Because of an unfortunate episode of civic interest, I watched President Bush’s speech about Iraq on Tuesday night. I wanted to see what he had to say, because he probably could have been enjoying a much needed 14-day Fourth of July weekend — if whatever was left of Karl Rove’s hair wasn’t on fire from recent poll numbers and calls from republicans in Congress for an exit strategy that includes a timetable.

I didn’t hear any meaningful reasons to continue operations in Iraq indefinitely, however. All I heard was a rehashed jumble of oversimplified generalizations that are often found in his speeches and commentary, including this explanation for global terrorism and the Iraqi insurgency: “They hate freedom.”

From what I’ve gathered from news reports, it seems that the insurgents really treasure freedom.

Their desire for freedom is what makes them try to drive coalition forces from their country. They love freedom so much that they’re taking it to the next level — anarchy.

The president also mentioned that our troops need to stay in Iraq to guarantee security and to “complete the mission.” I would have taken this statement into more serious consideration if I didn’t remember the coverage of his “mission accomplished” publicity stunt back in 2003. Nice try, Bush.

He went on to answer a common question about the war: “Why aren’t you sending more troops?”

According to Bush, this would discourage Iraqis from joining the police and army (a good point), but he also said that his commanders aren’t asking for more troops because they don’t need any.

I feel that the real reason the generals aren’t asking for more soldiers is there really aren’t any more to send. The Army and National Guard are dealing with serious recruitment problems. No one wants to join, so they aren’t meeting their monthly goals. Parents are beginning to complain about recruiters’ presence in high schools.

I’ve even received several e-mails from local recruiters, which is amazing to me. If they Googled my name, they would find many anti-administration and/or left-wing comments that I’ve made, and it would be clear that I wouldn’t make an ideal soldier.

I really hope that people who have begun to question the war aren’t fooled by this speech. I admit to being apathetic in the beginning. I thought: “It can’t hurt, can it?

There probably aren’t any weapons of mass destruction, but Saddam will be gone, and our troops won’t be there that long.” I soon realized that I was wrong and that the war was wrong. More and more people have become convinced of this, so now is the time to get ourselves out of this mess and not get lulled back into complacency.