Bush says something correct

In a change of PR tactics, Bush has finally used a helpful, if not perfect, word in describing the root threat we face in the Middle East: "Islamo-fascism." He described the threat as one from killers dedicated to creating a global Caliphate and destroying the West:

The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that expands from Spain to Indonesia.

and

Having removed a dictator and aided free peoples, we will not stand by as a new set of killers dedicated to the destruction of our own country seizes control of Iraq by violence.

Plus a restatement of a principle from the all-but-forgotten Bush Doctrine:

State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror. The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them because they're equally as guilty of murder.

This is neocon talk at its best. I am not convinced that there wasn't a better way to combat the Islamicists than through an invasion of Iraq, but at least it is not the pure foolishness and/or oil-conspiracy that people make out: there are some good ideas down there.

Disastrously, Bush also accepts the principle that the U.S. should be a great big sacrificial offering through this whole process, hence the thousands of coffins draped with U.S. flags.