Bush’s Purple Heart

What’s going on in this cartoon? See below:

Media Matters:

In his March 22 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about an exchange President Bush had with Helen Thomas, a syndicated columnist with Hearst Newspapers, during Bush’s March 21 White House news conference, in which he claimed that by calling on Thomas “for the first time in three years,” Bush found “a useful foil” that allowed him “not only to punch back but to show the country that he’s up against a left-wing press corps.”

From Bush’s March 21 White House news conference:

THOMAS: I’d like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet — your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth — what was your real reason? You have said it wasn’t oil — quest for oil, it hasn’t been Israel, or anything else. What was it?

BUSH: I think your premise — in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist — is that, you know, I didn’t want war. To assume I wanted war is just — is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect —

THOMAS: Everything —

BUSH: Hold on for a second, please.

THOMAS: Everything I’ve heard —

BUSH: Let me — excuse me, excuse me. No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it’s just simply not true. I — my attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We — when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I’m never going to forget it. And I’m never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Link