One of President Bush’s earliest assertions regarding the members of Al-Qaeda was his stunning declaration that they “hate freedom.” Rhetorically, when a speaker attacks someone for hating something, he is encouraging his audience to assume that he himself loves the thing in question. It’s a good trick, and fair play. If I say something like “those assholes don’t even like new Behemoth album,” then you’d be right to guess that I like the new Behemoth album a lot. So when President Bush says that Al-Qaeda hates freedom, what he’s banking on is that his audience will conclude that he himself must love freedom a lot. |