Travel Advisory bellies rhetoric on intimidation

Baltimore Sun Letter to the Editor June 22, 2004.

President Bush decried the murder of Paul M. Johnson Jr. by al-Qaida terrorists in Saudi Arabia, saying that “America will not retreat. America will not be intimidated by these kinds of extremist thugs” (“American beheaded; al-Qaida leader killed,” June 19). But almost simultaneously, the U.S. State Department issued a directive that all Americans should leave Saudi Arabia.

My dictionary defines intimidate as “to make timid, fill with fear; to coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats.”
It seems clear that members of the Bush administration were coerced into recalling Americans from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia because they were afraid that more terrorist acts would be perpetrated against U.S. citizens.

I have to conclude that either Mr. Bush does not know what intimidate means, or else his comment is yet another example of the now-infamous Bush administration proclivity for obfuscation.

Frankly, I’m not sure which is worse: Mr. Bush’s ignorance or his administration’s penchant for deception.

Dave Goldsmith
Woodstock
The writer is Green Party coordinator for Baltimore County.