Bush Flippin' & Floppin'

Bush: Worried about bin-Laden?

President Bush yesterday told Senator John Kerry and the American people that he had never said he wasn't worried about Osama bin-Laden.

When Kerry accused Bush of losing focus in the War on Terror and saying that bin-Laden wasn't a big concern, Bush immediately hit back. Hard. Bush answered by saying "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin-Laden. That's kind of one of those... exaggerations," he said.

Only one problem. In one of Bush's very rare press conferences, this one in March of 2002, Bush said this: "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him."

This came after Bush promised to "smoke him out of his cave" and "capture him dead or alive."

When Bush didn't have much success "smoknig him out of his cave" he became unconcerned. Bush, conveniently, became unconcerned around the time he wanted to invade Iraq. While we "can walk and chew gum at the same time," it was said, we really "aren't that concerned about [bin-Laden]."

Saddam Hussein was much more important. Right, President Bush?

I've got a very nice pair of flip-flops here for Mr. Bush if he'd like to come and pick them up.

Let us never forget. Osama bin-Laden attacked the United States of America on September 11, 2001. Osama bin-Laden is responsible for the deaths of thousands of American citizens. Bin-Laden and his network, al-Qaeda, have committed numerous acts of war across numerous years against the United States of America. They have bombed American embassies, American civilians, American warships and American servicemembers.

Somehow President Bush thought that Saddam Hussein, a man who had not been engaged in hostilities against the United States in years, a man who was considered a "diminished threat", a man who the Bush Administration itself had called "contained" and "unable to project conventional power against his neighbors" was a larger and more imminent threat to the United States than Osama bin-Laden, a man actively killing Americans.

Before September 11 Bush was truly unconcerned about bin-Laden. He ignored multiple briefings on the subject, he refused to meet with his counter-terror czar. His attorney general specifically asked for an end to counter-terror briefings.

In the immediate aftermath of September 11 Bush became the cowboy. "Wanted dead or alive" posters went up throughout New York City, inspired by Bush's strong rhetoric. The inspiring leader, compared by some to Churchill, promised to kill or capture bin-Laden and end the threat of Islamist terror. The invasion of Afghanistan was planned.

And then, suddenly, even as the Taliban and al-Qaeda was resurgent in Afghanistan, Bush changed course. Bush was "not that concerned about bin-Laden". Bush was now focused on Saddam Hussein.

Now, apparently, in this election year, Bush is once again concerned about bin-Laden. Now that the heat is on, now that Bush is up for re-election, Bush must somehow convince Americans that he genuinely cares about combatting terrorism.

Bush is failing. Bush isn't that concerned with Usama bin-Laden. He'd much rather have American soldiers engage in house-to-house battles with radicalized Iraqi citizens than smoke the real terrorists out of their holes.