Ever at pains to paint a picture of a historically illiterate President Bush, today the BBC contributes to Bush's image problem by a misleading report which states that 'President Bush has strongly defended the US-led war on terror, casting it as a struggle between freedom and tyranny similar to World War II... he said they were fighting the same war as those who battled the Nazis.'

In fact Bush was saying something much more subtle than that. Elsewhere in the speech, unquoted by the BBC, he made the point that 'In some ways, this struggle we're in is unique. In other ways, it resembles the great clashes of the last century', and he foregrounded it by drawing points of comparison including one the Beeb mention, that

'Like the Second World War, our present conflict began with a ruthless, surprise attack on the United States'.

This, of course, is a specific and accurate point of comparison (to an attack from the Japanese, not the Nazis), not a general attempt to compare the WoT with WW2. The Beeb fail to mention that Bush also said 'The terrorists of our day are, in some ways, unlike the enemies of the past.' , and then went on to articulate this point, too:

'The terrorist ideology has not yet taken control of a great power like Germany or the Soviet Union.'

It is really the BBC who is being historically illiterate, since it is they who are saying that when Bush mentions 'the murderous ideologies of the last century' he is referring to Nazism, when in fact it's clear he means Communism as well- but the Beeb seem to ignore that point. It's strange, really, because the Beeb are usually quite keen to explore the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam (a battle against popular communists).

Not only that, but the word 'Nazi', in my quick scan, appeared only once- unsurprising really since America spent much of its energies in the Far East during the period 1941-45. Japan's ideology was somewhat different to the Nazi's, although compatible.

Actually, as I write, the BBC report seems even worse than I thought. I mean, why would Bush have referred to the struggles of the 'last century' if he meant a four year period (or a bit longer, if you include reconstruction) in the 1940's? The BBC reading of it is a pure wilful misreading of a powerful, intelligent and articulate speech.

There is no link from the BBC report to Bush's speech to dispel the fog, but fortunately it can be found here.