concentrate all of our energy, faith and
hope to get through those first hours and days.

And I will always remember that moment as we escaped
the building we were trapped in at 75 Barclay Street
and realized that things outside might be even worse
than they were inside the building.

We did the best we could to communicate a message of
calm and hope, as we stood on the pavement seeing a
massive cloud rushing through the cavernous streets of
lower Manhattan.

Our people were so brave in their response.

At the time, we believed we would be attacked many
more times that day and in the days that followed.
Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, "Thank
God George Bush is our President."

And I say it again tonight, "Thank God George Bush is
our President."

On September 11, George W. Bush had been President
less than eight months. This new President, Vice
President, and new administration were faced with the
worst crisis in our history.

President Bush's response in keeping us unified and in
turning the ship of state around from being solely on
defense against terrorism to being on offense as well
and for his holding us together.

For that and then his determined effort to defeat
global terrorism, no matter what happens in this
election, President George W. Bush already has earned
a place in our history as a great American President.

But let's not wait for history to present the correct
view of our President. Let us write our own history.

We need George Bush now more than ever.

The horror, the shock and the devastation of those
attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and
over the skies of Pennsylvania lifted a cloud from our
eyes.

We stood face to face with those people and forces who
hijacked not just airplanes but a religion and turned
it into a creed of terrorism dedicated to eradicating
us and our way of life.

Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It had
been festering for many years.

And the world had created a response to it that
allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team
at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. And the pattern
had already begun.

The three surviving terrorists were arrested and
within two months released by the German government.

Action like this became the rule, not the exception.

Terrorists came to learn they could attack and often
not face consequences.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro and
murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair,
Leon Klinghoffer.

They marked him for murder solely because he was
Jewish.

Some of those terrorist were released and some of the
remaining terrorists allowed to escape by the Italian
government because of fear of reprisals.

So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world
community and too often the response, particularly in
Europe, was "accommodation, appeasement and
compromise."

And worse the terrorists also learned that their cause
would be taken more seriously, almost in direct
proportion to the barbarity of the attack.

Terrorist acts became a ticket to the international
bargaining table.

How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel
Peace Prize when he was supporting a terrorist plague
in the Middle East that undermined any chance of
peace?

Before September 11, we were living with an
unrealistic view of the world much like our observing

Europe appease Hitler or trying to accommodate
ourselves to peaceful co-existence with the Soviet
Union through mutually assured destruction.

President Bush decided that we could no longer be just
on defense against global terrorism but we must also
be on offense.

On September 20, 2001, President Bush stood before a
joint session of Congress, a still grieving and
shocked nation and a confused world and he did change
the direction of our ship of state.

He dedicated America under his leadership to
destroying global terrorism.

The President announced the Bush Doctrine when he
said: "Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it
does not end there.

It will not end until every terrorist group of global
reach has been found, stopped and defeated.

"Either you are with us or you are with the
terrorists."

And since September 11th President Bush has remained
rock solid.

It doesn't matter how he is demonized.

It doesn't matter what the media does to ridicule him
or misinterpret him or defeat him.

They ridiculed Winston Churchill. They belittled
Ronald Reagan.

But like President Bush, they were optimists; leaders
must be optimists. Their vision was beyond the present
and set on a future of real peace and true freedom.

Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled
leadership.

President Bush has the courage of his convictions.

In choosing a President, we really don't choose a
Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal.

We choose a leader.

And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans
should put leadership at the core of their decision.

There are many qualities that make a great leader but
having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them
through popular and unpopular times, is the most
important characteristic of a great leader.

Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler while his
opponents characterized him as a war-mongering gadfly.

Ronald Reagan saw and described the Soviet Union as
"the evil empire" while world opinion accepted it as
inevitable and belittled Ronald Reagan's intelligence.

President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that
it is.

John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent
vision.

This is not a personal criticism of John Kerry.

I respect him for his service to our nation.

But it is important to see the contrast in approach
between the two men;

President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with
difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts, and
John Kerry, whose record in elected office suggests a
man who changes his position often even on important
issues.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, John Kerry
voted against the Persian Gulf War. Later he said he
actually supported the war.

Then in 2002, as he was calculating his run for
President, he voted for the war in Iraq.

And then just 9 months later, he voted against an $87
billion supplemental budget to fund the war and
support our troops.

He even, at one point, declared himself an anti-war
candidate. Now, he says he's pro-war. At this rate,
with 64 days left, he still has time to change his
position at least three or four more times.

My point about John Kerry being inconsistent is best
described in his own words when he said, "I actually
did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against
it."

Maybe this explains John Edwards' need for two
Americas - - one where John Kerry can vote for
something and another where he can vote against the
same thing.

Yes, people in public office at times do change their
minds, I've done that, or they realize they are wrong
or circumstances change.

But John Kerry has made it the rule to change his
position, rather than the exception. In October, 2003,
he told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a
security barrier separating Israel from the
Palestinian Territories was a "barrier to peace."

A few months later, he took exactly the opposite
position. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post he
said, "Israel's security fence is a legitimate act of
self defense."

The contrasts are dramatic. They involve very
different views of how to deal with terrorism.

President Bush will make certain that we are
combatting terrorism at the source, beyond our shores,
so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in
the streets of New York.

John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on
combatting terrorism gives us no confidence he'll
pursue such a determined course.

President Bush will not allow countries that appear to
have ignored the lessons of history and failed for
over thirty years to stand up to terrorists, to
dissuade us from what is necessary for our defense.

He will not let them set our agenda. Under President
Bush, America will lead rather than follow.

John Kerry's claim that certain foreign leaders who
opposed our removal of Saddam Hussein prefer him,
raises the risk that he would accommodate his position
to their viewpoint.

It would hardly be the first time he changed his
position on matters of war and peace.

I remember the days following September 11th when we
were no longer Democrats or Republicans, but Americans
determined to do all we could to help the victims, to
rebuild our city and nation and to disable our
enemies.

I remember President Bush coming here on September 14,
2001 and lifting the morale of our rescue workers by
talking with them and embracing them and staying with
them much longer than originally planned.

In fact, if you promise to keep it just between us so
I don't get in trouble it was my opinion that the
Secret Service was concerned about the President
remaining so long in that area.

With buildings still unstable, with fires raging below
ground of 2000 degrees or more, there was good reason
for concern.

Well the President remained there and talked to
everyone, the firefighters, the police officers, the
healthcare workers, the clergy, but the people who
spent the most time with him were our construction
workers.

Now New York construction workers are very special
people. I'm sure this is true all over but I know the
ones here the best. They were real heroes along with
many others that day, volunteering immediately. And
they're big, real big. Their arms are bigger than my
legs and their opinions are even bigger than their
arms.

Now each one of them would engage the President and I
imagine like his cabinet give him advice.

They were advising him in their own words on exactly
what he should do with the terrorists. Of course I
can't repeat their exact language.

But one of them really went into great detail and upon
conclusion of his remarks President Bush said in a
rather loud voice, "I agree."

At this point the guy just beamed and all his buddies
turned toward him in amazement.

The guy just lost it.

So he reached over, embraced the President and began
hugging him enthusiastically.

A Secret Service agent standing next to me looked at
the President and the guy and instead of extracting
the President from this bear hug, he turned toward me
and put his finger in my face and said, "If this guy
hurts the President, Giuliani you're finished."

Meekly, and this is the moral of the story, I
responded, "but it would be out of love."

I also remember the heart wrenching visit President
Bush made to the families of our firefighters and
police officers at the Javits Center.

I remember receiving all the help, assistance and
support from the President and even more than we
asked.

For that I will be eternally grateful to President
Bush.

And I remember the support being bi-partisan and
actually standing hand in hand Republicans and
Democrats, here in New York and all over the nation.

During a Boston Red Sox game there was a sign held up
saying Boston loves New York.

I saw a Chicago police officer sent here by Mayor
Daley directing traffic in Manhattan.

I'm not sure where he sent the cars, they are probably
still riding around the Bronx, but it was very
reassuring to know how much support we had.

And as we look beyond this election and elections do
accentuate differences let's make sure we rekindle
that spirit that we are one one America united to end
the threat of global terrorism.

Certainly President Bush will keep us focused on that
goal. When President Bush announced his commitment to
ending global terrorism, he understood - - I
understood, we all understood - - it was critical to
remove the pillars of support for the global terrorist
movement.

In any plan to destroy global terrorism, removing
Saddam Hussein needed to be accomplished.

Frankly, I believed then and I believe now that Saddam
Hussein, who supported global terrorism, slaughtered
hundreds of thousands of his own people, permitted
horrific atrocities against women, and used weapons of
mass destruction, was himself a weapon of mass
destruction.

But the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were based
on issues even broader than just the presence of
weapons of mass destruction.

To liberate people, give them a chance for
accountable, decent government and rid the world of a
pillar of support for global terrorism is something
for which all those involved from President Bush to
the brave men and women of our armed forces should be
proud.

President Bush has also focused on the correct
long-term answer for the violence and hatred emerging
from the Middle East. The hatred and anger in the
Middle East arises from the lack of accountable
governments.

Rather than trying to grant more freedom, create more
income, improve education and basic health care, these
governments deflect their own failures by pointing to
America and Israel and other external scapegoats.

But blaming these scapegoats does not improve the life
of a single person in the Arab world. It does not
relieve the plight of even one woman in Iran.

It does not give a decent living to a single soul in
Syria. It certainly does not stop the slaughter of
African Christians in the Sudan.

The changes necessary in the Middle East involve
encouraging accountable, lawful governments that can
be role models.

This has also been an important part of the Bush
Doctrine and the President's vision for the future.

Have faith in the power of freedom.

People who live in freedom always prevail over people
who live in oppression. That's the story of the Old
Testament. That's the story of World War II and the
Cold War.

That's the story of the firefighters and police
officers and rescue workers who courageously saved
thousands of lives on September 11, 2001.

President Bush is the leader we need for the next four
years because he sees beyond today and tomorrow. He
has a vision of a peaceful Middle East and, therefore,
a safer world. We will see an end to global terrorism.
I can see it. I believe it. I know it will happen.

It may seem a long way off. It may even seem
idealistic.

But it may not be as far away and idealistic as it
seems.

Look how quickly the Berlin Wall was torn down, the
Iron Curtain ripped open and the Soviet Union
disintegrated because of the power of the pent-up
demand for freedom.

When it catches hold there is nothing more powerful
than freedom. Give it some hope, and it will overwhelm
dictators, and even defeat terrorists. That is what we
have done and must continue to do in Iraq.

That is what the Republican Party does best when we
are at our best, we extend freedom.

It's our mission. And it's the long-term answer to
ending global terrorism. Governments that are free and
accountable.

We have won many battles at home and abroad but as
President Bush told us on September 20, 2001 it will
take a long-term determined effort to prevail.

The war on terrorism will not be won in a single
battle. There will be no dramatic surrender. There
will be no crumbling of a massive wall.

But we will know it. We'll know it as accountable
governments continue to develop in countries like
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

We'll know it as terrorist attacks throughout the
world decrease and then end.

And then, God willing, we'll all be able on a future
anniversary of September 11th.

To say to our fallen brothers and sisters. To our
heroes of the worst attack in our history and to our
heroes who have sacrificed their lives in the war on
terror.

We will say to them we have done all that we could
with our lives that were spared to make your
sacrifices build a world of real peace and true
freedom.

We will make certain in the words of President Bush
that they have heard from us.

That they have heard from us a message of peace
through free, accountable, lawful and decent
governments giving people hope for a future for
themselves and their children.

God bless each one we have lost, here and abroad, and
their families.

God bless all those defending our freedom.

God bless America. 


<end of transcript>


		
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