Posted on 09/18/2001 1:19:22 PM PDT by Ganymede
White House apologizes for using 'crusade' to describe war on terrorism
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush regrets using the word "crusade," with all its historical connotations of religious war, to describe his campaign against terrorists, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Bush only meant to say that his is a "broad cause" to stamp out terrorism worldwide, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
"I think to the degree that that word has any connotations that would upset any of our partners or anybody else in the world, the president would regret if anything like that was conveyed. But the purpose of his conveying it is in the traditional English sense of the word, it's a broad cause," said Fleischer.
On Sunday, Bush had told reporters: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while."
With that comment, he stoked suspicion in some Arab and Muslim quarters where crusade is a loaded term that recalls the Christians' medieval wars against Muslims in the Holy Land. Bush is trying to rally Arab nations to join an international coalition against the perpetrators of last week's twin terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.
"I think what the president was saying had no intended consequences for anybody, Muslim or otherwise, other than to say that this is a broad cause that he is calling on America and the nations around the world to join," Fleischer said.
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty- loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Must not have to worry about hurt feelings back in 1944.
This isn't about religion as far as Americans are concerned.
It's about terrorist animals.
On the mark, as usual.
When the bullets start flying, I'm sure our boys will have plenty of non-PC things to say and write on their artillery shells. Will the press want to discuss that too?
No, it was rather a politically foolish word choice. Why choose a word that to Islam suggests a course of action motivated by something other than justice, security, self defense? Why give our enemies another tool to use to inflame those who might otherwise be fence-sitters? Why choose a word that adds no advantage to us in its use?
Correct! I like the word "crusade", especially since they are declaring a "jihad (holy war)" against us.
I am becoming more and more disturbed by this trend I am seeing back to "sensitivity" and "political correctness". We need to dump that garbage and do what needs to be done --- none of which will be either sensitive or pc.
If we do this thing right, then we are going to have to do a lot of things that we are not going to like doing; but that must be done. My fear is that we are going to have grief counseling, pop a prozac, yawn --- business as usual.
From our enemy's perspective, it may very well be a war against the Christian world. That's why they call it a Jihad. But all Muslim's are NOT our enemies. Terrorists and evil doers are our enemies.
Our response as a nation is not against Islam. It is against those who have harmed us, or seek to do us harm.
This is not a religious crusade.
While I have sometimes been critical of Bush, I think his decision to recognize the potential connotations associated with the word, and even to apologize for it, show a great strength of character.
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Better yet, consult a dictionary, then speak (emphasis mine):
"crusade 1 sometimes any of the military expeditions which Christians undertook from the 11th to the end of the 13th cent. to recover the Holy land from the Muslims. 2 vigorous, concerted action for some cause or idea, or against some abuse"
--- Webster's New World Dictionary of American English, Second College Edition, Macmillan, USA
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