Two Sides of Bush Two: Bill Sammon'sFighting Back
Gurdon, Hugo
Books in Review - "Two Sides of Bush Two" Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism— From Inside the Bush White House BY BILL SAMMON Regnery Publishing/400 pages/$27.95 Reviewed by Hugo Gurdon When George W....
...And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon...
...The promise of restored dignity worked because Mr...
...The reader is left to parse degrees of praise rather than getting judgment...
...Here's what's good about this book: Mr...
...Fighting Back tries at different points to be each of these things, but cannot be said to succeed at any of them...
...It ends up as a grab bag of a conservative's pet peeves (the liberal press being insolent) and favorite moments (among other things, the liberal press being exposed as an ass) of the past year...
...While I've no doubt that the geese experience some sort of consciousness, feel pain, and exhibit complex social patterns, they also crapped up lawns and pathways, stopped traffic and occasionally attacked students—usually unprovoked...
...He accepted the measure against which its success or failure would be tested...
...Yet there is a troubling flaw in the Bush presidency...
...I believe he has succeeded, but setting that aside, it is interesting to consider why the line was a crowd pleaser...
...Even those who broadly admire the president's handling of the war on terror will acknowledge that the speech was a failure...
...Indeed it is not clear that the author knew exactly what book he wanted to write—a minutely researched factual account of Mr...
...He knew soon (although not immediately) after the 9/11 terrorist outrages what the rest of his presidency would be about...
...Bush began to talk of war...
...That was what the nation in its righteous rage needed to hear...
...And he went out of his way to close rhetorical loopholes that another politician might have used to wriggle out of his duties or pretend that the job was done or change the subject...
...Sammon includes great long slabs of quotation from the president's best postHugo Gurdon is a writer living in Washington, D.C...
...A rigorous and balanced assessment of a wartime president...
...But more plausibly, it works because Mr...
...Bush the right sort of leader for the war on terror...
...And the president did not do the political job of explaining to the country what he had in mind...
...His impromptu bullhorn address to workers at Ground Zero—"I can hear you...
...To be sure, in his address to Congress on September 20, 2001, the president warned: "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have seen...
...Its insistence on "bringing the terrorists to justice"—seemingly, through some lugubrious legal process—was quite unsuited to the circumstances...
...The relationship of man to beast, as practically understood and mediated through our religious traditions, is one of superiors to inferiors...
...And this can be attempted only by a president more concerned with what needs to be done than with the counsel of opinion polls...
...The Bush Doctrine was compromised over the issue of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel...
...And thesesporadic bouts of inappropriate quiescence have continued even after Mr...
...Bush seemed like the right politician to be making it...
...Bush is depicted as a president who never makes a misstep...
...This dichotomy—a presidency with a clear, big, and self-defined mission, yet prone to listlessness—is one that awaits explanation by political historians...
...It was inappropriately small—the narrow and nervous essay of a state governor rather than the expansive and inspiring declaration of a national leader...
...Billed as a more religious counterpart to such secular animal rights polemicists as Peter Singer, Scully's Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy, is a curious read...
...For instance, a strange passivity settled on the White House around February or March of this year, lasting until Labor Day...
...is lovingly recounted here...
...It also works becauseunlike, say, elephants I have quite a bit of experience with geese...
...Take his depiction of the president's televised Oval Office address on the night of 9/11...
...It's as though Mr...
...The thing that got Scully's dander up was that the cad homeowner had them trapped and killed while he was away, not even bothering to do the dirty work himself...
...The story about the geese is probably a pretty good Rorschach test—on the one hand they're not as cute as seals or as intelligent as dolphins, but neither are they as dangerous as snakes or as unpleasant as skunks...
...Or an unabashedly partisan celebration of a strong and clear-sighted national leader...
...It's an opportunity missed...
...Possibly, of course, he is just a very good actor...
...Nevertheless, for much of this year the administration appeared con-fused (and was certainly confusing) about where it was going with Middle East policy...
...Some of the vicissitudes of the office are apparent—excoriation by the press, for example—but these are presented as the trials of a saint...
...Despite understanding, accepting, and embracing the task ahead, Mr...
...The rest of the world hears you...
...Bush's administration periodically loses energy and direction...
...Bush's September 11 and the unfolding war on terror...
...He speaks plainly, if not always smoothly...
...Despite the smashing of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, overthrowing the Taliban, and a scattering of other successes against the global terrorist network, the Bush administration appeared to tread water throughout the middle of the year...
...One of the incidents that finally prompted him to put fingers to keyboard was the case of a man who owned a home on a lake where a flock of geese decided to settle...
...Martin's Press/464 pages/S27.95 Reviewed by Jeremy Lott As I worked my way through this latest oddball entry into the literature of what is loosely called the animal rights movement, I was repeatedly struck over the head with the impression that Matthew Scully is a much better person than I am...
...This whole business of animals having "rights" is, Scully admits, a bit far-fetched...
...It may include dramatic strikes, visible on television, and covert operations, secret even in success...
...Even those of us who admire the president nevertheless worry at a tendency to let momentum sink into the political sand...
...The two institutions of higher learning that I attended were lousy with the Canadian squawkers...
...But even for those of use who are conservative and admire the president, Mr...
...For, if it is to be conducted with any hope of success, the war must be taken to terrorists wherever they lurk...
...Sammon's tone is too richly adulatory, dwelling on success, and skating over failure...
...This was certainly its tendency before 9/11, when just three months after the huge political fillip of a major tax cut, his administration was floundering...
...Many of those listening indeed were sickened by the debauch of the Clinton years...
...President"—stand as the only assessment...
...9/11 speeches, which are impressive, poised, and powerful...
...I may be a Philistine, but I cannot understand why killing a bunch of geese would produce pangs of conscience, let alone inspire someone to write a book...
...Lawrence VanBeek) of the forthcoming The Case for Enoch...
...Ordinary people can tell that they're not being sold a bill of goods...
...Bush discovered his actuating presidential mission against terrorism...
...NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 • THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 67 Where's the Beef...
...And so did America's enemies in their caves and palaces...
...Two Sides of Bush Two Q Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism— From Inside the Bush White House BY BILL SAMMON Regnery Publishing/400 pages/$27.95 Reviewed by Hugo Gurdon When George W. Bush was running for the presidency, he liked to tell audiences on the campaign trail that he would restore dignity to the Oval Office...
...Skillfully weaving argument with narrative, it begins with a series of concessions to Dominion's target audience: religious conservatives...
...It is important not to mistake a lull in telegenic victories with a lack of administrative purpose...
...Bush actually believes what he says and does what he thinks is right...
...68 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002...
...Doing so will take someone with great contacts inside the Bush White House...
...It is also a pleasure to savor the unscripted moments that confound critics' efforts to portray this president as a klutz...
...Tellingly, the author lets a quoted comment of a mid-level White House staffer—"Good job, Mr...
...President Bush is apparently comfortable taking this course because of his irreducible belief both in the goodness of America and in its consequent moral duty—not just legal right to defend itself, its people, and its values...
...Bush's rhetorical success than the moral indignation of partisan crowds...
...But there was more to Mr...
...Nine days later, in his magnificent oration heard around the world, the president strengthened and cleverly enlarged on the message of his September 11 speech: "Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done" In other words, America's military was going to go out and crush the killers...
...Perhaps his greatest political asset—certainly one that bugs his critics more than most others—is that he carries conviction naturally, with-out lip-biting displays of ersatz sincerity...
...And so the book subsides into hagiography...
...That's not something that Bill Sammon attempts in his new book, Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism—From Inside the Bush White House...
...The book takes its title from the first chapJeremy Lott is production director for The Report, a Canadian magazine of news and opinion, and co-author (with Rev...
...All of which makes Mr...
...As it happened, of course, the president and his advisers quickly understood where they had gone wrong and almost immediately Mr...
...Sammon would rather slide over this less-than-brilliant moment, saying nothing if he can't heap praise...
...Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy BY MATTHEW SCULLY St...
...The problem with this book is that there is little shading—Mr...
Vol. 35 • November 2002 • No. 6
