Dianne Feinstein has asked -- and others want to know -- who wrote Allawi's speech?

"I want to express my profound dismay about reports that officials from your administration and your reelection campaign were 'heavily involved' in writing parts of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's speech," California Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote in a letter to President George W. Bush (news - web sites).

"You may be surprised by this, Mr. President, but I viewed Prime Minister Allawis speech as an independent view on conditions in Iraq (news - web sites)," she wrote.

"His speech gave me hope that reconstruction efforts were proceeding in most of the country and that elections could be held on schedule."

"To learn that this was not an independent view, but one that was massaged by your campaign operatives, jaundices the speech and reduces the credibility of his remarks," Feinstein wrote.

"The world is better off without Saddam Hussein." -- Allawi

"The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power." -- Bush

But Kerry himself said the same thing:

'those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein and those who believe we are not safer with his capture don't have the judgement to be president or the credibility to be elected president'"

"There are terrorists . . . who seek to make our country the main battleground against freedom, democracy and civilization." -- Allawi

"The killers know that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror." -- Bush

Nice try, but not close enough. The quote Milbank attributes to the Bush "ghostwriters" is quite dissimilar compared to the one Allawi obviously STOLE -- not from Bush, but from Democrat Joe Lieberman!

Lieberman noted: "The battleground in Iraq is the main battleground in the war on terror."

"What this latest terrorist outrage shows us is that this is a war. Its main battleground is Iraq."

"It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding." -- Allawi

"It's tough at times . . . but there is steady progress." -- Bush

From what I can see, it was Dennis Hastert who coined the very unique expression, "steady progress."

"The president and I agree that we need to bring closure to the remaining differences between the House and Senate," Hastert wrote, adding that negotiators have made "slow but steady progress" and are "very close to completing a balanced bill."

A retrospective look at the conception and subsequent development of the state of our forefathers graphically substantiates the fact that they waged a historically difficult and tough struggle for the benefit of their descendants and for the preservation of their statehood.

The main prerequisite for our sustainable, steady progress is consolidation of our society in achieving the goals we've set, unity of all the walks and groups of population as to the strategy aimed at settling common problems.

Next we come to the disturbing images:

"I have seen some of the images that are being shown here on television. They are disturbing." -- Allawi

"The American people have seen horrible scenes on our TV screens." -- Bush

Again, not a historic first for either world leader. The very term "horrible scenes" was used by Bill Clinton to deter Americans from joining religious cults:

I hope very much that others who will be tempted to join cults and to become involved with people like David Koresh will be deterred by the horrible scenes they have seen over the last seven weeks.

Pledging a "merciless war" against terror and recalling a day of "horrible scenes of carnage," Crown Prince Abdullah sent an emotional letter to President Bush Tuesday assuring him of the continued friendship and cooperation of Saudi Arabia a year after the Sept. 11 attacks.

After the horrible scenes from Fallugah Iraq we see clearly that the Imperial mis-adventure of the U.S. will bear the most bitter fruit. It may be hard at this time for many on the progressive side of the fence to confront, but it is our duty to recognize the legitimate right of the Iraqi people to struggle to throw out the foreign occupiers who have denied them their sovereignty and who wish, under the cover of a “good deed,“ to plunder that nation‘s wealth. As was the French resistance to the Nazis a just cause, the efforts of Iraq’s citizens is equally justified. We will not, of course, rejoice in the barbarity that has been unleashed. But we know by whom and for what motives this has all come about.

In light of further research, I am surprised that anyone working for the Washington Post would ever attribute such language to Bush! The Post used the exact same words -- a full nine months before Bush was president! -- to describe the federal kidnaping of Elian Gonzalez:

It is one of the most disturbing images of the year: a burly federal officer, helmeted, goggled, wearing a flak jacket, battle fatigues and shooter's gloves designed to protect the hand but permit the prehensility of the trigger finger, confronting a screaming child and the man who protects him.

The Motion Picture Association of America's appeals board rejected the film distributor's last-ditch effort to reduce its R rating for "violent and disturbing images" and a few curse words. Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films Releasing, argued that 15- and 16-year-olds, who might end up fighting in the war on terrorism, should be able to see the anti-Bush polemic, which shows gravely wounded Iraqi citizens and U.S. troops.

Iraq is "emerging finally from dark ages of violence." -- Allawi

"Iraq will never return to the dark ages of tyranny." -- Bush

"Dark Ages of violence?" Once again, all signs point to the Washington Post as ghostwriter! A Post ghost used the term in 2001 -- ironically in reference to "Western Christendom" during Baghdad's golden age:

For if Western Christendom was sunk in the Dark Ages of violence, ignorance and superstition, the Arabic world of Islam was in its golden age. Baghdad was the most cosmopolitan city in the world -- the Baghdad of Aladdin, Sinbad and "A Thousand and One Nights" -- with gilded mosques and unrivaled centers of learning.

For the most recent, pre-Allawi use of the term "dark ages of violence," credit goes not to Bush, but to a blogger, Rob at Strike the Root, for using the term in July, 2003:

If the Brights want to help bring about a new Enlightenment that will lead us out of the Dark Ages of violence and coercion, they should reject the religion of statism and embrace non-violence.

"Your decision to go to war in Iraq was not an easy one, but it was the right one." -- Allawi

"We made a tough decision when it came to Iraq. . . . And we made the right decision when it came to Iraq." -- Bush

Shall I go on? No one is paying me to do this, you know. I hope people will appreciate how tedious it is to Google every reference to "tough decision" (83,000 hits) and "right decision" (342,000 hits!)-- but these words are standard rhetorical fare in so many contexts that it's almost laughable. Googling "tough decision" and "right decision" together didn't help much. Over 2300 hits -- most of which involved athletic competition. However, I did find this 1996 remark from Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott on arming Bosnia:

We bought time for a combination of American diplomacy, NATO airpower, and Croatian and Bosnian military victories to reach an historic peace agreement under U.S. leadership at Dayton. The United States is leading an international effort to arm Bosnia today. The Iranian presence there is down to a handful and is increasingly marginalized.

In short, a tough decision turned out to be the right decision.

The oxymoronically gifted junior senator from Massachusetts perceived an equivocation between the modalities, "The choice for the United States of America is not between two alternatives only: Staying in or getting out. There are many other choices in between which better reflect the aspirations and hopes of our country."

Kerry backed a policy of interventionist withdrawal, which jibed with the "third way" option embraced by President Bill Clinton himself. As Kerry noted, "I think that the president today made the right decision to try to establish a process which will maintain the capacity of our forces, protect them, and to disengage while simultaneously upholding the mission we have set out to accomplish."

The Balkan crisis emerged, and again the Congress seemed to face a tough decision, whether to authorize the use of American force. But then the Boston Fog Machine rolled in: "It is important to remember that this resolution does not authorize the use of American ground troops in Bosnia, nor does it specifically authorize the use of air or naval power. It simply associates the U.S. Senate with the current policies of this administration and of the Security Council." The vote, Kerry concluded, was over whether to associate with a process that would determine certain necessary conditions involving uncertain modalities, which must be explored, in order to reach certain desirable ends.

Iraqi forces "are striking their enemies wherever they hide." -- Allawi

"We're fighting these enemies wherever they hide." -- Bush

While the Post doesn't get it, both men are obviously paraphrasing (whether unconsciously or tongue-in-cheek I do not know) a well known phrase from the Koran,

Seize them and slay them wherever you find them....

"I have come here to . . . promise you that your sacrifices are not in vain." -- Allawi

"We will complete the mission so that their child or their husband or wife has not died in vain." -- Bush

Died in vain? If that doesn't sound familiar, you must have never read a speech Abraham Lincoln delivered in 1862:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"I have many friends who were murdered, tortured or raped by the regime of Saddam Hussein. . . . We estimate at least 300,000 in mass graves." -- Allawi

"Because we acted, torture rooms are closed, rape rooms no longer exist, mass graves are no longer a possibility in Iraq." -- Bush

Let's see. Torture, mass graves.... You've got to be kidding. Should I start with Stalin? (2300+)Hitler? (6300+) Cambodia? (3000+)

There's more, of course. Standard phraseology about the "perversion of Islam" (which neither Bush nor Allawi invented). Statistics about the rebuilding of Iraq (which were doubtless compiled by various experts and are available to the public). Terrorists as a relative percentage of the population. (Duh! It's relatively small, and always has been!) Comparing them to 9/11! (As if no one ever made that comparison before....)

And finally, Bush stooped so low as to force Allawi to thank America! (I'll just bet no foreign leader has ever done that before!)

Thank you, America." -- Allawi

"You need to thank the American people, that's who you need to thank." -- Bush

That's ghostwriting? Gee, thank God Allawi didn't say "thank God!"

Holy ghostwriter!

(Thank God this ordeal is over....)