White House Press Corps.org: Press Briefing by Tony Snow 09/12/06 (Topic: Politics of 9/11 and Iraq War)

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Press Briefing by Tony Snow 09/12/06 (Topic: Politics of 9/11 and Iraq War)
— Tuesday, September 12, 2006 —

Q But two things, are these people that the President is meeting with -- the families, the loved ones of 9/11 -- saying, yes, we are hurting, now go out and fight in Iraq? And, also, how can it not be political when the President knowingly knows that people are not for this? His poll numbers are way down, and then he's going to say, let's put aside our differences and unite. How is that not political?

MR. SNOW: Simple. Your question contradicts itself. What you've said is, it's politically suicidal to talk about it, and yet -- yes, you did. You just said it's an unpopular war, people don't like it. Well, if he's trying to score political points he'll skip it, but you see, the point of this --

Q Some say it's arrogance; he's going to stick to what he wants to do.

MR. SNOW: You know what, arrogance in what sense? Who is, "some say"? Some say --

Q Democrats, your critics.

MR. SNOW: Which Democrats?

Q There are a lot of them -- John Kerry --

MR. SNOW: Well, I know. We've been through John Boehner here.

Q Do you want me to list them? You want me to list the number?

MR. SNOW: You know what I'd like to do is, when you get back to the tonal issue, ask yourself, is it arrogance or is it maintaining fidelity to principle; is it being stubborn or is it being steadfast? You've got a President whose principle is the same. And April, neither you, nor I, or anybody else in this room will ever go through what the President had to do after September 11th, which is to know that Americans died, and that as President everybody is going to be looking at how you handle it and how you step up to the plate. The President has been absolutely steadfast from the beginning, I'm not going to let them win.

And he has tried in many ways -- and part of what we did last week was to lay out various ways -- it is extremely broad. It is not simply a battlefield. As a matter of fact, that's one small portion of an overall battle. Ultimately, it involves a battle of hearts and minds, a philosophy where you allow freedom to take root so people know that hope is not only something -- is a faint wish, but it is an option that they have if they are free.

And the President, far from trying to -- I know that everybody is -- the construct that's been laid out is the President was trying to make political points. No, he's trying to explain what we're doing to fight back. And understanding -- I mean it was understandable, and in some ways predictable that people were going to punch back. And now we're going to have a political season where we debate all these things, which is good. It's good that we're going to have a debate about this.

But the idea that some say, "he was being arrogant," you cannot be arrogant when you're looking into the face of mothers, as he was saying last night, holding children who are never going to know their father. You can't be arrogant in a situation like that. There is nothing more humbling than being the President in a time of war. And you can ask any President who did it. And George W. Bush is no different than his predecessors, Democratic or Republican, who lies awake nights asking himself the question, how can I get this done and get our people home?

It is the natural inclination -- you've seen how the President reacts and responds when he gets before the military. He gets choked up because he knows how tough it is. He knows what the atmosphere sometimes is politically. He knows that these people are committed to it. You've got an all-volunteer army; first war in which we've had an all-volunteer army because people are committed. And he wants to make sure that he can get as many of them -- he would love to get each and every one of them home safe. It is simply not possible to be arrogant as a Commander-in-Chief in a time of war.

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