"death and violence" quote

Wed Mar 23 13:57:33 UTC 2011

Garson, I cut from my last post a remark to the effect that
some conspiratorially-oriented readers might be mesmerized into believing
that the speaker was Bush himself, making a secret, symbolic,
morale-boosting appearance to preside at this unusual ceremony. The book,
after all, is called _Bush at War_, and this is its finale.

 Woodward may or may not have been present.

Here's a blogger's discussion, from 2007, of some of the quote's trajectory:

http://hill-kleerup.org/blog/2007/04/19/the_export_death_and_viol.html

JL
On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "death and violence" quote
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The book "Bush at War" by Bob Woodward can be examined via
> Amazon-Look-Inside. The page images indicate that the Amazon
> searchable text is from the Simon & Schuster, copyright 2002 edition.
> Amazon says the book displayed is the hardcover released in 2002.
> There is also a copy of the work in the Google Books database that is
> in preview mode.
>
> Searching for "export death" with Amazon-Look-Inside yields only one
> match in the text. It occurs in the Epilogue at the very end of the
> book.
>
> Begin excerpt
>
> 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 Center.
> 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
> defense of our great nation."
>
> End excerpt
>
> Woodward does not identify the speaker. He also does not say how he
> learned about this event. Presumably he was not present. Who told him
> what was said? The speaker may be in a Special Forces unit or may be
> in the CIA. But Woodward does not directly say that every person
> present was in a Special Forces unit or the CIA. Most readers are led
> to this assumption I suspect.
>
> Woodward does give a precise date. So the itinerary of candidates for
> attribution can be examined on that date. Also, someone could ask
> Woodward what he thinks about the widespread attribution of the quote
> to Bush.
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 8:30 AM, Jonathan Lighter
>  <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "death and violence" quote
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Everybody relax.
> >
> > James Schamus in the NYT,  5/11/03, p. MT29 (ProQuest), quotes Woodward
> and
> > attributes the remark to "a C.I.A. officer."
> >
> > But this may also be inaccurate. Woodward does not say whether the
> speaker
> > represented the CIA or the Army.
> >
> > One might *assume* that the CIA would take precedence in this sort of
> > ceremony, but to me, at least, that is not certain.   OTOH, Woodward's
> > failure to mention the man's name might suggest he was indeed a CIA
> > operative.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:33 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
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> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: "death and violence" quote
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> There is a possible flaw in the above. Though I checked _Bush at War_ in
> >> both GB abd Amazon previews, it is conceivable that an attribution to
> Bush
> >> appears on some unacknowledged, undisplayable page.
> >>
> >> If so, I apologize for my clumsiness.
> >>
> >> "Bush's" remark already appears as the number-two quotation in the
> >> ultra-quickie _Quotable War or Peace_, ed. by Geoff Savage (Toronto:
> Sound
> >> and Vision, 2003).
> >>
> >> Garson?
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 10:03 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> >> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >>
> >>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> > -----------------------
> >> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> > Subject:      "death and violence" quote
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >
> >> > Hundreds of websites quote Pres. G. W. Bush in the days after
> >> > Nine-Eleven, some approvingly, many in outrage:
> >> > "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in
> >> > defense of this great nation.=94
> >> > The only source offered is Carl Woodward's _Bush at War_ (N.Y.: Simon
> &
> >> > Schuster, 2002).
> >> >
> >> > The catch, of course, is that Woodward attributes the words instead to
> an
> >> > unnamed American among a group of Special Forces officers and CIA
> >> > operatives (all "more hungry for action than is generally known") as
> they
> >> > symbolically buried a piece of debris from the World Trade Center near
> >> > Gardez, Afghanistan, in 2002.
> >> >
> >> > The book ends on that Pattonesque note (p. 352).
> >> >
> >> > JL
> >> >
> >> > --=20
> >> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >> >
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >>
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> truth."
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