"Success is not no violence"

Last May 7, Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue published a short article entitled, "Madman or prophet of doom?" In it he uses a quote from President Bush to support his editorial belief that "George W. Bush is out of his freaking mind."

While addressing the Associated General Contractors of America at the Willard Hotel in D.C. the morning of May 2, 2007, the leader of the free world stated, "Either we’ll succeed, or we won’t succeed. And the definition of success as I described is sectarian violence down. Success is not, no violence. There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve."

The quote is verbatim from the weekly compilation of presidential documents website. It was taken from the Q & A period following a lengthy explanation for why Bush prefers to escalate war in Iraq and refuses to consider a reasonable timetable for withdrawal.

Thompson extracted the following meanings from the embarrassingly inarticulate comments from the commander-in-chief. According to Thompson’s analysis, President Bush admitted that, "Iraq can never be a safe place to live because we aren’t safe in our own country."

Bush has, in his bumbling way, admitted that making the streets of Iraq "safe" is not the goal, nor is making the streets of America safe. What he said, when you remove the double negative from the statement ,"Success is not no violence," is "Success is violence."

No wonder they "don’t like our freedom."