Has Bush handed the terrorists everything they ever wanted?

[Czolgosz]

I believe that the motivations of terrorists are not easily reducible to one simple set of goals (for example, I presume that a desire to remove the American military presence from the Middle East is a motivating factor for some terrorists but perhaps not all terrorists, just as I believe that Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph had different visions of America that they violently strove toward).

Bush, however, has a less complicated view of terrorists' motives: "This new enemy seeks to destroy our freedom and impose its views. We value life; the terrorists ruthlessly destroy it. We value education; the terrorists do not believe women should be educated or should have health care, or should leave their homes. We value the right to speak our minds; for the terrorists, free expression can be grounds for execution. We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship even to their fellow Muslims." President George W. Bush Addresses the Nation, World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia
November 8, 2001.

If you accept Bush's view of the terrorists motivations, have they won? More precisely, has Bush simply given in to their every wish?

Let's look at Bush's conjecture about the terrorists' goals:

1. "This new enemy seeks to destroy our freedom." Well, if you consider the ironically named Patriot Act and the Federal Communications Commission's recent final order expanding the police powers under the Communications Alliance for Law Enforcement Act, I think this is a point where we must concede that Bush gave the terrorists what he thinks they wanted from us: our freedom.

2. "We value life; the terrorists ruthlessly destroy it." How many civilians have we killed since Bush's speech? Unquestionably, for every American civilian death on September 11, at least 5 to 10 Middle Eastern civilians have died as a result of our efforts in that region. Again, I think this is a point where we must concede that Bush gave the terrorists what he thinks they wanted from us: we have become a more ruthless killer of civilians than those we hunt.

3. "We value education." Given Bush's assault on Pell College Grants, his campaign to close public libraries, his education cuts, and his underfunded "No Child Left Behind Act," Bush has conceded this point to the terrorists as well.

4. "The terrorists do not believe women . . . should have health care." Again, this is an area where Bush has obliged the terrorists. He has cut heath care generally, he has rolled back women's protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, he has appointed judges who would remove a woman's sovereignty over her own reproductive health decisions, and he has cut back Medicaid programs that disproportionately benefit women. This is one more point where Bush has given in to the goals he has ascribed to the terrorists.

5. "We value the right to speak our minds; for the terrorists, free expression can be grounds for execution." As mentioned above, the Patriot Act and the Federal Communications Commission's expansion of the Communications Alliance for Law Enforcement Act are two great wounds upon the traditional freedom of speech we have all enjoyed as Americans. Bush has also appointed judges who propose radically narrow interpretations of this freedom. Ironically, Bush has gone so far as to make a White House policy of punishing and retaliating against critics who use their freedom of speech to criticize Bush. In the context of our first freedom within the Bill of Rghts, Bush has certainly given the terrorists everything he suggests they wanted in terms of restricting our freedom.

6. "We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship." No administration in modern American history has disrespected non-Christians more throughly than the Bush administration. In Bush's America, biology teachers find their textbooks clotted with Christian dogma, pharmacists are invited to dispense religious views instead of medication, and the line between church and state has been smudged and, in places, erased. As America totters toward theocracy, any terrorist who hated America for our freedom of religion must be well contented with their progress on this front.

If we are to accept Bush's hypothesis about why the terrorists hate us; we must also accept the fact that Bush has capitulated to the terrorists on all of the goals Bush ascribes to them.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Well, I'd say Bush gave bin Laden at least three things ...

1.) Removed US troops from Saudi Arabian
2.) Removed Saddam from power, leading to the formation of an Islamic state
3.) Called the 'war on terrorism' a 'crusade', leading to the radicalization of Muslims world-wide.
4.) Occupation of Iraq pushed the 'western' assault on Muslims into the daily news.

[Czolgosz]

5. It's sad. After Israel, the regime bin Laden most wanted removed from

the Middle East was Saddam's secular regime.

So we rewarded bin Laden for his attack on America by deposing Saddam thereby enabling the rise of an Islamic theocracy in the place of Saddam's secular Iraq.

It's crazy. It only makes sense in a world where PNAC's agenda takes precedent over America's best interest.

[Child_Of_Isis]

2. Bush plays right into their hands.

It is pretty common knowledge that Osama bin Forgotten likes fighting on his own terrority...the middle east. He also likes long drawn out wars that hopefully leads to bankruptcy. He needs recruits that believe in a "holy" war. * has pretty much handed him all of this on a platter.

[Czolgosz]

8. Every time he says "we're fighting them over there so we don't have to

fight them over here" it sounds like this is nothing more than an away game for Bush. In truth, he's saying "we're sacrificing your sons and daughters as well as Iraqi civilians in the vain hope that by providing such convenient targets they'll be too busy killing your children over there to want to make the inconvenient trip here to threaten my children." Creepy.

[guruoo]

9. Naaaa....

ya think?

[Czolgosz]

10. lol!

[indepat]

3. Almost everything W says, as you so eloquently point out, is duplicitous

and mendacious at best, outright lies at worst.

[Czolgosz]

12. Thank God it's finally catching up to him . . .

[calimary]

4. Is the pope a Catholic?

[Czolgosz]

7. I'm not sure if he's Catholic, but he's certainly homophobic (just kidding

- I'm Catholic so I know the Pope is BOTH Catholic and homophobic)

[shance]

6. Bush/Cheney are terrorists. Lets call it for what it is.

Rumsfeld too, all the others who exploit the term terrorism and scapegoat, accuse and lay blame on innocent people in order to escape their own terrorist practices.

[Czolgosz]

11. If Bush/Cheney are terrorists how can we fight them over there so we don't

have to fight them here because I'm damn tire of fighting them over here.