There have been a handful of historic, quintessential Bushisms, but one of the head-shaking classics was offered exactly four years ago today.
“There are some who feel like — that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring ’em on. We’ve got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.”
The problem wasn’t just that such bravado was inappropriate for a president during a war, but more importantly, that Bush was daring those who would do Americans harm to take aim at the men and women in the Armed Forces. The president sent a clear message to our enemies: give it your best shot.
Now, to be fair, it took the president a couple of years, but he eventually acknowledged that his response “sent the wrong signal to people.” It did, indeed.
The president’s concession is, alas, cold comfort. First, enemies of the United States did bring it on and the Bush administration wasn’t ready to deal with the security situation. Bush callously boasted as if no harm could come to our troops. He was wrong — there were just over 200 U.S. fatalities in Iraq when he uttered the words; now there are 3,580.
Second, while I’m glad Bush is willing to admit his “wrong signal,” it would have been far more encouraging if the president had actually done something about it. Bush changed his rhetoric (a little), but not his policy. Given a choice, it’s far preferable that he bring the troops home and boast all he wants than leave the troops there and keep his bravado in check.
There are plenty of worthwhile pieces out today making note of the four-year anniversary of the infamous remarks, but I’m partial to the piece from Jon Soltz, an Iraq war vet and chairman of VoteVets.org.
Today, in 2003, President Bush declared his brash challenge to insurgents in Iraq, and to this day, it still sticks in my mind as the single biggest morale buster in the course of the war.
I was in Iraq when the president said these words. As you can imagine, internet access wasn’t an everyday thing. A few days after the President made his challenge, I logged on, and the first thing I saw was that he uttered these words. My head was spinning and I was sick. He said what??? We had just lost a number of soldiers, including one who had his head blown off. How could anyone say “Bring them on?” How could our Commander in Chief be so detached from what we were going through?
That’s the point, I later realized. It’s really easy to say “Bring them on” when all you know about the war is limited to some video-game-like graphics in the situation room, and waging war is reduced to moving pieces around like it was Stratego. Go to any arcade, and you’ll see kids playing some shoot ’em up game, taunting each other with cries of “Bring it on!” as they’re getting blown up on screen. It’s easy to say when something isn’t real to you. […]
If there’s anything positive that can come of it, let it be that on the blogs and in the media, we take today to recognize that four years ago today, the President proved just how out of touch he was with those of us in the military. Let us remember that since then, there’s been many more “Bring them on” days, and recognize that if we are ever to protect our troops and save our military, Congress absolutely must step in and rein in this inept and dangerous President who continually proves that he just doesn’t get it.
Good advice.