Bush defends effort against terror before nation
In a rare news conference last night, President Bush sought to reassure Americans about the volatile mission in Iraq and the war on terror. What were your reactions to the press conference?
in today's globe: Bush vows he'll stick to Iraq plan
Complete transcript of press conference
Page 13
George Bush went into a real den of vipers at that press conference and came out of it in one piece. The biased media (see article in Boston.com) tried to throw zingers at him, but they only made themselves look bad. GW is fighting a war. It is very real and must be won. It's amazing to me that the liberal pundits are yammering about 911 being Bush's fault. What a joke! Who hamstrung our CIA & FBI with constraints? Who bombed an aspirin factory in Sudan as a response to terrorism? Albright says nobody is more of a hawk than her? Please! We are now at war. War is killing. We must pursue our enemies & those that support them relentlessly. Thank you George Bush!
Peter, S. Boston
Please don't use these message boards (or any other) as a gauge of public opinion, or as a source of facts. People remember and gravitate towards extreme opinions, and these boards attract people that offer them. There were a few non-inflammatory and reasonable posts that offered honest insight, but even I skimmed over them and reacted more strongly to the more one-sided posts that were simpler and showed conviction. It's human nature, and why reality TV is successful. I worry that boards like these promote dividedness, or at least the perception of dividedness (which achieves the same result), and that dividedness strengthens conviction, whereas conviction often promotes a stubborn ignorance. Ignorance will prove to be our downfall. The news media, both liberal and conservative, typically don't help. They tend to provide two extreme opinions bickering at each other (Fox news), or two opinions agreeing with each other and patting each other on the back (CNN). So please, readers, stop promoting dividedness as entertainment and demand your news channels to provide real information. In the meantime, also try and ignore the wild opinions and repetitive political spin and extract whatever real data you can. I think you'll realize that people agree more than you've been led to believe.
Bob, Detroit
A. He looks like he can't think or speak on his feet, that he's only capable of playing back heavily rehearsed responses; I've never seen a politician who looks more like a complete lightweight, a dim bulb. It's not hard to see why he does far fewer live press conferences than any other modern president. B. The willful ignorance and failure ot acknowledge the incompetence and blunders of his leadership is disgusting; if only (he) and his cronies had read his old man's book on the subject (or recalled Cheney's own description ten years ago of an Iraq invasion as a quagmire waiting to happen), we might not be wasting our soldiers' lives and creating more future terrorists than we are stopping. The whole performance made me sick to my stomach, sick at heart.
Jim, Boston
Bob from Detroit - Let me get this straight. You're using a message board to tell people not to listen to everything hear on meassage boards? I think Boston.com's readers are probably not as ignorant as you think. Thank you to Boston.com and all the other forums that let the PEOPLE voice their opinions to world events.
Dan, Boston
