Plead the First

Throughout his presidency, Bush has been reluctant to go out on a limb and answer questions from the general population, preferring scripted events, friendly audiences, and softball lead-ins to talking point answers. Recently, he’s gotten a bit bold, and fielded a few real questions, and based on a couple of them, it’s easy to see why he avoids doing it.

Bush taking questions – itself a sign of the apocalypse?

Yesterday, at a speech in Ohio he took some questions, and the very first one was this:

My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse? And if not, why not?

Great question. Should be fairly simple to answer, too – it’s a “yes” or “no” question. Bush’s answer? Over 700 words of weaving and meandering, essentially a summary of the last five years of his strategy for the war on terrror. I won’t post the whole thing here (you can read it in the transcript), but here are a few excerpts:

I also knew this about this war on terror, that the farther we got away from September the 11th, the more likely it is people would seek comfort and not think about this global war on terror as a global war on terror. And that’s good, by the way.

But not too good, evidently – hence the need to mention 9/11 every chance he gets.

And so I told the American people that we would find the terrorists and bring them to justice, and that we needed to defeat them overseas so we didn’t have to face them here at home. I also understood that the war on terror requires some clear doctrine. And one of the doctrines that I laid out was, if you harbor a terrorist, you’re equally as guilty as the terrorist. And the first time that doctrine was really challenged was in Afghanistan. I guess the Taliban didn’t believe us — or me. And so we acted. Twenty-five million people are now free, and Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for the terrorists.

So is that 24,999,999 people if you don’t count that guy who is on trial for converting to Christianity?

But now that I’m on Iran, the threat to Iran, of course — (applause) — the threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally Israel. That’s a threat, a serious threat. It’s a threat to world peace; it’s a threat, in essence, to a strong alliance. I made it clear, I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel, and — (applause.)

At any rate, our objective is to solve this issue diplomatically.

Threatening use of your military might. Very diplomatic.

And so, to answer your question, I take a practical view of doing the job you want me to do — which is how do we defeat an enemy that still wants to hurt us; and how do we deal with threats before they fully materialize; what do we do to protect us from harm? That’s my job.

So that’s a (700 word) “no”? Though he never actually said “no”, leaving open the possibility that he really does think this is all a sign of the apocalypse. Gotta play to your base I guess.

Helen Thomas – Bush’s own personal apocalypse

This second item was pointed out to me by a friend. Bush has always avoided calling on reporter Helen Thomas at his press conferences, but today he must have been feeling lucky:

THOMAS: I’d like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet — your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth — what was your real reason? You have said it wasn’t oil — quest for oil, it hasn’t been Israel, or anything else. What was it?
…
THE PRESIDENT: My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We — when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I’m never going to forget it. And I’m never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people. Part of that meant to make sure that we didn’t allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that’s why I went into Iraq — hold on for a second —

THOMAS: They didn’t do anything to you, or to our country.

THE PRESIDENT: Look — excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That’s where al Qaeda trained —

THOMAS: I’m talking about Iraq

I don’t think Helen’s going to get called on again for awhile.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006 at 1:20 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.