A Bully's Pulpit
Commentary: Google News, satellite TV, and email alerts bind the world together. Unfortunately, Bush's tough-guy rhetoric puts out the wrong message.
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A few months back, a terrible earthquake rattled a portion of Iran. Entire villages were erased. The immediate death toll was 500. Thousands were injured. A radio account of people trapped and dying beneath a collapsed mosque had me riveted. Later that day, President Bush said, "Human suffering knows no political boundaries." The pope prayed. A U.N. relief agency sent some tents.
When the news moved on to something else, I fell into a waking dream. I do this a lot lately. It begins with some other president, or at least another version of George Bush. This president reacted differently to 9/11. He listened to opinion outside the gamut Bush normally hears -- the one running from Donald Rumsfeld's worldview clear on over to Dick Cheney's worldview. This president realized right away that Al Qaeda's attacks were conducted on two fronts. One was old-style terrorism, which kills civilians in unexpected ways. The other front is new -- the medium formed by the global reach and speed of television and computer screens that now bind the world into a tight infosphere. On this second front, the actions of the first are amplified in such a way that every violent act by Al Qaeda provokes global terror and every military maneuver by the United States is seen as imperialism. This president not only would have mounted a strong ground effort to bust Al Qaeda, but also would have realized what bin Laden has known all along: In the infosphere, you can no longer address "America" without also talking to the world.
And so this doppelgänger Bush would have seen the advantage -- oh, about a year ago, when half the world seemed to be wearing NYFD caps -- in stationing a fleet of C-5 cargo planes at Kennedy Airport. When an Iranian earthquake or a Bali bomb blast occurred, 200 of New York's bravest and all that rescue paraphernalia for which we are famous -- Jaws of Life cutters, search dogs, remote cameras -- would immediately be dispatched. In my dream, I see NYFD pulling trapped Persian grandmothers out of that collapsed mosque. And the fantasy plays on out, with the president -- Bush would be especially great at this part -- taking to a podium and saying, "Al Qaeda blows up buildings and kills people. We dig through rubble and save human lives. This is what America does."
Okay, get David Frum to tweak the nouns into something gruffer. Still, you've got one of Bush's trademark thin-lipped, nostril-flaring, mad-cowboy speeches -- but one that could pull double duty by showcasing American bravery and humanitarianism in the service of decent Muslims.
Image: David Plunkert
