FEARS AND LIES U.S. TOUR: WASHINGTON D.C.

GEORGE W. BUSH


[Dammit. Just dammit. I had a nice little article critcizing Bush for his comments about Americans becoming complacent in the "war of terror." I had much of it written this morning, but I had to head out to work so I figured that I'd finish it this afternoon. So, I saved the thing in order to finish and polish it up then. I get home, open it up and it's gone. All 1000 or so words, vanished! So, excuse me if this one seems a bit rushed because there's little that I dislike more than having to rewrite my little masterpieces. Anyway, lemme see if I can put this bugger back together... .]

From Media Matters:

On September 5, both CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry and Associated Press writer Merrill Hartson reported that President Bush's September 5 speech addressing Iraq and the fight against terrorism was an attempt to fight American complacency." On the September 5 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Henry said, "President Bush today ... taking the extraordinary step of quoting [Osama] bin Laden's own words in letters to followers, as well as what he called grisly Al Qaeda manuals, to dramatize just how potent the terror group is right now ... [which] may help shake Americans out of any complacency they may feel almost five years after 9-11." And in a September 5 AP article, Hartson wrote, "President Bush used terrorists' own words Tuesday to battle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attack, defending his record as the fall campaign season kicks into high gear." Neither Henry nor Hartson cited any support for their suggestions of American complacency. [Emphasis added by me.]

Let me tell you a little about myself. When I started blogging a few weeks ago, I was forced to give up or severely curtail a couple of other hobbies that I enjoy doing. I reordered my priorites and decided that blogging was more important to me than my interest in graphic/web design, which I greatly enjoyed doing. I guess that a case could be made that I've become complacent in my design work as blogging has become the centerpiece of my existence.
If you accept for a moment that the American public has become complacent (and I personally do not) in the threat faced by all Americans, then perhaps the major reason is because, frankly, we (and when I say we, I mean the Bush administration) have not done anything of note in the "war on terror" for over three years. Regardless of what all the talking heads and administration officials and various other surogates/mouthpieces would have everyone believe, Iraq, and the subsequent war to depose Saddam had nothing whatsoever to do with the "war on terror." Now, this isn't exactly news to most of my faithful readers (and to my many daily new readers), but I feel that, if the mouthpieces insist on repeating their misinformation, then I must in turn insist on repeating the facts.
And I find it was in especially poor taste that Bush had the nerve to use Osama bin Laden's own words during the latest stop on the "Fears and Lies U.S. Tour 2006" when, just a couple of months after 9/11 Bush readily admitted that he "just doesnt' spend that much time" thinking about the man responsible for almost 3000 deaths. Hell, Ann Coulter referred to bin Laden as "irrelevant" and a "fading movie star," but now it's okay for Bush to pull out the 21st century's boogeyman in an effort to garner any sort of support for an offensively failed foreign policy.