After all his tough words and extreme comments about wiping out terrorissm reality has finally set in.

Lowering expectations in terror fight

By Mike Allen

Washington Post



TAYLOR, Mich. - President Bush's assertion yesterday that the war on terrorism cannot be won in the traditional sense of victory was one in a series of statements he has made in the last few days to lower public expectations and mitigate political problems before he reintroduces himself to the nation Thursday night.

He has given a spate of interviews in the run-up to the convention, and he was asked by Matt Lauer of NBC's Today show, in an interview taped Saturday and shown yesterday, if the war on terror can be won.

"I don't think you can win it," Bush said. "But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world. Let's put it that way."

He said he would accomplish this with a two-pronged strategy, which he said "is to find them [terrorists] before they hurt us" and to "spread freedom and liberty for the long run."

Bush aides said the President was simply being realistic about what the United States and its allies could achieve in going after terrorist groups. He has been far more assertive in the past in pledging to lead the war on terrorism.

Last month in Pennsylvania, he said he had "a clear vision and a strategy to win the war on terror." In February, he said: "We're going to win the war on terror." In his May 2003 speech aboard an aircraft carrier declaring the end of major combat operations in Iraq, he said: "The war on terror is not over; yet it is not endless."

As he prepares for what is certain to be a bruising fall campaign against Democratic challenger John Kerry, Bush is amending or recasting some of his most important positions and has begun to acknowledge for the first time that he has made mistakes

In April, he said at a news conference that he could not think of a single mistake he had made in confronting Iraq; in an interview with the New York Times last week, he said he had made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be" in postwar Iraq.

He suggested in an interview with Time magazine that he still would have gone into Iraq, but with different tactics, if he had known "that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day."

He called the fast military offensive that led to the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 "a catastrophic success" in light of the fact that fighting continues to this day despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

In explaining Bush's latest comments, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the President was trying to make the point that the war on terrorism might not be possible to win "in the conventional sense."

"I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed, like we have in wars past," he said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...on/9541545.htm

All I have to say is......Ya think? no shit I could have said that 3 years ago when all this shit started:slap:

 

haha i heard that on the radio this morn

 

Flip....Flop

:lmfao:

 

Well if you had any common sense at all, you'd know that the "war on terror" isn't a tradional "war" in any sense of the word...meaning there isn't a traditional way to win the war. Seems like common sense. I'm thinking he just said what he did in the past to inspire confindence in the public to not be affraid...and thus far they haven't had a reason to worry. I'm sure he's coming back now to "clarify" before he gets attacked by the left for making overly confident statements.

 

Said John Edwards, "After months of listening to the Republicans base their campaign on their singular ability to win the war on terror, the president now says we can't win the war on terrorism."

 

why is that a flip flop, or a back pedal? its not a comment like I voted for the 56billion before I voted aginst it. This war on terror is going to take decades to attempt to stop. there is no clear end in sight, and there will be no way to tell if the war on terror is ever over. Bush continues to fight it and he has not flip-flopped on his comitment to support the troops and do what is necessary to win. Odviously your taking his comment out of context, a victory on terror will not be seen in our life time, thus the statement.

 

very well said :thumbup:

 

So by that definition gathering up an army and invading a foreign country wouldn't be a part of "war on terrorism".


The fact that bush has clearly stated "I'm a war president." In no way constitutes that we are actually in a war.


I think this debate is more play on words than anything.

And RB, you wanna have political opinions and express them go for it, but serious leave the trash talk at the door. Your posts are taken less seriously, when you start them off with "Well if you had some common sense."

 

Dude go fuck yourself, I didn't talk trash at all so get the hell off my back.

 

:lmfao:


You're such a badass.

Did you become a badass overnight? Or did you practice infront of your bathroom mirror everynight?