‘Sheriff’ President shoots rhetoric

WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 18: US PRESIDENT George W. Bush married the emotive rhetoric of ‘‘barbarism’’ and ‘‘evildoers’’ with the gruesome image of women’s throats being ‘‘slit’’ to build his case on Monday for retribution.

Words and phrases like ‘‘appalled,’’ ‘‘outraged,’’ ‘‘unbelievable,’’ ‘‘beyond comprehension,’’ and ‘‘evil in the extreme’’ have rolled off Bush’s tongue regularly since last Tuesday when hijacked aircraft slammed into New York and Washington and he blandly referred to ‘‘those folks’’ responsible.

The Texan, who describes himself as a plain-spoken man, sought to prove it at the Pentagon in front of the nation’s top military brass with a metaphor from the Wild West. Although he lacked the white hat and silver star, Bush sounded just like the town sheriff when he suggested he wanted Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi dissident who is a Prime suspect in the assaults, ‘‘dead or alive.’’ ‘‘When I was a kid I remember ... the ‘wanted’ poster. It said: ‘‘Wanted, Dead or Alive,’’ he told reporters. ‘‘All I want and America wants is to see them brought to justice.’’

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer refused to elaborate, letting the words of his boss stand. ‘‘You know, I think that justice comes in many different shapes and forms, and the President expressed his opinion about a couple of those,’’ Fleischer said. Bush has been preparing Americans for a protracted ‘‘crusade’’ to ‘‘root out’’ and rid the world of ‘‘evildoers’’ in the aftermath of suicide plane attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington that left 5,000 people dead or missing.

He has sought to educate the public about how it will be a new type of war against a different kind of enemy — a foe he demonises daily as barbarians who hide in holes and caves. ‘‘It’s an enemy that likes to hide and burrow in. Their network is extensive, there are no rules, it’s barbaric behavior,’’ he said. ‘‘They slit throats of women on airplanes in order to achieve an objective that is beyond comprehension.’’

Fleischer said Bush was referring to events that took place on a fourth aircraft which crashed in western Pennsylvania apparently without reaching its intended target — the White House or the Capitol.

‘‘I have not talked to the President since he said that,’’ Fleischer told reporters. ‘‘But I’m aware of public reports involving things that were said on cell phones with passengers on the flight in south-west Pennsylvania .’’ Bush described the perpetrators as people who ‘‘like to hit and then like to hide-out.’’

‘‘But we’re going to smoke them out and we’re adjusting our thinking to the new type of enemy. These are terrorists that have no borders,’’ he said. ‘‘We will not allow ourselves to be terrorised by somebody who think they can hit and hide in some cave somewhere.’’ (Reuters)