{"id":6685,"date":"2006-02-22T15:11:47","date_gmt":"2006-02-22T20:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6685"},"modified":"2006-02-22T15:11:47","modified_gmt":"2006-02-22T20:11:47","slug":"bush-is-a-victim-of-his-own-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-is-a-victim-of-his-own-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bush is a victim of his own rhetoric’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reuters’ Alan Elsner raises a provocative point<\/a> today about the port controversy that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Elsner seems to be an agnostic on whether the deal is worthwhile, but argues that the White House shouldn’t be surprised by the fear-based reaction the port deal has received — the Bush gang has been tilling this soil for a while.<\/p>\n

Bush has long been successful in persuading Americans they were under constant threat and he was the best man to protect them…. Fears have not subsided, pollster John Zogby said, although the United States has not suffered a major attack since September 11, 2001. Bush two weeks ago revealed a plot foiled in 2002 to fly an airplane into the West Coast’s tallest building and said the terrorist threat had not abated.<\/p>\n

“That’s what makes this story so ironic. I guess you can’t have it both ways,” Zogby said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, said, “Bush is a victim of his own rhetoric. This deal flies in the face of the Bush administration’s general posture, which has been that there is much to fear out there and they have been vigilant in protecting the country.”<\/p>\n

Well, maybe. To be sure, there are some key nuances at play. The White House has played on national fear for partisan purposes on too many instances — Scott McClellan still cynically uses 9\/11 as a way to get out of uncomfortable jams — but the Bush gang has never specifically said Americans should be afraid of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Elsner’s point seems to be that the White House has stoked the fires of fear too broadly, and the argument is not without merit. Before 9\/11, a limited port deal with a UAE company that operates many ports around the world wouldn’t have even generated wire copy. But the Bush gang has gone out of its way to convince the nation that the Middle East is a dangerous place. The region’s lack of democracies, the president says, make it a breeding ground for terrorism.<\/p>\n

In this context, Americans are hearing — from the entire Republican congressional leadership, no less — that the UAE recognized the Taliban’s government and was used by the 9\/11 terrorists as an operational and financial hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a country that Bush has conditioned to be afraid, the White House shouldn’t be surprised by the reaction this is receiving. Is this to say all of the criticism of the port deal is fair? Probably not<\/a>. But the phrase “you reap what you sow” keeps coming to mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters’ Alan Elsner raises a provocative point today about the port controversy that I haven’t seen elsewhere. Elsner seems to be an agnostic on whether the deal is worthwhile, but argues that the White House shouldn’t be surprised by the fear-based reaction the port deal has received — the Bush gang has been tilling this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}