George W. Bush compares 'violent extremists at home' to 9/11 terrorists

[Demsrule86]

"On the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that changed his presidency, former president George W. Bush on Saturday warned there is growing evidence that domestic terrorism could pose as much of a threat to the United States as terrorism originating from abroad, and urged Americans to confront “violence that gathers within.”

Without naming it, Bush seemed to condemn the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when a pro-Trump mob overran the complex in a violent siege that led to the deaths of five people. Bush compared those “violent extremists at home” to the terrorists who had hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed them in New York City, Arlington, and Shanksville, Pa., killing nearly 3,000 people.

“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said in a speech at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols — they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

There is a paywall but I put the most important part on the thread. Rightwing heads exploding!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/09/11/george-w-bush-compares-violent-extremists-home-911-terrorists-20th-anniversary-speech/

[Hekate]

1. Well, okay then, Dubya. I give you credit for saying something cogent on this day.

[Omnipresent]

2. The folks on the right will interpret his speech...

As a reference to BLM and Antifa. Dubya, then gets to stand to praise from both sides, for his vague condemnation of who the domestic terrorist really are.

[Bluethroughu]

7. That's what I was thinking.

Name names dubya. Confronting these people is not a good idea, but punishing them with the full extent of the law, as in 20 years for seditious conspiracy, should be how we deal with them.

[Scrivener7]

9. Exactly.

[Bucky]

3. Even when he's right...

He's still the tool who sent 7000 troops including 2 of my students to their deaths in a country that didn't attack us

[Dave Bowman]

15. +1 He's a monster, a war criminal.

[elleng]

4. Good, he's right, and I'll give him credit for that.

[Act_of_Reparation]

5. Without a shred of self awareness.

Naturally.

[ARandomPerson]

6. Bush is such a tragic figure.

I think he's a good man with a good heart, but his presidency was such clusterf***.

He's not Trump. Painting him with the same brush is both unfair to him and too good for Trump.

Damn. He could have been okay -- not great, not even good, but okay. Without Iraq, he's a conventional dumb Republican tax-cutting dumbdumb, but with a good heart .... But with Iraq, ... ughhh ...

[CanonRay]

8. He's only a good man

in comparison with tfg.

[uponit7771]

23. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[Ocelot II]

10. I've always thought of W as a lazy, frat-boy sort of guy with a mediocre mind

who was installed in the presidency by GOPers who knew they could manipulate him. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a good man; I'd call him a weak man who was content to enjoy the perks of the presidency while letting others, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, do their PNAC worst and piss all over US foreign policy. I do not think he is malevolent, vicious, venal or intentionally cruel like TFG, and I'll give him credit for occasionally saying the right thing on occasions where TFG would just shit in the hors d'oeuvres.

[Haggard Celine]

12. That's basically my take on him as well.

Michelle Obama likes him, so he can't be all bad. But Dick Cheney....I can't think of anyone who has said a nice word about him.

[Jilly_in_VA]

13. More or less right

I always thought Cheney was really the president during the Shrub's terms, and anyone who follows me knows in pretty clear terms what I think of HIM. I think the Shrub is pretty dim, but not at all malicious. The fact that Michelle Obama is friends with him speaks to that, because she would most certainly NOT be on good terms with a person of malicious intent. Georgie was just someone who the PTB in his party saw as a figurehead who could be manipulated, and they did so very well.

[wnylib]

18. Sorry, but I can't see him as a good man.

Never will. He lied to us as much as Trump, just didn't do it with the same crudeness. He lied us into an unnecesary war that killed thousands of people, both military and civilian. Just as Trump used the presidency to further himself financially, so did Cheney, Prince, Rummy, and others. Bush was complicit.

He used 9/11 and his wars shamelessly in every speech to bolster himself and R candidates in Congress. He made no attempt at all to get OBL. He used "national security" to curb civil liberties.

Not a good president. Not even a mediocre one. Not a good man, either.

[Peregrine Took]

11. Even the BBC says that he was warned a month ahead of time

that another attack was planned yet he ignored it.

[jaxexpat]

16. It's good to know that Important fact is remembered these years later.

It was dismissed at the time as "too vague to be of consequence" or only another irrelevancy harped on by the left who don't understand the complex wisdom of the electoral college. Every step of our current national crisis was predicated by the existence of this fraud in a position of responsibility he was incapable of filling. His words today are no more necessary, cogent nor appropriate than they were then. Even small people, when in high places, can do great damage.

[Dave Bowman]

14. I couldn't care less about what this POS has to say. A good man? Wtf?

"George W. Bush is not a “kind, sweet man.” There is nothing “beautiful” about him. He was a monster as governor of Texas and a monster as president."

"Bush’s beliefs are irrelevant here; his actions are what matters. He was one of the most destructive presidents in modern American history; a man who has never been held to account for a long litany of crimes, misdeeds, and abuses of power committed during his two bloodstained terms in office. The reason “43” should be treated as a pariah is not because he is a Republican or a conservative, but because he caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people and tortured hundreds of others."

https://theintercept.com/2019/10/09/ellen-degeneres-george-bush/

[wnylib]

20. +1000.

[MrsCheaplaugh]

21. Hear, hear. Nt

[NewHendoLib]

17. even a broken clock....

once an asshole, always an asshole

[beaglelover]

19. My husband watched Bush's speech today and said it

was really good.

[Martin Eden]

22. Self serving weasel words from a war criminal

Without identifying where the domestic terrorists are coming from he avoids backlash while sounding like an elder statesman.

GW and Cheney will always be war criminals in my book. In the wake of 9/11 he used his newfound political capital and the grief, anger, and patriotism of the American people to take our country into an unjustified war based on a campaign of lies and deluded neocon ambitions of pax Americana.

5,000 American soldiers were killed (support the troops?) and tens of thousands more wounded in body and spirit, for what -- a region in perpetual turmoil worse than it was before with legions of new battle hardened terrorists.

It was the most egregious betrayal of public trust by a president in our nation's history. GW Bush belongs in prison, not making speeches on the anniversary of the attack he failed to prevent then used to invade a country that had nothing to do with it.

[Norbert]

24. The idol makers took advantage of the 'Bush' name

If his name was George W Smith we would have never heard anything of him. I think Dubya is basically a good person that was too willing to be swayed by Cheney, Rumsfeld and others.

I give him credit for recognizing there are violent extremists at home as well as oversees.