Scotty Doesn't Know
Much like the kid from one of my favorite newer movies, Scott McClellan just doesn't seem to understand what's really going on.
For example, this gem from Thursday's Press Briefing:
Q Can I follow on that? Part of what Senator Rockefeller said was that by using the references to 9/11, that the President was trying to click a patriotic button that would make people more patient. He called it "amazing." He further said that there was no connection between Osama bin Laden, Iraq and 9/11, and effectively was saying the President was using that national tragedy. How do you respond to that?
MR. McCLELLAN: And who made any suggestion of a link to the attacks? What the President was talking about was that September 11th taught us important lessons. It taught us that we must confront threats before they full materialize, before they reach our shores. That's why the President decided we were going to take the fight to the enemy. We are taking the fight to the enemy abroad so that we don't have to fight them here at home. We are on the offense, not defense. And that's the way you fight and wage and win the war on terrorism.
The President of the United States, during his Tuesday speech:
Link #1:
The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001. The terrorists who attacked us -- and the terrorists we face -- murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent. Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression -- by toppling governments, by driving us out of the region, and by exporting terror.
[snip]
Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war. Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington, and Pennsylvania. There is only one course of action against them: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home.
Link #2:
The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden.
Link #3:
We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve. We're fighting against men with blind hatred -- and armed with lethal weapons -- who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality. They take innocent lives to create chaos for the cameras. They are trying to shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September the 11th, 2001. They will fail. The terrorists do not understand America. The American people do not falter under threat, and we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.
In Link #1, the President chararcterized the 9/11 attacks not as a terrorist assult, but a declaration of war. The President has not been clear as to who the actual target in the war is (The Taliban? Osama bin Laden and his followers? Muslim Terrorsits? All Terrorists, despite their background or nationality?) but has inferred in his speech that the group is Middle East in origin. Notice how their "aim" has nothing to do with areas outside the Middle East. Because Iraq is also in the Middle East, the President concludes that the adversaries there are no different then the ones who plotted and implemented the 9/11 attacks.
In Link #2, the President equates failure as either surrendering Iraq to Zarqawi, surrendering the Middle East to bin Laden, forgetting the impact of the 9/11 attacks. The latter two are connectted to what happened on American soil, the first one is based on America's entry into Iraq. But to the President, all three are the same.
In Link #3, the bolded quote says is all: those who tried to "shake our will" in the 9/11 attacks are the same people who are fighting our soldiers in Iraq. The President couldn't have made his perceptions any clearer.
BTW, what 9/11 taught me was:
1. Life is short. Enjoy it while you can.
2. The inverse of what Gene Roddenberry said is also true: yesterday's allies can become tomorrow's enemies.
3. As a whole, the US Government (Intelligence Community, Executive/Legislative/Judicial Branches, the media outlets who make a living covering these aformentioned groups) were asleep at the wheel.
Now I have learned a new lesson: Scott and the President do not have a clear understanding of what a "terrorist" is. Until they do, we may be in for more pep rally speeches that the people barely care about.
For example, this gem from Thursday's Press Briefing:
Q Can I follow on that? Part of what Senator Rockefeller said was that by using the references to 9/11, that the President was trying to click a patriotic button that would make people more patient. He called it "amazing." He further said that there was no connection between Osama bin Laden, Iraq and 9/11, and effectively was saying the President was using that national tragedy. How do you respond to that?
MR. McCLELLAN: And who made any suggestion of a link to the attacks? What the President was talking about was that September 11th taught us important lessons. It taught us that we must confront threats before they full materialize, before they reach our shores. That's why the President decided we were going to take the fight to the enemy. We are taking the fight to the enemy abroad so that we don't have to fight them here at home. We are on the offense, not defense. And that's the way you fight and wage and win the war on terrorism.
The President of the United States, during his Tuesday speech:
Link #1:
The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001. The terrorists who attacked us -- and the terrorists we face -- murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent. Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression -- by toppling governments, by driving us out of the region, and by exporting terror.
[snip]
Iraq is the latest battlefield in this war. Many terrorists who kill innocent men, women, and children on the streets of Baghdad are followers of the same murderous ideology that took the lives of our citizens in New York, in Washington, and Pennsylvania. There is only one course of action against them: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home.
Link #2:
The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like Bin Laden.
Link #3:
We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve. We're fighting against men with blind hatred -- and armed with lethal weapons -- who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality. They take innocent lives to create chaos for the cameras. They are trying to shake our will in Iraq, just as they tried to shake our will on September the 11th, 2001. They will fail. The terrorists do not understand America. The American people do not falter under threat, and we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.
In Link #1, the President chararcterized the 9/11 attacks not as a terrorist assult, but a declaration of war. The President has not been clear as to who the actual target in the war is (The Taliban? Osama bin Laden and his followers? Muslim Terrorsits? All Terrorists, despite their background or nationality?) but has inferred in his speech that the group is Middle East in origin. Notice how their "aim" has nothing to do with areas outside the Middle East. Because Iraq is also in the Middle East, the President concludes that the adversaries there are no different then the ones who plotted and implemented the 9/11 attacks.
In Link #2, the President equates failure as either surrendering Iraq to Zarqawi, surrendering the Middle East to bin Laden, forgetting the impact of the 9/11 attacks. The latter two are connectted to what happened on American soil, the first one is based on America's entry into Iraq. But to the President, all three are the same.
In Link #3, the bolded quote says is all: those who tried to "shake our will" in the 9/11 attacks are the same people who are fighting our soldiers in Iraq. The President couldn't have made his perceptions any clearer.
BTW, what 9/11 taught me was:
1. Life is short. Enjoy it while you can.
2. The inverse of what Gene Roddenberry said is also true: yesterday's allies can become tomorrow's enemies.
3. As a whole, the US Government (Intelligence Community, Executive/Legislative/Judicial Branches, the media outlets who make a living covering these aformentioned groups) were asleep at the wheel.
Now I have learned a new lesson: Scott and the President do not have a clear understanding of what a "terrorist" is. Until they do, we may be in for more pep rally speeches that the people barely care about.
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