Bush Speech Criticized as Attack on Obama

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament on Thursday to denounce those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” — a remark that was widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential contender, who has argued that the United States should talk directly with countries like Iran and Syria.

Mr. Bush did not mention Mr. Obama by name, and the White House said his remarks were not aimed at the senator, though they created a political firestorm in Washington nonetheless.

In a lengthy speech intended to promote the strong alliance between the United States and Israel, the president invoked the emotionally volatile imagery of World War II to make the case that talking to extremists was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Mr. Bush said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The Obama campaign issued an angry response. In an e-mail statement to reporters, the senator denounced Mr. Bush for using the 60th anniversary of Israel to "launch a false political attack," adding, "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

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[notfullofit]

1. I thought he was

referring to Pres. Carter.

[Sezu]

2. His press secretary suggested that.

Obama seems paranoid since obviously his own words negate any such accusation. The kitchen is going to get way hotter than this. He shoulda kept his cool.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Not the first time he's compared those who oppose his wars with appeasers of the Nazis

Possibly unwise of him, given his well-known family history. I suspect he means all Democrats/liberals/ war opponents, not just Obama.