Bush's speech celebrating the anniversary of war -- what an odd thing to be celebrating, no? -- contained a very telling slip. Here's the text as it was reported:
There is a dividing line in our world, not between nations and not between religions or cultures, but a dividing line separating two visions of justice and the value of life.
And here's what he actually said (video):
There is no dividing line -- there is a dividing line, not between nations and not between religions or cultures...
As he says "there is a dividing line", his eyebrows shoot up and his face gets this kind of micro-smirk. It's as if he knows he's given up the game, that he knows the falsity of his insistence that the terrorists' creed is "We choose death while you choose life". Later, speaking of America's supposed monopoly on valuing life, he says:
And we who stand on the other side of the line must be equally clear and certain of our convictions. We do love life, the life given to us and to all.
He has to insert "do" into "we love life", not for better oratory or persuasive rhythm, but because it's how you speak when you're insisting on something you know to be false. "I do love you", says the adulterer confronted with his transgression. "I do."
The war is taken not only to the Arab street but to the American street: "in this new kind of war, civilians find themselves suddenly on the front lines". The war is between black and white: "The civilized world is at war". By casting the war as occurring between starkly drawn opposites, between good and evil, and then drawing civilians into the heat of the conflict, Bush constructs a war that can only end as a war on both good and evil.
Bush knows this, somehow, but can't admit it -- hence his slip: "There is no dividing line" between the "civilized world" and the terrorists' world, because it's the same world.