Did anyone notice how many times Bush used the word "Caliphate" in his press conference? Wonder if that will be the new Republican "code word" this week.
He said it at least 3-4 times during that press conference. The first time he said it I thought "Huh. I'm surprised Bushie knows that word!!"
Then the second time I realized a pattern. So that is the new talking point? We need to "stay the course" in Iraq because Muslim extremists are going to try to re-establish the caliphate? (At one point he said extend the Caliphate, as though it is already on the move).
Here we go:
The strategic goal is to help this young democracy succeed in a world in which extremists are trying to intimidate rational people in order to topple moderate governments and to extend the caliphate.
And then
The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives.
(Note, it is funny to hear these words coming out of his mouth)
And they want us to leave. And they want to topple government. They want to extend an ideological caliphate that has no concept of liberty inherent in their beliefs.
And again
My job is to look at the intelligence and to -- and I'm going to tell you that there's an enemy out there that would like to do harm again to the United States, because we're in a war. And they have objectives. They want to -- they want to drive us out of parts of the world to establish a caliphate. It's what they have told us.
And finally
But the stakes are high if we were to leave. It means that we would hand over a part of the region to extremists and radicals who would glorify a victory over the United States and use it to become -- use it to recruit. It would give these people a chance to plot and plan and attack. It would give them resources from which to continue their efforts to spread their caliphate.
That's too many times for it to be a coincidence. So this is the new thing?
I wonder how many times we will hear it this week and leading up to the election. It seems strange.