Joint Chiefs Chairman: Administration Is Pursuing Same Terrorism Policy Bush Trashed In 2004

During the 2004 election, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) likened the war against terrorist networks to fighting crime, suggesting that both could never be fully defeated but their impact on our lives could be drastically reduced:

“We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

Kerry was mercilessly attacked for his suggestion that we attempt to reduce terrorism to level where it is a “nuisance.” President Bush said:

[T]hat very attitude is what blinded America to the war being waged against us. And by not seeing the war, our government had no comprehensive strategy to fight it.

Vice President Cheney added:

There never can be a time when terrorism is just a nuisance. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level. Our goal is to defeat terror, and with George Bush as President, that’s exactly what we will do.

In an interview with MSNBC, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, explained that the Bush administration is currently pursuing the same strategy that Kerry advocated in 2004. Watch it:

(HT: DefenseTech)

Transcript:

PACE: Winning to me is simply having each of the nations that we’re trying to help have a secure environment inside of which their government and their people can function. Example: Here in Washington, D.C., there’s crime, but there’s a police force. And the police force keeps the level of crime below the level at which the government can function. That’s really what winning in the war on terrorism is.