QUESTION: Mr. President, former Secretary of State Colin Powell says, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." If a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state feels this way, don’t you think that Americans and the rest of the world are beginning to wonder whether you’re following a flawed strategy?
BUSH: If there’s any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it’s flawed logic.
It’s unacceptable to think that there’s any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective.
My job and the job of people here in Washington, D.C., is to protect this country. We didn’t ask for this war. You might remember the 2000 campaign. I don’t remember spending much time talking about what it might be like to be a commander in chief in a different kind of war.
But this enemy has struck us and they want to strike us again. And we’ll give our folks the tools necessary to protect the country. That’s our job.
It’s a dangerous world. I wish it wasn’t that way. I wish I could tell the American people, "Don’t worry about it. They’re not coming again." But they are coming again.
And that’s why I’ve sent this legislation up to Congress. And that’s why we’ll continue to work with allies in building a vast coalition, to protect not only ourselves but them.
The facts are that after 9/11, this enemy continued to attack and kill innocent people.
I happen to believe that they’re bound by a common ideology. Matter of fact, I don’t believe it, I know they are. And they want to impose that ideology throughout the broader Middle East. That’s what they have said.
Makes sense for the commander in chief and all of us involved in protecting this country to listen to the words of the enemy. And I take their words seriously. And that’s what’s going to be necessary to protect this country, is to listen carefully to what they say and stay ahead of them as they try to attack us.
I don’t follow this answer. I get it that the question is confrontational and unanswerable, but Bush’s answer is to another question, like, "Do you think your logic is like the logic of the Terrorists?" I think his first sentence was meant to say, "It is flawed logic to compare us to Terrorists. We are compassionate and decent, they are bad and use terrorist tactics. They’re want to spread their ideology and I’m going to fight this evil endeavor."
The question was more like, "Your former supporters, the American people, and the rest of the world are questioning the moral basis of your strategy. They’re wondering if you are following a flawed logic. Would you care to comment?" I don’t see where the questioner implied that our logic was like that of the Terrorists, or that we are like the Terrorists. But that’s the question Mr. Bush answered angrily.
Muddled Bush? Just missing the point? Afraid to address what Powell said? I don’t think so. I think it’s finally dawning on him that he’s being compared to the Terrorists, and he doesn’t know what to do about that, except get on his high horse. The question he answered would have been a good one: "You take the moral high ground, claiming you are on the side of right fighting evil. That’s what the Terrorists think too. You think God is on your side. They also think that God is on their side. You depersonalize the enemy, don’t want them to have regular trials, believe that because they are ‘evil,’ it’s okay to torture them. Gosh, they have those same ideas. You want to spread our ideology to their world. Sound familiar? So what do you think distinguishes your thinking from that of the Terrorists?"
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