Posted on 02/24/2003 9:05:48 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
This exchange between the President and Helen Thomas took place two days after the November 2002 Republican election sweep.
President Bush Holds Press Conference (Trancript)
The White House ^ | 11/7/02 | President George W. Bush
Q (Helen Thomas:) Mr. President, what is the logic of your insistence on invading Iraq at some point, which may someday have nuclear weapons, and not laying a glove on North Korea, which may have them or may produce them? Both of which, of course, would be against international law. And I have a follow-up. (Laughter)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I may decide to let you have that follow-up or not depending upon -- (laughter) -- depending on whether I like my answer. (Laughter.)
I am insistent upon one thing about Iraq, and that is that Saddam Hussein disarm. That's what I'm insistent on. He agreed to do that, by the way. Saddam Hussein said he would disarm. And he hasn't. And for the --
Q And you don't --
THE PRESIDENT: Is that the follow-up? (Laughter.) Okay, that is the follow-up. I do care about North Korea. And as I said from the beginning of this new war in the 21st century, we'll deal with each threat differently. Each threat requires a different type of response. You've heard my strategy on dealing with Iraq. I've been very clear on dealing with the strategy all along, and tomorrow it looks like part of that strategy is coming to fruition.
With North Korea, we're taking a different strategy, initially, and it's this -- that we're going to work with countries in the neighborhood to convince North Korea that it is not in the world's interest that they develop a nuclear weapon through highly enriched uranium.
We know they've got the capacity through plutonium; we have IAEA inspectors there watching carefully their plutonium stockpile. And then we discovered that, contrary to an agreement they had with the United States, they're enriching uranium, with the desire of developing a weapon. They admitted to this. And so, therefore, we have worked with our Japanese friends and South Korean friends, with the leadership in China -- I will talk with Vladimir Putin about this after my trip to the NATO summit -- to remind North Korea that if they expect to be a -- welcomed into this family of peaceful nations, that they should not enrich uranium.
I thought it was a very interesting statement that Jiang Zemin made in Crawford, where he declared very clearly that he wants a nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula. That was, in my judgment, an important clarification of Chinese policy that I hope the North Koreans listen to. Believe we can achieve this objective, Helen, by working closely with this consortium of nations, which have got a valid interest in seeing to it that North Korea does not have nuclear weapons.
Terry.
Q (Helen Thomas:) Mr. President, can I have a follow-up --
THE PRESIDENT: Of course, you can. Yes, it's fine. (Laughter.) If the elections had gone a different way, I might not be so generous. (Laughter.)
Q (Helen Thomas:)You are leaving the impression that Iraqi lives, the human cost doesn't mean anything --
THE PRESIDENT: Say that again?
Q (Helen Thomas:) You are leaving the impression that you wouldn't mind if you go to war against Iraq, but you deal with another nation which may have weapons in a different way. But there are two other impressions around. One, that you have an obsession with going after Saddam Hussein at any cost. And also that you covet the oil fields.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Well, I'm -- some people have the right impressions and some people have the wrong impressions.
Q (Helen Thomas:) Can you --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, those are the wrong impressions.
Q (Helen Thomas:) Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: I have a deep desire for peace. That's what I have a desire for. And freedom for the Iraqi people. See, I don't like a system where people are repressed through torture and murder in order to keep a dictator in place. It troubles me deeply. And so the Iraqi people must hear this loud and clear, that this country never has any intention to conquer anybody. That's not the intention of the American people or our government. We believe in freedom and we believe in peace. And we believe the Iraqi dictator is a threat to peace. And so that's why I made the decisions I made, in terms of Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
Helen still doesn't.
BTW, RC..has the Senate started today..will Miguel be brought up?
I don't believe a troll is considered "human."
I think the only problem that I can see is that W is trying to be a little too fancy with his words.
He needs to say, "Unlike the coward I replaced here at the White House, I am against allowing Saddam to torture and kill Iraqi citizens and am willing to put our military in harm's way. Democrats apparently don't give a rat's @$$ about these poor starving and terrified people and you, Helen, should be ashamed of yourself, you whiney old nag! Next question, Sam?..."
I dunno about that. There's something about the simplistic liberal "It's all about oil" jabber that is easily-transferrable to people that refuse to think.
For those people that see that on the TV and then ignore or fail to attempt to comprehend the response of a "politician"...those people's ignorant views are reinforced (by repetition) by nabobs like Helen Thomas.
Frankly, I have never once seen anyone from the Bush Administration ignore her or give her the terse treatment that I think her rude, biased, ("This is the worst President, ever!") "putting-words-in-their-mouth," "stating what she feels is their nefarious motivation" sort of questioning deserves.
Because a smart bomb is smart enough not to want to touch a thing like her!
Now, now, our President can't say that out loud, in public. To appease NOW, he should refer to Ms. Thomas as a major-league a*****e.
Our President is a gentleman...heaping coals of kindness on her head.
I think Ari uses Helen to quiet the rest of the press corp and steel his spine for the coming battle.
I'd like to see a few more adult conservatives dotted around the room like hall monitors....William F. Buckley, Cal Thomas, Ben Stein, Anne Coulter, Thomas Sowell, Michelle Malkin, Walt Williams, Mark Steyn, Andrew Sullivan, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, John Huang2, Luis Gonzalez...(^:
Perhaps we need to start an NGO to support bitter, ugly women...for the children (and to promote world peace).
meow!
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