Monday, August 30, 2004, George W. Bush said
I don’t think you can win it (the war on terror).
Today, August 31, 2004, he is saying
We meet today at a time of war for our country. A war we did not start, yet one that we will win.
Obviously someone reminded Bush that he’s been saying all along that this was a war we were winning.
Personally? I think Bush finally told the truth yesterday in regards to the war on terror. It is a war we can not win. Why? Because it is a war on an ideology. It is not a war against a specific country but against a nebulous group of people that we can only define by their actions. And even then we have trouble.
In this country we consider an act of terror to be when an “enemy” attacks us or one of our allies. We act like 9/11 attack and the previous World Trade Center bombing in 1993 are the only acts of terror that have occured on U.S. soil. We forget that when Timothy McVeigh (a U.S. citizen) bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City it was an act of terror. We ignore acts of terrorism by Israeli citizens against Palestinians, focusing only on those made by Palestinians agains Israelis.
We can not win the so-called war on terror anymore than we can win the war on drugs. Maybe one day we will realize that we can only win wars agains other countries, not against philosophies.
