Ah, The Simple Past!

According to Bush, “Coalition forces drove the Taliban from power, liberated Afghanistan, and brought freedom to 25 million people.” *

Use of the past tense makes all the difference in the world, doesn’t it? Of course, mainstream media outlets such as Radio Free Afghanistan and the Guardian love to thumb their noses at our president by refusing to use it in their liberal, anti-American, fact-based reports:

Lotfullah Mashal, a former spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, says Taliban fighters no longer rely solely on hit-and-run tactics by small groups of guerrillas. Instead, the Taliban have been concentrating into groups of more than 100 fighters to carry out frontal assaults on government security posts. Mashal says that development explains why deaths in Afghanistan during the past week have topped the number of reported deaths in Iraq in the same period.

After four years and $12bn, £6.5bn, in foreign aid, the majority of Afghans still scrape through life without electricity or clean water. More than seven million people are chronically hungry, according to the UN, and 53% live on less than a dollar, or 54p, a day. The sight of foreigners earning large salaries and driving large vehicles protected by private security companies has focused frustrations.

No, no, no ! Repeat after me: Coalition forces drove the Taliban from power, liberated Afghanistan, and brought freedom to 25 million people!


*Read the entire transcript: Apparently, Bush is just like Harry Truman—minus all of that crazy “Fair Deal” bullshit, of course. Oh—and Truman actually fought in a war.