Category: Writing and Language

I was digging into my referrer logs today, just for giggles, and ran across some Usenet references.  I followed them, and found this page on, of all things, alt.guitar.amps. It linked to this page of my blog, where I refute (shamefully, without citation) this quote attributed to George W. Bush:

George W. Bush did not say:

We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.

 The quote is from Bob Woodward’s Bush at War, and sometimes this is mentioned (Woodward’s name giving it a certain cachet).

But Woodward never attributes this quote to Bush. Instead, he records it as being said by an unindentified CIA or Special Forces trooper at a 9/11 memorial they’ve built in the Afghan mountains during the first mission into Afghanistan.

 After someone pointed to my page as a counter-proof, they were shouted down by someone else who pointed to all sorts of other Internet citations that claimed Bush did say it, so nyaaah (we are talking, of course, about Usenet …).

If someone’s citing me in an argument, I have a stake in things.  So inquiring (and OCD) minds want to know the truth.  And so, naturally, I turned to Google.  The phrase is still quoted by people to this day as a Bush utterance, so the truth of the matter seems more than just an academic concern.  If he said it (or if Woodward says he said it) then that’s useful information.  If not, then let’s know that, too.

(All the bolding below is mine, just to show things up.)

The citations that this is a Bush quotation are numerous.  That’s not surprising, since it would be a great zinger against him.  In addition to the above, it shows up all over the place — but, suspiciously, rarely quoted at length, or in context, and often with the smell of “I read this quote there so I used it here” about them, or “I got this from Agnes, who got it from Jim, who got it from Louise, who got it from …”

There’s this article by Michael Ortiz Hill.

In Bush at War Bob Woodward writes, “Most presidents have high hopes. Some have grandiose visions of what they will achieve, and he was firmly in that camp.”

“To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil,” says Bush. And again, “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great nation.” Grandiose visions. Woodward comments, “The president was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of Gods Master Plan.”

(In turn cited here.) That’s closely echoed in another article at the same site by William Cook.

Bob Woodward’s deferent, perhaps even obeisant homage to “Dubya” in his recent book, Bush at War, contains this troubling observation: “The President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God’s Master Plan.” This frightening perception followed the President’s declamation, “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil.”

 (Note that the quotes don’t quite match, which seems odd.) (Cook is in turn cited here.)

Someone mentions the “end of the book” as a location, but still attributes it to Bush:

Woodward ends his book with another quotation from the president, uncomfortably apposite: “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation.”

It’s not just sources on the left, but a review of the book by Georgie Anne Geyer, in Pat Buchanan’s American Conservative, again says:

And Woodward ends the book with another quote from the president, in which he again reflects the obsessive chaos theory of the neoconservatives surrounding him like sentinels and for whom Iraq has become the sina quo non of political existence: “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.” Whew.

One of those armchair psychoanalysis efforts on Bush also mentions the quote in order to prove a point: 

Bush has rather unconvincingly denied that he holds the end times view that Christ’s return will be heralded by a cataclysm in the Middle East. But there are signs that he may hold this apocalyptical idea of world history and that he may be both seeking to avoid the biblical cataclysm and to “bring it on.” In his Jan. 10, 2007, speech he called the Iraq war part of the “decisive ideological struggle of our time” and described the absolute catastrophe he is sure would ensue from “failure” in the Iraq war. He has said repeatedly that he believes he is engaged in a mission to “rid the world of evil” and told Bob Woodward that he would willing to “export death and violence to the four corners of earth in defense of this great nation,” which to him is clearly a Christian nation.

 That reference actually has a citation, a foreign policy paper by Stephen Zunes:

Even more disturbingly, Bush has stated repeatedly that he was “called” by God to run for president. Veteran journalist Bob Woodward noted, “The President was casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God’s Master Plan,” wherein he promised, in his own words, “to export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil.”

But Zune doesn’t give his source (though he’s in turn quoted here).

The “Bush” quote also shows up here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and a host of other angry op-ed pieces, blog screeds, and sig lines.

 In the meantime, what of those who argue otherwise (or, rather, provide a different citation for the quote, one that doesn’t include George W. Bush)?

This Peter Symon review of the book (hardly by a Bush supporter), includes the following:

Woodward’s book opens on the morning of September 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. But rather than start this review with the events of that day and their consequences I will quote the very last few paragraphs of Bush at War and then wind back the clock to the events of that day.

Woodward says: “On February 5, 2002, about 25 men representing three different Special Forces units and three CIA paramilitary teams gathered outside Gardez, Afghanistan, in the east, about 40 miles from the Pakistani border.

“It was very cold, and they were bundled in camping or outdoor clothing. No one was in uniform. Many had beards. The men stood or kneeled on this desolate site in front of a helicopter. An American flag was standing in the background. There was a pile of rocks arranged as a tombstone over a buried piece of the demolished World Trade Centre. Someone snapped a picture of them.

“One of the men read a prayer. Then he said, ‘We consecrate this spot as an everlasting memorial to the brave Americans who died on September 11, so that all who would seek to do her harm will know that America will not stand by and watch terror prevail.

“‘We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defence of our great nation.'”

 A similar quote from the end of the book is given here.  Slightly more summarized, the Afghanistan scenario is echoed here (again, not at all by a Bush apologist): 

Woodward tells of a religious prayer meeting on February 5, 2002, attended by 25 men — including three different Special Forces units and CIA paramilitary teams. After a prayer and the invocation of September 11, one of the attendees — speaking for the group — pledged, “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.”

 Similarly, the Socialist Worker Online, claiming the book is actually meant to support Bush, quotes it similarly:

The book closes with a description of U.S. Special Forces and CIA paramilitary troops in occupied Afghanistan dedicating a makeshift monument to the victims of the September 11 attacks. After reading a prayer, a U.S. operative “consecrates” the monument with these words: “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation.” These words remind readers of what’s really going on in Bush at War.

 And this article by G. Pascal Zachary — again, critical of the book — notes:

Oddly, the strongest parts of “Bush at War” take place on the ground in Afghanistan. Woodward intersperses his account of Washington meetings with the exploits of the first CIA team sent into Taliban territory. The team, codenamed Jawbreaker, is shown handing out cash to Afghan warlords. Woodward remains uncritical of these CIA agents, and of the Pentagon Special Forces units who later join them. He ends the book with a strange image of a group of them creating a 9/11 memorial in the Afghan mountains. One of the Americans vows, “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.”

Other Afghanistan citations can be found here, here, here,

Interestingly, the question of which source is correct is played out at Axis of Logic, where someone questions the quote and cites the Afghanistan locale.  The site owner says the person who’d attributed it directly to Bush had, in turn, gotten it from several other “mainstream” sources, about as well-researched as the above blubs (in fact, including several of them), and so stuck by it. 

Wikiquote, though, agrees in refuting the Bush sourcing of the quote, as does the late, lamented SpinSanity.

And what of the book itself?  I don’t have a copy, but the contents are scanned by Amazon.  Go here, and search for “four corners” and the “Back Matter” of the book.  There it is, page 352, smack-dab in Afghanistan, Dubya present, if at all, only in spirit.  (And if I’d gone there first, I might well have written a far shorter post.)

Even without the book, though, my judgment would be with the Afghanistan citation.  It has full, contextual quotes from the book, it’s supported by more believable people, and it lacks the subtle variations in text (“defense of this great country” or “defense of our great country,” or “this great nation,” etc.) that make the others less credible.

And … what’s, then, the point of this way-too-much-Googling?  Just this:  the truth matters.  When we fail to dig out the truth, or research it when there’s a question, or simply take the easy road of repeating what we’ve heard, we do the truth no service.  Indeed, one of the great criticisms of George W. Bush has been his truthfulness, or lack thereof; using misquotations and half-truths to attack him does the cause no favors.  Use his own words to hang him, if you will, not words you wish he’d used, or think he would have used if he’d thought of them.

I do understand the sentiment, mind you.  There’s a lot of anger, and angst, and disgust, and discomfort with George W. Bush and his various actions, domestically and internationally.  Finding him saying he’s going to “export death and violence to the four corners of the earth” (especially if you truncate the “defense”  and “rid evil” parts) is a money quote that’s hard to resist, even when it’s refuted (and especially when everyone else is using it).

But, y’know, there’s tons of “I cannot believe Dubya said that” material out there.  Why keep holding onto something we’re pretty sure he didn’t say when there’s so much other ammo lying on the ground?  If you think Bush is a force for deceit and trickery in this country and the world, don’t use the devil’s own tools.  Keep the moral high ground.

Don’t be about the truthiness, but be about the truth.  In the long run, it prevails.