The Quotable Bush

For many people, especially those who identify themselves as Democrats or Liberals, the notion that President Bush is an idiot is accepted without question, and is often used to justify the belief that he is a puppet of Karl Rove, or whichever version of Satan is "actually" running the country. But it can't be said that the President has never been dead right about things. Take this quote from an appearance on "The Today Show," from back in 2004:

"I don't think you can win [the War on Terror]. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."

The President wound up distancing himself from this line later, after being labelled "defeatist" by the Democrats in a pretty obvious bit of political turnabout being fair play.

But the simple fact is, this is, and has always been, true. Only rarely do you get a lone wacko, with NO ties to anyone or anything using terror tactics against whole nations or societies. Not to say that it doesn't happen, but many terrorists commit their acts with a certain expectation that they're going to earn some sort of approval for them. If blowing up obvious non-combatants with a car bomb meant that the very people in whose name the act was carried out spit on their graves, shunned their families and denounced their names in their prayers, you'd see quite a bit less of it.