Why Blame Bush?

Frequent commenter Society Girl wanted to know why I ended this post saying that I blamed George Bush.

Well, partly it was a joke. Some bloggers have made a sport out of blaming George W. Bush for things about which he has no possible degree of control or culpability.

At the same time, however, consider Bush's reaction in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 -- less than a week after the attack, he visits a mosque, kicks of his shoes, and enters the theological debate within Islam, proclaiming that "Islam is peace" and that "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam." And his administration followed through on these politically-correct bromides, making it a matter of policy to not take ethnicity or religion into account in airline security.

Now, maybe as a political matter, Bush had to say these things. But he gave every indication of actually believing them, and the administration made no concessions to reality. The reality is that, while the Bush view certainly has its adherents among Muslims, the opposing view is just as much a part of Islam. And the hard brutal reality is that youngish men who are Muslim are somewhat more likely to try to hijack an airplane than, say, Mormons.

But because he took such a relentlessly PC position, Bush made it clear that Republicans could be Mau-Maued on these issues. Hence the Flying Imams, and their apparent belief that they can provoke an incident and then play the victim.