- The Washington Times - Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Charles Krauthammer came to Bill O’Reilly’s defense Tuesday night after the host criticized the president for using the word “tragedy” to describe the terror attack in Boston.

The Fox News host didn’t attack President Obama for not using the word “terrorism” at first, but instead had a problem with calling the event tragic. Mr. Krauthammer agreed, saying the word isn’t appropriate when “human evil” is the cause.

“A bus accident is a tragedy, an attack on a bus is a crime or an act of war. When FDR addressed the Congress after Pearl Harbor, he didn’t say ’December 7th, a day that will live in tragedy’ … An accident is a tragedy, and it has a cause, and it has to do with fate, serendipity, accident, luck. But when the agency is human evil, that’s beyond a tragedy and it’s a crime,” he said.

Mr. Krauthammer also commented on the “awful” state of U.S. intelligence in the past ten years.

“I just make a difference between operationally, they’ve been incredibly good, but in terms of assessment of the potential of our enemies, ever since the Russians exploded the bomb in ’49, we’ve gotten it wrong every single time,” he concluded.

• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.

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