Bush or How Not to Offend the Rapture crowd

[Mass]

From Bush's speech in Cleveland last week:

A lady asked him whether 9/11 and Iraq were sign of the apocalypse. You may think this was an easy answer. Not for Bush. He rambled for 5 mns on how he was a good president, but never answer the question, despite saying twice he did not want to avoid it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060320-7.html

Q Thank you for coming to Cleveland, Mr. President, and to the City Club. 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?

THE PRESIDENT: The answer is ... I haven't really thought of it that way. (Laughter.) Here's how I think of it. The first I've heard of that, by the way. I guess I'm more of a practical fellow. I vowed after September the 11th, that I would do everything I could to protect the American people. And my attitude, of course, was affected by the attacks. I knew we were at war. I knew that the enemy, obviously, had to be sophisticated and lethal to fly hijacked airplanes into facilities that would be killing thousands of people, innocent people, doing nothing, just sitting there going to work.

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. It's hard to take risk if you're a small business owner, for example, if you're worried that the next attack is going to come tomorrow. I understand that. But I also understand my most important job, the most important job of any President today, and I predict down the road, is to protect America.

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.

And the other doctrine that's really important, and it's a change of attitude -- it's going to require a change of attitude for a while -- is that, when you see a threat, you got to deal with it before it hurts you. Foreign policy used to be dictated by the fact we had two oceans protecting us. If we saw a threat, you could deal with it if you needed to, you think -- or not. But we'd be safe.

My most important job is to protect you, is to protect the American people. Therefore, when we see threats, given the lesson of September the 11th, we got to deal with them. That does not mean militarily, necessarily. Obviously, the first option for a President has got to be the full use of diplomacy. That's what you're watching in Iran right now. I see a threat in Iran. I see it there -- I'm kind of getting off subject here, not because I don't want to answer your question, but kind of -- I guess, that's what happens in Washington, we get a little long-winded. (Laughter.)

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. And so our message must be a united message, a message from not only the United States, but also Great Britain and France and Germany, as well as Russia, hopefully, and China, in order to say, loud and clear to the Iranians, this is unacceptable behavior. Your desire to have a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.

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. And that job came home on September the 11th, for me -- loud and clear. And I think about my job of protecting you every day -- every single day of the presidency, I'm concerned about the safety of the American people.

[ray of light]

1. his head is spinning! Can anyone perform an exorcism?

[fedupinBushcountry]

2. He drives me nuts

September THE 11th, September THE 11th, arrrgh. :crazy:

[ginnyinWI]

3. he just loves to talk about war--and talk and talk and talk.

Give him any excuse and he'll go on and on about war, threats, violence, death, weapons, enemies--you name it. What kind of mind is that. Try to get him to talk about anything to do with caring about people, sympathy for those in need, etc. and he's tongue-tied.

What a sociopath. He's obsessed: what did Babs do to him, anyway???

[TayTay]

4. What a moran.

He actively courts people who believe that recent world events are signs of a coming apocalypse. He just doesn't want to publicly admit this on TV and where reporters can hear this. Bush has bent over backwards to court a certain type of religious voter. He used the religious right wing code words in that third Pres debate with Sen. Kerry and inserted that 'Dred Scott' decision language, knowing full well that that was code for his beliefs that would be immediately picked up.

Iraq will be the death of the Bush Presidency. He has broken the military there and is well on his way to bankrupting the United States. Iran is 3 times the size of Iraq. This maniac has no chance of doing anything in Iran. His ill use of US power and military might was supposed to show the world that the US was and would remain the dominant power in the world in the 21 Century. Instead, Bush and his neocons have revealed the weakness of the US and showed other powers how to defeat this country. Bush was aided and abetted in this by the extreme RW religious fanatics who truly believed that logic, common sense and having a realistic view of foreign policy were things that didn't apply to them. They all bear responsibility for what has happened.