Foreseeable Consequence

Bush on his "Bring 'em on" idiocy:

Yahoo! News - Bush Admits Misgivings About Famed Phrases: "'Sometimes, words have consequences you don't intend them to mean,' Bush said Thursday. ''Bring 'em on' is the classic example, when I was really trying to rally the troops and make it clear to them that I fully understood, you know, what a great job they were doing. And those words had an unintended consequence. It kind of, some interpreted it to be defiance in the face of danger. That certainly wasn't the case.'"

The consequences may not have been intended by a lamebrain like Bush, but they were totally foreseeable because of what the phrase he uttered actually means. Telling someone to "Bring 'em on" or "Bring it on" is trashtalking that means "come fight."

A predictable consequence of that phrase is that your enemy will rally and "come fight." If it had an effect, it likely has had the consequence of more Iraqis and international jihadis saying "Ok, Bush, we'll fight America."

On top of that, insurgents are now using the phrase in taunting propoganda videos:

"George W. Bush; you have asked us to 'bring it on'. And so help me, (we will) like you never expected. Do you have another challenge?," asked the narrator before the video showed explosions around a U.S. military Humvee vehicle.

Bush's error wasn't in the unintended consequences of his phrase. Any idiot could have known the likely consequences.

Bush's problem -- and even more, ours -- is that he's not just any idiot.