Maybe it is something like this:
The President makes a statement to the effect that we have to confront terrorist whereever they exist. Enterprising 'journalist' does some homework, and sees a large number of countries suspected of supporting terrorism. Maybe sixty, according to his figures.
Sits down at his word processor and extrapolates the statement to mean that we are planning an imminent war against sixty nations.
They wouldn't do that, would they?
Would they be wrong? Bush's
rhetoric has to have a pony in it somewhere.
Bush's new description of his foreign policy, sketched out during the graduation address at the United States Military Academy, sharply revised the positions he took as a candidate, when he emphasized the need to limit U.S. intervention to regions with immediate bearing on the nation's strategic interests.
Saturday, Bush said the nation "must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries," or roughly one-third of the world. He renewed his months-old promise to "confront regimes that sponsor terror," even though he has found few American allies to endorse his desire to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the Pentagon has told him that the military could be stretched too thin.
"We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge," Bush told the cadets, who listened on West Point's football field as their parents applauded robustly from the stands. "In the world we have entered, the only path to safety is the path of action. And this nation will act."