Bush, AWOL Again

Was Bush AWOL from his sixth-grade English class:

Mr. Bush ridiculed Richard C. Holbrooke, a Kerry confidant on foreign policy, for asserting that the nation is not in a "war on terror, in the literal sense."

"Senator Kerry's top foreign policy advisers question whether this is even a war at all," Mr. Bush told a cheering Republican crowd at the fairgrounds in Mason City, quoting comments Mr. Holbrooke, a former representative to the United Nations, made in a recent article in The New York Times Magazine. "Here's what he said, and I quote: 'We're not in a war on terror in the literal sense. It is like saying 'the war on poverty.' It is just a metaphor.' End quote."

Mr. Bush added, "Confusing food programs with terrorist killings reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the war we face and that is very dangerous thinking."

In a telephone interview, Mr. Holbrooke responded: "Perhaps I should be flattered that President Bush has misrepresented me as badly as he has misrepresented John Kerry. But this is serious business. Terror is a tactic, we are at war with Islamic extremists who use it as a tactic and the administration is fighting this war ineffectively."

That's MET-A-PHOR. Look into it.