Ah, another entry in the “examples of why Bush needs to fire his speechwriter” department…

All emphasis mine:

US President George W. Bush branded Iran’s president a tyrant and compared leaders in Tehran to Al-Qaeda terrorists who cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. “America will not bow down to tyrants,” he said in the second of a series of election-year speeches defending his handling of the war on terrorism and Iraq.

No, we won’t bow down to tyrants. But we will give them money…

“The world’s free nations will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.”

Yeah, only free nations can have nukes! Free nations like Pakistan and China! Oh, wait a minute…

“Like Al-Qaeda and the Sunni extremists, the Iranian regime has clear aims. They want to drive America out of the region, to destroy Israel, and to dominate the broader Middle East,” said the US president.

Considering we overthrew their neighboring enemy, that’s no surprise. Hell, I’d think some people in the Iranian government were having a hearty laugh the day that the invasion started. Once we finally leave Iraq, you might as well erase the line between them on the map.

But, he said, Shiite extremists have done something Al-Qaeda only dreams of by taking over Iran in 1979, “subjugating its proud people to a regime of tyranny and using that nation’s resources to fund the spread of terror and to pursue their radical agenda.”

Yup, I was right. He forgot Afghanistan…

I’ve a suggestion: when we have relations with, and give aid to, the leaders of nations that aren’t free, the rhetoric used to defend our foreign policy should not be “up with freedom”. You just end up looking like a lying imbecile.