Bush’s False Sense of Security


George W. Bush’s strategy to combat terror has been consistent. He didn’t do anything to protect Americans before 9/11, and he has done the same ever since.

By Mick Youther


Whenever pollsters ask, “Who is better on terrorism”, George W. Bush always gets high marks. Why? I don’t know, because the facts say something quite different.

• “Immediately after 9/11, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the press that Bush officials had "no warnings" of the al-Qaida offensive. Now it turns out they were awash in clues, from the CIA briefing given to Bush, to the flare sent up by an FBI agent in Phoenix about the suspicious number of Middle Eastern men in flight training schools, to the silent scream from a Minneapolis agent whose alert that suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui was the type who ‘could fly something into the World Trade Center’ pretty much nailed the plot on the head.”-- David Talbot, Salon.com, 5/16/02

More warnings given to the Bush Administration can be found at: From The Wilderness.

So here is a man, George W. Bush, who was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to become President; but then spends 40% of his time on vacation. He ignored warnings about Osama Bin Laden from the Clinton Administration, he ignored the Hart-Rudman commission’s calls for a Department of Homeland Security, and he ignored multiple warnings of an imminent attack. Ultimately, Bush did nothing, and almost 3000 Americans died on 9/11. The Bush Administration was given: 2 + 2 = 4, and they still couldn’t “connect the dots”.

After 9/11, instead of working intelligently with other nations to locate and capture Osama Bin Laden, Bush unleashed a massive bombing campaign on the rocks and dirt and civilians of Afghanistan, as Bin Laden quietly slipped away. Then, by invoking the magic words, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, Bush turned his “War on Terror” into an excuse to invade Iraq.

• “Within six months of the first bombs falling in Afghanistan, this administration was diverting military and intelligence resources to its planned war in Iraq, which allowed al Queda to regenerate.”-- Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), AP, 3/18/04

So far, Bush’s “catastrophic success” in Iraq has killed over a thousand American troops and over ten thousand Iraqi civilians <http://www.iraqbodycount.net/>. Meanwhile, back in the homeland, Bush’s “War on Terror” gets plenty of lip service, and not much else. These examples are from CAUGHT ON FILM: THE BUSH CREDIBILITY GAP:

• “Bush had been saying that he was proposing $3.5 billion in ‘new’ money for first responders. However, his budget tried to cut more than $1 billion out of existing grants to local police/fire departments to fund this. Then, in August of 2002, Bush rejected $150 million for grants to state and local first responders.” (There are fewer police and first responders on the streets today than on 9/11.-- The Progress Report, 9/9/04)

• “‘We're working hard to make sure your job is easier, that the port is safer.’--Bush, 6/24/02…The President’s 2003 and 2004 budget provides zero for port security grants. …Additionally, in August, the President vetoed all $39 million for the Container Security Initiative which he specifically touted.”

• “While Bush did hold a photo-op to sign legislation promising more INS/Border Patrol staff and facilities, his budget provided no additional money for this. Additionally, in August, Bush vetoed $6.25M for promised pay upgrades for Border Patrol agents…. His 2004 Budget slashes total total “Border and Transportation Security” by $284 million.”

If Bush fought terrorism half as hard as he fought the investigations into the security failures before 9/11, we would all be safer today—but he hasn’t; and yet, his whole reelection campaign depends on the illusion that he has done a great job fighting terrorism. He would like us to forget:

• “Forget that 9/11 happened on his watch and after his administration had been warned in detail by the outgoing Clinton administration of the threat that Al Qaeda posed to the U.S. homeland. Forget that after the attack our commander-in-chief showed himself to be the Barney Fife of lawmen, sitting dazed, stunned, and paralyzed in a Florida schoolroom, waiting for somebody to tell him what to do. Forget that he gave up on Al Qaeda and hurried out of Afghanistan to punch out a weakling middle eastern desert dictator…Forget that after three years Osama bin Laden still remains a free man. …forget that more than 1000 American servicemen and women have died in Iraq since George Bush lied to the country and to the world about the need to invade Iraq.”--Gerald Rellick, InterventionMag.com, 9/8/04

The Bush strategy for dealing with terrorism was aptly described by Daniel Goure, an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security:

• “We don't have a strategy. We can't even decide what the problem is.”-- KRT, 9/12/04

So, sleep soundly tonight. George W. Bush will protect you (unless he’s on vacation).


Posted September 13, 2004


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