RUSH LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, we have been saying President Bush will join us at 1:45 this afternoon, about 12 minutes from now, but he can't wait. He's so excited, he's here now. President George W. Bush, welcome to the program, sir. Nice to have you with us.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you, Rush. It's an honor to talk to you.
RUSH: Where are you right now?
THE PRESIDENT: I am in Des Moines, Iowa --
RUSH: And you are going...?
THE PRESIDENT: -- just came from Nashville, Tennessee. I'm on my way to a big rally with some of our farmers and then I'm going to go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I will be participating in the convention from afar. After all, the First Lady Bush will be addressing the nation, and I want to welcome her to the podium.
RUSH: By the way, let's talk about the American Legion convention. I watched your speech there this morning, and the Democrats are harping on something you said yesterday, or that was aired yesterday on the Today Show with Matt Lauer about the -- your comment about we can't win it, meaning the war on terror. I think I know what you meant but John Edwards is out there saying (paraphrased), "A-ha! Bush is now flip-flopping, and we, John Kerry and I, we can win this, and Bush is..." What did you mean by this?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate you bringing that up. Listen, I should have made my point more clear about what I was saying, you know, what I meant. What I meant was that this is not a conventional war. It is a different kind of war. We're fighting people who have got a dark ideology who use terrorists, terrorism, as a tool. They're trying to shake our conscience. They're trying to shake our will, and so in the short run the strategy has got to be to find them where they lurk. I tell people all the time, "We will find them on the offense. We will bring them to justice on foreign lands so we don't have to face them here at home," and that's because you cannot negotiate with these people and in a conventional war there would be a peace treaty or there would be a moment where somebody would sit on the side and say we quit. That's not the kind of war we're in, and that's what I was saying. The kind of war we're in requires, you know, steadfast resolve, and I will continue to be resolved to bring them to justice, but as well as to spread liberty -- and this is one of the interesting points of the debate, Rush, is that, you know, I believe societies can be transformed because of liberty, and I believe that Iraq and Afghanistan will be free nations, and I believe that those free nations right there in the heart of the Middle East will begin to transform that region into a more hopeful place, which in itself will be a detriment to the ability to these terrorists to recruit -- and that's what I was saying. I probably needed to be a little more articulate. |
