Bush made a statement about terrorist groups around the world, and let even Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Fata go on with business as usual.
He even sent funds to the leadership of the Arabs on the West Bank and Gaza led by a terrorist group. It was ostensibly to be spent for public services, but the very idea of running it through those groups was very ill advised.
I understand why he had to do all that, the same reason that he had to infamously call Islam the “religion of peace”.
Same reason you can’t take a truckload of TNT and disarm it by blowing it up as is, where it is. You pick your targets, you isolate them, you eliminate them one at a time, far from each other.
Trump is doing the same thing. He’s only talking about taking out ISIS right now, as if they were the only threat in the world. They are not, but if you start talking about Hizbollah, Hamas, etc., all in the same breath, they start working more closely together, rather than feuding amongst each other over who will take over ISIS’ turf when they’re gone.