# The world doesn't care about just 'merica, Bush! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-world-doesnt-care-about-just-merica-bush/313563 "2005-07-22T01:02:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Conan\_the\_Librarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Conan\_the\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Conan_the_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-world-doesnt-care-about-just-merica-bush/313563/1 "2005-07-22T01:02:55Z")
So I’m over here in a hotel in Beijing. They have channels in Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, and French. I’m watching the news about the London bombings, and the only caption I’ve gotten to see of the US reaction is Bush going on in some “This is our house!” Rant about terrorists and how we won’t allow them to come in and do the same thing that has happened in Britain. Now I haven’t gotten too much information about the series of bombings, but why in the Fuckin’ world would he not mention Britain in a press release about London?!?! WTF?? I mean seriously, this was crazy. The least he could have done was mentioned we are empathetic about the previous deaths and mention he’s glad that this potential tradegy may aid in the fight against religious extremists. Way to not even give your biggest supporter a mention. I’ve been overall supportive of Bush, perhaps even more than is rational. But this next move is just another one of his anti-diplomatic moves. Kudos to how Blair is handling things though, it seems like he’s trying a real grass roots approach. (Ok, maybe this doesn’t have the flaming chunks of feces I intended to throw, but damnit bush! The whole world is watching LONDON, the least you can do is show a lil support) ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-world-doesnt-care-about-just-merica-bush/313563/2 "2005-07-22T01:14:39Z")
It’s not just Bush. Obviously you weren’t watching CNN the day of the bombings – after a couple of hours or so, as far as I can tell, they went from covering the bombings to squawking about security in New York City, at which point I turned the TV off (I’d only had it on in the background anyway). Because it’s all about us, doncha know, even if it’s another country that was _actually_ bombed this time. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-world-doesnt-care-about-just-merica-bush/313563/3 "2005-07-22T01:45:05Z")
I had to look it up for myself. The only public statement I could find that Bush made today is [here](http://www.oas.org/speeches/speech.asp?sCodigo=05-0163). It includes comments about terrorism in a speech to the Organization of American States re: CAFTA. What you saw on t.v. is therefore probably a snippet of this section: > [@](#): > > We’ll be talking about our economy and liberty in our neighborhood here in a minute, but I want to remind you all, want to remind leaders from our country, and of course the leaders from other countries that are here, that we’re living in historic times. And one of the reasons I say that is we’re still at war, see. And it’s important for all of us who love freedom to understand that this is a war being fought against ideologues that use terror to advance an agenda. This is a war against killers, cold-blooded killers who embrace an ideology of hatred. Their vision of the world is the opposite of our vision of the world. We believe in human rights, human dignity, minority rights and religious rights. We believe in universal freedoms. > > They have a different view of the world. They don’t believe in women’s rights. They have usurped a great religion and defined it in their terms. And if you happen to live in a society in which they’re dominant, like the Taliban was in Afghanistan, and if you don’t adhere to their view of religion, you’re punished. They have territorial designs. They have the desire to use their terrorist techniques to frighten us. In other words, they understand when they kill in cold blood it ends up on our TV screens. And they’re trying to shake our will. And they’re trying to create vacuums into which their ideology can move. > > They don’t understand our country, though. They don’t understand that when it comes to the defense of universal freedoms, this country won’t be frightened. We will defend ourselves by staying on the offense against these killers. We will find them overseas so we don’t have to face them here at home. And at the same time we understand that to defeat an ideology of hate, you work to spread an ideology of hope. And there’s nothing more hopeful than a system which recognizes the rights of people, in which government is accountable to the people. And that system is democracy, based upon universal freedom. (Applause.) So, just to clarify, Bush isn’t really making a statement about London at all. He’s perhaps obliquely referencing the London attacks in a speech about the economies of the Americas. Maybe it would have been good diplomacy to come out with a statement of support and sympathy, but frankly since there weren’t any casualties I’m not sure a statement from the President would have been a good thing. It might have given the attacks more of an aura of threat and gravity for the President to comment on them directly. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-world-doesnt-care-about-just-merica-bush/313563/4 "2005-07-22T17:57:41Z")
[Better?](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_britain;_ylt=AuThVsP0n3ptcropTQllsd.yFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)