The New York Times editorial: Mr. Bush and the Truth About Terror

[Jack Rabbit]

From The New York Times
Dated Thursday September 2

Mr. Bush and the Truth About Terror

While Republican delegates have been meeting in New York City, terrorist bombs have been exploding in the rest of the world. The horrific pictures of victims on an Israeli bus and slain airplane and subway passengers, as well as of a school held hostage in Russia, are a stark reminder to Americans that terrorism is not all about us. It is the tactic of preference for the self-obsessed radical movements of our age.

President Bush was absolutely right when he said it was impossible to win a war against terrorism - it's like announcing we can win a war against violence. Terrorism can only be minimized and controlled, and that can be done only with a worldwide strategy, joined by all of the world's sensible and peaceful nations. We hope that when Mr. Bush accepts his party's nomination for re-election tonight, he makes that argument.

The chances of a serious dialogue about terror took a blow, of course, when Mr. Bush retracted his completely sensible statement about terrorism after the Kerry-Edwards campaign attacked it. So far, this has been an election season of monumental simple-mindedness, in which the candidates start each day by telling us this is the most important election in the history of the planet, then devote the rest of their waking hours to meaningless sniping. But it's certainly not too late to elevate the conversation.

Tonight we do not need Mr. Bush to remind us that he went to ground zero and spoke through a bullhorn. It was a fine gesture that any president would have made. As far as judging his leadership, it is as irrelevant as the famous extra minutes he spent in a classroom in Florida during a reading of "The Pet Goat" after the World Trade Center was attacked.

Read more.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. It was a fine gesture that any president would have made.

Exactly. "Any president". However... "any president" would not have done what has followed... not in the least.

http://www.bushlies.net/pages/10/
>>MATTHEWS: Do you think you belong to that category of candidates who more or less are unhappy with this war, the way it's been fought, along with General Clark, along with Howard Dean and not necessarily in companionship politically on the issue of the war with people like Lieberman, Edwards and Gephardt? Are you one of the anti-war candidates?

KERRY: I am -- Yes, in the sense that I don't believe the president took us to war as he should have, yes, absolutely. Do I think this president violated his promises to America? Yes, I do, Chris. Was there a way to hold Saddam Hussein accountable? You bet there was, and we should have done it right.<<

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I too often find that, in those moments when I really bend over backwards

I too often find that, in those moments when I really bend over backwards and try to be fair to the Frat Boy and give him some credit for doing something right, it's usually giving him "credit" for those little gestures that any president would have made.

On the other hand, no other president except Bush -- not even Nixon -- would have started an unnecessary and ignoble war based on a pack of lies.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. unnecessary and ignoble war based on a pack of lies.

Which makes him and his junta a group of war criminals. They have done this more for global economic and energy hegemony more than anything else they can throw at us.

I am sorry that they are so driven to be #1. Instead of getting behind fuel cells full steam.... they take us to war to ensure dominance in the world of energy resources.... when water, which contains hydrogen... is free. Stupid stupid stupid.


www.ch2bc.org <------- California Hydrogen Burners Council

[indepat]

2. Was not President Bush's leadership shown as he read the goat story?

[kcwayne]

4. I have one major disagreement with this editorial

Tonight we do not need Mr. Bush to remind us that he went to ground zero and spoke through a bullhorn. It was a fine gesture that any president would have made. As far as judging his leadership, it is as irrelevant as the famous extra minutes he spent in a classroom in Florida during a reading of "The Pet Goat" after the World Trade Center was attacked.

The famous extra minutes are not irrelevant. The funding for the Saudi terrorists was about $500,000. What if some nation with millions to apply had conceived using Al Queda as Bush wrongly asserted Iraq had done? Suppose they had planned to hijack 100 planes, and blow up chemical facilities and attack nuclear reactors all throughout the country with a team of 1000 terrorists?

At the time Bush was informed we were under attack, no one knew what the scale of the attack would be. It was essential that Bush give the order to down civilian aircraft in the event that there were more hijacked planes in the air. It was equally imperative that he put in motion a national defense plan to react to the current threat. I presume he had no such plan for this type of event, which is another topic, but this is an essential responsibility of the civilian leadership.

His failure to do so was catastrophic, and if our enemies had organized a larger threat, tens of thousands more people could have died while Bush read My Pet Goat and hung around for 20 minutes of photo op. A more stark case of incompetence and failure by a President has never been witnessed. This is hardly irrelevant.

[DubyaSux]

7. Let it go...

Oh geez...as much as I hate the Asshat In Chief, this is Monday moring quaterbacking at it's worse. Bush looks like shit on his own without having to look for ways. The "Pet The Goat" reaction was completely irrelevant.

Personally, I think Bush's reaction was good. Bush doesn't run the country - he (mis)leads it. There were plenty of qualified people handling the crisis. Had he jumped up, ran off, and disappeared to some undosclosed location, that MIGHT have induced panic nationally. Maybe you weren't concerned, but I know me and my family were when the last plane was said to be somewhere in Ohio. So, the appearance of fear by Bush would have made this look worse than it already was and we would have been more scared. You dont think the press would have reported "The President, upon hearing the news, was immediately escorted to Air Force One and.....". You don't think terrorists would like to know they can get Marines One or Air Force One off the ground within 2 minutes of the president recieving news of a terrorist attack?

Finally, by not reacting right away, the chances of Bush fucking something up like everything else he touches got reduced.

[kcwayne]

8. It is not Monday morning QB to ask the president to act according law

By law, only the President can order the military to shoot down a civilian aircraft.

And there were no qualified people handling the crises. We didn't scramble fighter jets, well beyond what the operational plan with NORAD calls for as a response to hijackings. This was a failure of command and control, and a failure of the executive branch to react to the event in a timely fashion. There is protocol for what should be done. It was not followed.

And he did run off in fear and hid out in Nebraska. It is one of the reasons that even ultra-conservative Tucker Carlson parted ways with his support of Bush. In the crucial moment of crises, Bush did nothing, and then hid. That is not leadership.

[Dancing_Dave]

9. KC Wayne is right on!

At the begining of their term, the Bush Administration issued executive orders making air defences dependent on responses from Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld and President Bush. But on 9/11, they were very strangely "missing in action". This point is relevant. They should be held accountable!

[Catfight]

10. One HUGE problem with your analogy, the President already

had a briefing titled, "Osma Bin Laden determined to attack in the United States," AND possibly using domestic aircraft as the weapon and flying them into buildings. OKAY, with THAT information, that John Kerry and hardly anyone else in the world had, don't you think dumbass would have at the very LEAST thought about that when he ALREADY heard ON HIS WAY to the little school, that this might just be a BAD thing? OH NO, it gets WORSE, he drives to the school THEN starts reading, THEN hears a SECOND plane hits and HE STILL FUCKING SITS THERE! AFTER this 7 minutes HE STILL FUCKING TAKES FUCKING PICTURES FOR A FUCKING PHOTO OP! SO don't TELL the informed people that BUSH was made any thing look worse, HE WAS INEFFECTIVE, UNRESPONSIVE AND RIDICULOUS sitting there will ALL that fucking information at his hands.

THE WHOLE ADMINISTRATION KNEW ABOUT 9/11 and did NOTHING!

[stopbush]

5. Pot, meet kettle.

I love this line: So far, this has been an election season of monumental simple-mindedness, in which the candidates start each day by telling us this is the most important election in the history of the planet, then devote the rest of their waking hours to meaningless sniping.

This from a newspaper whose moniker is "All the news that's fit to print"- yet felt a burning need to lead the charge against Clinton on the phony Whitewater debacle and was out in front of bushco cheering them on to their illegal war in Iraq (can you say "Judith Miller").

Fuck the NYT.