What "emboldens the terrorists?"

Dick Cheney is at it again, saying that if you don't support what the Bush administration is doing in Iraq by sending in more troops means you are "emboldening the terrorists." What a crock. Can someone get him off the stage, please?

What "emboldens the terrorists" is how totally screwed up and incompetent the Bush plan/strategy/implementation was for Iraq and the simple fact our leaders had zero understanding of the history or the culture. We had a chance to get it right, but Bush/Cheney didn't have an ounce of a clue as to what would happen once Baghdad fell. I can’t find the words to describe what a C.F. Bush has made of Iraq and the Middle East for decades to come.

This argument that what gets talked about in public here somehow "emboldens the terrorists" is ludicrous. So far as I know, there are no English-speaking radio or TV stations in Iraq other than those run by the Bush administration for our soldiers. There are no English language newspapers in Iraq other than those run by the Bush administration. Therefore, next to no Iraqis have any access to what any American politician is saying at any point in time--unless they speak English and listen to Armed Forces Radio, which seems unlikely.

To those who say they DO hear what Arizona politicians say about the war, answer this: name every Arabic-language radio or TV station this side of the Mississippi River. Name every Arabic-language newspaper that can be purchased on any street corner this side of the Mississippi River, hell the Atlantic Ocean, for that matter. Provide a total of all of those people who speak Arabic in the state of Arizona who learned the language in a public school.

Show me that information and then maybe, just maybe, you can convince me that the average Iraqi or your average al-Qaeda sympathizer in the Middle East has any access to what any Arizona politician or any member of Congress says about the war or even cares. What they would care more about is what's happening outside of their front door and whether it’s safe. Improve that situation and you solve the terrorism problem. That may seem simplistic, but that’s all people are looking for.

It is the policies and practices of the Bush administration in Iraq and the Middle East that emboldens the terrorists. Not the exercise of Free Speech here in the U.S.