Bush’s Talk Forceful, Reflective

Progress. And patience. Vigilance. And a return to normality. Bomb Afghanistan. And feed it.

In his prime-time news conference Thursday night, President Bush sought to balance conflicting--almost contradictory--messages that underscored the complexity of the unfolding war against terrorism.

Bush was direct, often forceful, but more reflective than belligerent. He spent almost as much time musing about the moral and cultural impact of the Sept. 11 attacks on America as he did recounting the status of the military campaign in Afghanistan--a subject on which he offered few details and little new information.

Bush spoke with more evident pride about Jewish and Christian women in America reaching out to Muslim neighbors who feared prejudice than he did about any weapon the Pentagon has deployed against the Taliban.

“This time of testing has revealed the true character of the American people,” Bush said in his opening remarks.

His tone and manner were not as commanding as they were in his tour de force speech to a joint session of Congress the week after the attacks. But he was far more cool and collected Thursday than he was in his hurried address to the nation in the frantic first hours after the tragedy. His language was alternately colloquial and grave; at one point, he referred to Osama bin Laden as “the evil one”--an ominous phrase that recalled biblical descriptions of the devil.

Lacking high drama or emotional declarations, Thursday’s give-and-take with reporters seemed surprisingly ordinary; despite the virtually unprecedented subjects under discussion--and the breathless buildup of the television anchors--the tone was more routine than historic. And maybe that was the true significance of the evening: In its very ordinariness it suggested that the war on terrorism, far from a single traumatic event, is a condition that the president, and Americans, will have to learn to live with for some time.

Indeed, Bush told Americans he would be reporting on the conflict “for as long as I am president.” And then, in an addition that suggested the breadth of the challenge, he suggested that his administration’s actions in the months ahead could serve as a model for “future presidents or future prime ministers in Britain.”

The unspoken implication, of course, was that even his successors would be grappling with this problem.

In some ways, the questions Bush faced were as revealing as the answers. Each query focused on the war on terrorism, from the hunt for Bin Laden to the risk of further attacks at home.

Bush wasn’t asked a single question about the approaching debate in Congress on how to stimulate the economy, much less prescription drugs, education and the patients’ bill of rights--issues that dominated the Washington agenda until Sept. 11. The silence on those topics spoke volumes about how thoroughly the attacks have reordered the debate in the capital and shifted the focus of the nation itself.

On the war itself, Bush delivered the messages carefully balanced between optimism and caution, threat and entreaty, carrot and stick.

At one moment, he insisted that the U.S. military attacks had Bin Laden and his terrorist group “on the run”; at another he cautioned it could take as much as “a year or two” to complete the offensive against the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan.

Often in the same breath, Bush urged Americans to be vigilant to new threats while exhorting people to return as much as possible to the lives they knew before Sept. 11.

His message to nations abroad was calibrated just as precisely. In response to one question, Bush made clear he was willing to give nations that had sheltered terrorists in the past a virtual amnesty if they cooperate now in the fight. He even suggested he would call off the attacks against Afghanistan if the ruling Taliban would “cough . . . up” Bin Laden and his associates.

But he also delivered a firm warning to nations that continued to support terrorism, suggesting that the attack on Afghanistan was a model for what others might expect:

“We are sending a signal to the world as we speak, that if you harbor a terrorist there will be a price to pay,” he said.

Yet when asked directly about Iraq--the nation that many conservatives believe should be the next target in the campaign against terrorism--Bush said only that he was carefully watching its leader, Saddam Hussein.

Bush seemed most engaged in talking about how the attacks of Sept. 11, and the ongoing terrorist threat, has changed America. He insisted that the attacks have forced the Pentagon, the FBI and all of government to “adjust our way of thinking.”

And he suggested that Americans needed to be more vigilant, reporting to authorities when they see “suspicious persons lurking around” a crop duster or a petrochemical plant.

But as he has throughout the crisis, Bush immediately joined that warning with another, urging Americans “not to use this as an opportunity to pick on somebody who doesn’t look like you or doesn’t share your religion.”

Throughout, Bush seemed to openly marvel at the response of ordinary Americans to the attacks. Crisis, he argued, had revealed a national character “overflowing” with compassion. In a striking exchange, he declared that he was “amazed” at the hatred of America in large swaths of the Arab world: “Like most Americans, I just can’t believe it, because I know how good we are,” he said.

In some corners of the Middle East--and not only those sympathetic to Bin Laden--those words are likely to be seen as betraying a blinding cultural insularity. Yet they seemed among the most heartfelt words of the night from a president who appears to be drawing as much strength from quiet acts of compassion as explosive feats of arms.