From Bush’s commencement address at yesterday’s Air Force Academy graduation:
Like the Second World War, our present conflict began with a ruthless surprise attack on the United States.
From a conversation that I overheard at lunch last week:
Yeah, it’s the biggest one in the world . . . I mean . . . in America. Whatever.
We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American. We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American. We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American. We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American. We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American. We Americans represent less than 5% of the world’s population. For every 21 citizens of the world, only one is an American.
And please, please tell me that at least some of those newly-commissioned Air Force officers know that the Second World War began before Pearl Harbor. I mean, we can’t expect our President to know such things, but surely the military academies require their graduates to take a history course or two.
ADDENDUM: A co-worker just pointed out that, while Bush was quick yesterday to quote from Eisenhower (thus aligning himself rhetorically with America’s unprecedented ideological consensus of the 1950s), he carefully avoided these bits:
“Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.” Guildhall Address. London June 12. 1945
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity.” Canadian Club. Ottawa. Canada January 10. 1946
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” First Inaugural Address January 20. 1953
“There is–in world affairs–a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly.” State of the Union Address Februarv 2. 1953
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” “The Chance for Peace” Address April 16. 1953
“The world moves, and ideas that were good once are not always good.” Press Conference. Washington. D.C. August 31. 1955
“The only way to win World War III is to prevent it.” Radio and TV Address September 19. 1956
“The final battle against intolerance is to be fought–not in the chambers of any legislature–but in the hearts of men.” Campaign Speech. Los Angeles. CA October 19. 1956
“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it.” TV Talk with Prime Minister Macmillan August 31. 1959
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Farewell Address. Radio and TV January 17. 1961