Terrorism as political tool too strong for Bush to resist

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E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Washington Post Writers Group
09.08.06

Bush falls to temptation

WASHINGTON -- {snip}

Building up the theoretical threat of bin Laden's "radical empire" is a nifty way to shift attention away from the question on the minds of most voters. What will this administration do to fix its flawed and terribly executed policy in Iraq? And if bin Laden is the threat after all, what exactly are we doing in Iraq? And why have we allowed the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate?

The president has no good answers, so he wants to lift the whole debate to a misty, ideological plane where he can bunch bin Laden with Hitler and Lenin as totalitarian threats. A president who kept quiet about bin Laden when doing so served his political purposes now resurfaces him rhetorically just before the anniversary of 9/11, at a moment when his party is in grave jeopardy in another election.

Whenever the president gets into trouble, he tries to remind us of who he was in the months immediately after 9/11. Most of us respected that George W. Bush.

But maybe that Bush was just a figment of the imagination of all Americans who actually thought the events of five years ago transcended partisan politics. Too bad that was an illusion.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=21336

[Lindacooks]

1. I've NEVER respected George W. Bush, before or after 9/11

I remember thinking during that week that the repukes got us into this, because they were so obsessed with Clinton's penis that they neglected everything else.

And I was right.

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2. they really came into office thinking Clintonyears were just a fluke

they thought they could just sit on their hands and all of the problems would just magically wash away.