George W. Bush on ISIS: ‘Evil is evil’

Former President George W. Bush said this week that “evil is evil” when describing the threat posed by Islamic militants in the Middle East. 

“There is no light gray. Murdering innocent people to move their political point of view has been, is and always is evil,” Bush told an audience at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Wednesday.

{mosads}Bush did not weigh in on President Obama’s request from Congress for use of military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to local Fox affiliate KTBC in Austin, which captured his remarks. 

He did, however, describe the recent Paris attack linked to ISIS as unsurprising, KTBC reported, and mentioned that “one of the real dangers is an isolationist tendency” in the United States. 

Bush also argued for continued U.S. presence in the Middle East despite a reduced dependence on foreign oil.

“When the pressure is off, they strike in order to frighten us who believe in freedom,” he said.

Bush has held a relatively low profile in recent years, especially when weighing in on the Obama administration’s counterterrorism operations in the Middle East. 

In a Fox News interview in early October, Bush said ISIS has the “same exact modus operandi of those who murdered 3,000 on our soil,” referencing the al Qaeda attacks on Sept. 11.