"The enemy declared war on us," Bush told a re-election rally in Cedar Rapids. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president... The next four years will be peaceful years."
I wouldn't call that a flip-flop. It seems reasonable to me. However, I doubt that the next four years will be what I consider "peaceful" no matter who is elected.
... before this speech how many of his advisors were saying, "No, do not say 'Peace President'. Please sir, do not go there. Mr. Bush, I highly recommend not using the phrase Peace President. Sir, I think this is a very unwise line of rhetoric."
Oh yeah. See, we go to war because we just love blood and death. It has nothing to do with making the world safer or more free. Mayhem, pain, suffering. The very notion of fighting to bring peace to others is a foreign concept to us.
"Peace" is letting the kids on the playground punch and kick you, and you do nothing except go home black and blue every day. "War" is you stopping the punching and kicking by giving them a bloody nose.
In fact, that was one of his campaign promises, besides "education president". Yeah "I'm the guy who's gonna lead our country to WAR, because we love this stuff".