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Shameful: George W. Bush Implies Trump Supporters Are Like Jihad Terrorists
By Robert Spencer Sep 11, 2021 1:07 PM ET
Speaking at a 9/11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, former President George W. Bush, who above all people should know better, made a veiled but unmistakable equation of the January 6 incident at the Capitol with the September 11, 2001, jihad terror attacks in New York and Washington.
“The security measures incorporated into our lives are both sources of comfort” – speak for yourself, George – “and reminders of our vulnerability.” That vulnerability was apparently laid bare anew during the January 6 events that the Left has worked so very hard to portray as an unprecedented, life-threatening attack on our “democracy” (it’s actually a republic, folks) as if they cared about that, and our way of life.
Bush continues: “We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home, but then there’s disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”
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If Bush had been talking about Antifa and Black Lives Matter, he would have been right. And while there is some chance that he may have been, most observers believe that this was a veiled reference to the Left’s chief “extremists,” that is, Trump supporters. Supporting that interpretation is the fact that Bush was, in fact, one of the first to jump on the January 6 “insurrection” bandwagon, issuing this statement on the same day:
Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic. I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol – and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress – was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes. Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety. May God continue to bless the United States of America.
His equating of the 9/11 jihadis with the people who entered the Capitol on January 6 (“their determination to defile national symbols”) is nothing short of monstrous. The jihadis, though he immediately denied it, were exponents of a 1,400-year-long war against the non-Muslim world, with a clearly defined ideology and belief system calling for warfare against and subjugation of non-Muslim states. The January 6 “insurrectionists” were unarmed, killed no one, were not there in service of any ideology, but only to protest against election fraud, and were not part of any coordinated plan (or else you would already have seen some people charged with insurrection and treason; no one has been).
That Bush, a cosseted member of the establishment since birth, would repeat these lies is insidious, and indicates that the elites haven’t given up their agenda of silencing and criminalizing all opposition to their agenda by claiming it leads to “insurrection.” And he is not alone, of course. “As I stand here tonight,” Old Joe Biden said in early May, “just one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. 100 days since I took the oath of office, lifted my hand off our family Bible, and inherited a nation in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
The idea that the entry of a group of unarmed people into the U.S. Capitol constituted the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War” was not just ridiculous (remember 9/11? Pearl Harbor?); it was insidious, as insidious as Bush’s remarks on September 11. The silliness and hysteria are in service of an effort to stigmatize, demonize and silence all dissent from their far-left agenda.
Robert Grenier, who served as the CIA station chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan and later as director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center, made it all clear when he declared in February: “You know, even at the seeming height of the crisis immediately after 9/11, there really weren’t that many members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan. And the thrust of our campaign there was, yes, to hunt down al-Qaida, but primarily to remove the supportive environment in which they were able to live and to flourish.”
That “supportive environment” is ordinary, unwoke Americans who don’t want to be overwhelmed by an authoritarian socialist nanny state. They provide the “political and social conditions” that the Left sees as motivating “Trumpist terrorism.” For George W. Bush, they’re “violent extremists at home.” It’s just another blot on his already dismal record.
Robert Spencer
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of 23 books including many bestsellers, such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad and The History of Jihad. His latest book is The Critical Qur’an. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here. For media inquiries, contact
communications@pjmedia.com.