Doug Harper's Sciolist is a low-profile blog which I stumbled upon after googling some sort of etymological question and subsequently took a liking to. As Benzene regulars know, I enjoy reading political views which are opposite of mine. Doug is a supporter of President Bush and his wars, which I find fascinating. What I find even more fascinating is that he's a literate writer who chooses his words carefully, he shows a genuine interest in and respect for opposing viewpoints, and he is well informed about history generally and of the Islamic world in particular. Any of these qualities are rare enough in a blog on the left or the right.

Last week he had a post connecting the recent supposed gaffes by Bush and by Kerry, in which Bush said "Our enemies ... never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we," and Kerry said, "I believe I can fight a ... more sensitive war on terror." Both were stupidly flogged ad nauseam by their respective political opponents. The Sciolist post makes two good points: First, it's hypocritical to try to make an issue of the one while defending the other. Second, it's shallow and stupid to be making an issue of either since they're just verbal gaffes and not indicative of actual policy.

I want to go on to make the third point, which is that neither of them are gaffes at all. Most of my readers are liberals, so I hardly need to explain Kerry's statement. Obviously he wants his policy to be more "sensitive" in the sense that a scale or a microscope might be more sensitive; it's not the touchy-feely, "terrorists just need a hug" sort of sensitive that the critics on the right are trying to caricature it as. Some liberal blogger -- alas, I didn't save the link -- even dug up a quote where Cheney used "sensitive" in the exact same way.

I have yet to see anyone on the left make a similar defense of Bush's comment, even though it's obvious. What did he say? He said that his administration is constantly thinking about ways to harm our country. Well, yes, it is and it should. If you're going to prevent something bad from happening, you have to think about what bad things might happen. To twist this as if it means Bush is plotting to harm the country is just stupid.

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