It is... that

Question

Context:
You can't tell me that on the day that we went into that war and it started -- it was principally the United States, the America and Great Britain and one or two others.

I could not understand the sentence well. The normal sentence is:

you can't tell me: it was principally the United States, the America and Great Britain and one or two others that on the day that we went into that war and it started?

context:
You can't tell me that on the day that we went into that war and it started -- it was principally the United States, the America and Great Britain and one or two others. That's it. And today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the costs. And meanwhile, North Korea has got nuclear weapons.

MountainHiker · Accepted Answer

Hi Jobb,

You're examining the Bush Kerry Debate speech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate_0930.html

KERRY: You can't tell me that on the day that we went into that war and it started -- it was principally the United States, the America and Great Britain and one or two others. That's it. And today, we are 90 percent of the casualties and 90 percent of the costs. And meanwhile, North Korea has got nuclear weapons. Talk about mixed messages. The president is the one that said, "We can't allow countries to get nuclear weapons." They have. I'll change that.

You need to know that when speaking, people don't always use full and proper grammatical construction.

That said, let's look at your question.

If I recall the debate last night correctly, Bush and Kerry were debating the strength and cooperation of foreign countries.

So, you have Kerry saying....

You can't tell me that [we had cooperation from several countries in large measures] we went to war and it started. It was principally the US, UK and one or two others. We the US have suffered 90% of the casualities and 90% of the cost. Moreover, North Korea has got nuclear weapons. So I don't buy your argument that you have significant cooperation from the rest of the world.

That was the essence of that exchange.

Again, you have to be careful when examining transcripts of conversations. People will not always speak in complete sentences.

Hope that helps.

MountainHiker

Jobb · Answer

From your explanation, I understood what caused the problem in understanding the seemingly simple sentence.

Here is another question:
BUSH: But because Tommy Franks did such a great job in planning the operation, we moved rapidly, and a lot of the Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms and disappeared. I thought they would stay and fight, but they didn't.

And now we're fighting them now. And it's hard work. I understand how hard it is. I get the casualty reports every day. I see on the TV screens how hard it is. But it's necessary work.

(What? You said "they didn't fight", and then you said "and now we're fighting them now'. Do you meant that we fight now with those who don't fight with us? So? But they have disappeared, how do we fight with them? Do you mean they now reappeared?)

MountainHiker · Answer

Hi Jobb,

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/politics/campaign/01dtext.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

Another link to the transcript.

I think what President Bush was saying is that he expected a battle when he entered into Iraq. That didn't happen. A lot (a few), but not all, Baathists and Saddam loyalists laid down their arms. But when they dissappeared, they dissappeared into the general population only to reemerge fighting again later. That's been one of the larger problems for the Coalition. They are not fighting a traditional war where the good guys where white hats and the bad guys were black hats. Instead, the bad guys look like civilians and that makes it very difficult to know who the enemy is.

In summary: Bad guys integrated into the civilian population and took up arms against the Coalition later. Good guys (Coalition) are having difficulty fighting the bad guys in part because the bad guys are in civilian clothing (dissappeared) and are fighting a guerillla war.

Hope that helps.

MountainHiker

Jobb · Answer

Thanks MH.

It is... that

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