AddieStan

So the president once again used the tragedy of the September 11th terrorist attacks to justify every lie he's told to the American people, every transgression of the U.S. Constitution his administration has executed and unleashing of unspeakable violence on a nation of Arabs who had nobly endured the tyranny of the despot who ruled them, and the cruelty of policies intended to starve the despot out of office. Non, mes amis , your blogstress is not surprised by what she heard tonight from the Oval Office, but she finds herself nonetheless enraged. Vying for most audacious line in his speech is the president's quoting of Osama bin Laden 's description of al Qaeda's offense against the West as "World War III." Mr. Bush failed to mention the use more recent use of that description by one Newt Gingrich , the disgraced former Speaker of the House. Also in competition, however, is the president's appropriation of Gingrich's " clash of civilizations ...

As I write, President George W. Bush is addressing America on the subject of the attacks of September 11, 2001. He defined the enemy that committed those attacks as one that "hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent." The same could be said of his own administration, no?

On this somber anniversary, your blogstress contemplates the ballyhooed clash of civilizations between the West and the Islamic world -- and concludes that the clash is real. Read it here , at The American Prospect Online .