September 20, 2001: President George W. Bush, in a speech to a joint session of Congress eleven days after the 9/11 atrocities:
We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.
September 16, 2013: President Barack Obama announces that he is waiving the prohibitions in federal law against supplying arms to terrorist organizations in order to clear the way for the United States to arm opposition groups engaged in a civil war against the ruling Syrian regime of BasharAssad – opposition groups that prominently feature the Muslim Brotherhood and that systematically include al-Qaeda affiliates in their operations.
Senator Bob Corker (R., Tenn,) makes clear just how far Republicans have strayed from 9/11 clarity regarding the Islamic supremacists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans:
We understand some people are going to get arms that should not be getting arms. But we still should be doing everything we can to support the free Syrian opposition.
Sure we should. What could be more in the interests of the American people than willfully distributing weapons our government knows will fall into the hands of Islamic supremacists who hate the West and plot to mass-murder Americans — including Islamic supremacists against whom our nation is still in a state of war under a congressional authorization of military force overwhelmingly approved in light of President Bush’s vow: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”
Now, if you are with us, you are with the terrorists . . . and that’s just fine with the bipartisan Beltway ruling class.