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Text: Bush’s Press Conference October 11, 2001 By The Disassociated Press Text of President Bush’s news conference Thursday night in the East Room of the White House, as translated from the Orwellian by ATerribleThingtoWaste, Inc.: BUSH: Good evening. I would like to report to the American people on the state of our so-called war against so-called terror, and then I’ll be happy to take puffball questions from the White House lapdogs. One month ago today, innocent citizens from more than 80 nations were attacked and killed without warning or provocation in an act that horrified every American who had not previously realized that the bombs we’ve been dropping for decades kill decent working people with brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and parents. The attack took place on American soil, but it was an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world. By which I mean the world that has killed 200 million people in its wars of the last century, as well as hundreds of millions more by vast waste of resources. And the world has come together to fight a new and different war; the first if we don’t count Iraq, Yugoslavia, Congo, etc -- and we hope the only (laughter) -- one of the 21st century; a war against all those governments that supposedly support or shelter terrorists, and which lie in the vicinity of the oil and natural gas resources that Chevron has acquired since the fall of the Evil Empire. We’ve accomplished a great deal in one month. We’ve threatened everyone on earth who isn’t supine before us. Nations from every continent on the Earth have indicated that they understand the meaning of our iron fist in our leaden glove. This week, 56 Islamic nations issued a statement strongly condemning the savage acts of terror. Luckily for the leaders of those nations, that statement did not reach the ears of their citizenry, who overwhelmingly see current events as a cynical attempt by my administration to turn a tragedy into a quest for further world hegemony. The men and women of the United States military are doing their duty with scale and success, and, really, what other choice do they have? We have ruined terrorist training camps—you know, the tents with the big "T" on them—disrupted Afghanistan’s amazingly sophisticated communication system, weakened the Taliban military, which, as you know, is the fourth most powerful army on earth, and destroyed one of their air defenses. We will destroy the other one tomorrow. At the same time, we are showing the compassion of America (laughter) by delivering food and medicine to the Afghan people, who, of course, expectantly run toward any object that drops from a U.S. plane, in hope that it may not be a bomb. We are aggressively pursuing the agents of terror around the world, and we are aggressively strengthening our protections here at home. This week, we established America’s new Office of Fatherland Fidelity directed by former Gov. Tom Ridge. Americans tonight can know that while the threat is ongoing, we are taking every possible step to crap up their civil liberties. BUSH: We must act to stimulate a slow economy, to help laid-off workers by giving billions to their employers. And we must, of course, fund our long neglected military. This is a time of testing; in particular, a time of testing the entire range of Raytheon’s latest weapons of mass destruction; this time of testing has revealed the true character of the American people. We’re angry at the evil that was done to us, yet patient and just in our retaliation on the bewildered denizens of the world’s most desolate slums. Before Sept. 11, my administration was planning an initiative called Communities of Character. It was designed to help parents develop good character in their children and to strengthen the spirit of citizenship and service in our communities. Before Sept. 11, people like me and Rudi Giuliani would have been persona non grata in any such organization, given my stolen election, and his callous racist attacks on the victims of his homicidal police force. The acts of Sept. 11 have benefitted my career and Rudi’s in ways far greater than I could have ever hoped or imagined. We have shown great love for our country and great tolerance and respect for all our countrymen. (laughter) Our war on terrorism has nothing to do with differences in faith. It has everything to do with people of all faiths coming together to condemn hate and evil and murder and prejudice, at the same time our armies move forward to protect the hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and billions of barrels of oil, newly obtained by Chevron. We must, above all else, provide access to those fields and secure them. And now I welcome your questions. Q: Thank you, sir. You said that the threat is ongoing What can people do to protect themselves? BUSH: Sure. I have urged my—our fellow Americans to go about their lives, to fly on airplanes, to shop, to travel, to go to work, shop, and go back to work. Now, if we receive specific intelligence, where we—a credible threat that targets a specific building or city or facility, our government will do everything possible to protect the citizens around, in or near that facility. (Although I will admit that might be cold comfort to those who are aware that, even after the first plane hit the WTC, workers in the second tower were told there was no danger. and to go on working.) And let me give you one example of a specific threat we received. You may remember recently there was a lot of discussion about crop-dusters. We received knowledge that perhaps an al-Qaida operative was prepared to use a crop-duster to spray a biological weapon or a chemical weapon on American people, and so we responded. We found that there indeed was highly toxic material being used. But it was just the same stuff we’ve been using for decades. So we gave the all clear. Now, the American people have got to go about their business and go to work and shop. We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we all fly to Nebraska at the first sign of trouble. BUSH: And—but the truth of the matter is, in order to fully defend America, we must defeat the evildoers where they hide. We must round them up, and rope them, and we must bring them to justice. Q: Yes, Mr. President. Thank you. You’ve been careful to avoid saying how long the military strikes in Afghanistan might take place. But can you promise to say how long American—can you avoid being drawn into a Vietnam-like quagmire in Afghanistan? BUSH: We learned some very important lessons in Vietnam. Perhaps the most important lesson that I learned was to personally stay clear of it. The other lesson is that you cannot win a war against a united people merely by killing 3 million of them and making their land a living hell. That is why it is so important to increase our military spending. As far as the use of conventional forces, we’ve got a clear plan, and it’s to say to the host government that, "You have been given your chance." Then we bomb the living s--- out of them on CNN. Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Sir, some critics have expressed doubts about trying to get nations that once sponsored terrorism to now cooperate in the effort against terrorism. Would you share your thinking with us, sir? BUSH: We learned a good lesson on Sept. 11, that there is evil in this world, although Laura claims she had already known about it. I think it’s essential that all moms and dads and citizens who are not moms or dads tell their children we love them and there is love in the world, but also remind them there are evil people, and that Mr. Bush knows who they are, and will kill them. Q: Mr. President, what are Americans supposed to look for and report to the police or to the FBI? BUSH: You know, if you find a person that you’ve never seen before getting in a crop-duster that doesn’t belong to you, carrying a canister marked "Anthrax," report it. If you see potential evildoers lurking around petrochemical plants, for gosh sake report it to law enforcement. I mean, use your common sense. Before we leave, I want to make a special request to the children of America. I ask you to join in a special effort to help the children of Afghanistan. Their country has been through a great deal of war and suffering, ever since the Carter administration started the long process of overthrowing the progressive government which existed there, because it was friendly to the USSR. Many children there are starving and are severely malnourished. One in three Afghan children is an orphan, and, after today’s bombing that ratio may become worse, almost half suffer chronic malnutrition, and we can and must help them. Winter is coming, and by acting today we can help the ones who survive our bombs. Thank you for your questions. |
