Krauthammer: "The Bush Legacy: he kept us safe"

[Enrique]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-bush-legacy/2013/04/25/b6de6efa-add8-11e2-8bf6-e70cb6ae066e_story.html

Clare Boothe Luce liked to say that “a great man is one sentence.” Presidents, in particular. The most common “one sentence” for George W. Bush is: “He kept us safe.”

Not quite right. With Bush’s legacy being reassessed as his presidential library opens in Dallas, it’s important to note that he did not just keep us safe. He created the entire anti-terror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe.

That homage was paid, wordlessly, by Barack Obama, who vilified Bush’s anti-terror policies as a candidate, then continued them as president: indefinite detention, rendition, warrantless wiretaps, special forces and drone warfare, and, most notoriously, Guantanamo, which Obama so ostentatiously denounced — until he found it indispensable.

Quite a list. Which is why there was not one successful terror bombing on U.S. soil from 9/11 until last week. The Boston Marathon attack was an obvious security failure, but there is a difference between 3,000 dead and three. And on the other side of the ledger are the innumerable plots broken up since 9/11.

(...)

[madrchsod]

1. katrina...................

he certainly protected the people of new orleans and others as he was flying over. he couldn't be bothered to stay in washington to at least act like he gave a fuck about the people who were drowning.

[Boomerproud]

2. Krauthammer: Wrong then and wrong now.

n/t

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. "not one successful terror bombing on U.S. soil from 9/11 until last week"

So to make the grade here anything bad that happens has to
1. Be classified as 'terror'
2. Involve a bomb and not guns or chemicals or sabotage or even internet attacks
3. Has to be on US soil, presumably not including embassy grounds and such

Thanks, Charles. Got it.

[Jefferson23]

4. So many people have lost their jobs, but not this guy.

What a shame.

[malaise]

5. The biggest attack ever was on 9/11 and Bush was President

Fuck these LIARS

[Jack Rabbit]

6. That's quite a whopper, Krauthammer

Bush's response to the September 11 attacks was to order Richard Clarke to find out what Saddam had to do with it. When Mr. Clarke protested that he already knew that Saddam had nothing to do with it, the Frat Boy simply told him to look again.

Thus was born the war based on lies. Saddam would be blamed and that was that. That Osama was the actual culprit was an inconvenient truth that the Frat Boy and his co-conspirators finally had to acknowledge and go into Afghanistan before invading Iraq. Then it was Cheney and Rumsfeld who couldn't wait a few more minutes for the Marines to join the fighting in Tora Bora to get out of Afghanistan in order to be ready for war against Iraq by the Spring of '03.

Good grief, if letting the masterminds of the September 11 attacks off the ropes when we had them there in order to go to war against a dictator who, while unpalatable, still had nothing whatsoever to do the attacks, is keeping us safe, please tell us what the Frat Boy would have had to do for you to say he put us in more danger. And while you're at it, Krauthammer, tell to it to the families of brave Americans who died for oil company profits in Iraq. The war against Iraq was as unnecessary as it was bloody and expensive. Yes, the Iraqi people were liberated, all right, but not from their government. They were liberated from their mineral rights.

You're nothing but a neoconservative, yuppie fascist shill, Krauthammer. Now go fuck yourself.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

7. The GOP is insane

Conservatives have said for years that "Bush kept us safe after 9/11" (but they conveniently forget the infamous August 6, 2001 "Bin Laden Determined To Strike The U.S." PDF), and now, they are taking what happened in Boston (where 4 people died) and are elevating it to the level of 9/11, where thousands died by now saying "Obama has broken that record"? Cut me a break.

Boston was two American citizens using a bomb in a pressure cooker - 9/11 was a sophisticated group of trained terrorists that hijacked planes and flew them into buildings. When talking about the scope of damage and fatality, even Oklahoma City was much bigger than Boston. Both Timothy McVeigh and Dzhokar Tsarnaev were/are American citizens. I never heard any Republican say of Oklahoma City "President Clinton didn't keep us safe."

[sofa king]

8. Except for that one time. And that other time.

[mick063]

9. Bush was an economic terrorist.

Kept us safe? Nothing could be further from the truth. The Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed that America's faltering economy was our single greatest threat. Bush put us in grave danger.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. I know he was awesome on September Ele...... oh wait....nt

[lonestarnot]

11. and 9/11 doesn't count.

[Electric Monk]

18. Special Pleading

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/special-pleading.html

[lonestarnot]

21. Jane and Barbara must be richie rich.

[hatrack]

12. Except for 9/11. Except for the anthrax attacks. Except for the shoe bomber. Except for Katrina.

Except for massive mortgage & CDO fraud. Except for the most gigantic Ponzi scheme in the financial history of the species. Except for walking away from Kyoto and any meaningful action on environmental & energy issues. Except for dozens of attacks on US diplomatic missions overseas.

Except for that, he sure kept us safe, right, Chuckles?

[BethanyQuartz]

13. These things don't keep us safe

That homage was paid, wordlessly, by Barack Obama, who vilified Bush’s anti-terror policies as a candidate, then continued them as president: indefinite detention, rendition, warrantless wiretaps, special forces and drone warfare, and, most notoriously, Guantanamo, which Obama so ostentatiously denounced — until he found it indispensable.

These things put us in even graver danger. Never mind that much of it puts us in violation of international law and our own Constitution. But I sure as heck agree with the writer about Obama's actions. He said one thing and then did exactly as Bush did, which is why I despise him so much.

[neverforget]

14. Just ignore that 911 thingy

and it all looks good.....

[arely staircase]

15. uh huh

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

16. The Main Stream Media can easily produce charts 1990-2012 to easily demonstrate this 'fact'

Global Terror Attacks
Year Terror Attacks
1990 9
1991 20
1992 5
1993 9
1994 8
1995 6
1996 5
1997 2
1998 66
1999 34
2000 28
2001 42
2002 57
2003 82
2004 87
2005 130
2006 108
2007 175
2008 169

Source...
http://smapp.rand.org/rwtid/search_form.php

[kenny blankenship]

17. He made the Panzers run on time.

[olddots]

19. Krauthammer should shave his ass and walk on his hands .

of all the parasitic ugly sad little douche maggots Krauthammer is the lowest and most vile.

other than that he's a nifty guy .

[markpkessinger]

20. What MIGHT keep us safe, but which neither Bush or this President has been willing to address . . .

. . . is if we, as a country, spent even half as much time trying to figure out what is fueling anger at the U.S. as we do thinking about how to keep ourselves "safe."

[spanone]

22. what a fucking load of unmitigated horse shit.

this puts the 'washington post' below the integrity of the nypost....fuck them

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. Some interesting insights into psychology there. Cognitive dissonance run amok.

Using their definitions, no president since Lincoln kept us less safe.

But yeah, this paragraph;

That homage was paid, wordlessly, by Barack Obama, who vilified Bush’s anti-terror policies as a candidate, then continued them as president: indefinite detention, rendition, warrantless wiretaps, special forces and drone warfare, and, most notoriously, Guantanamo, which Obama so ostentatiously denounced — until he found it indispensable.

... should be repeated until we progressives learn something from it.