Blaming Bush For Terror

"...the Bush administration substituted fear-mongering for sound policy and led the nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq while starving the necessary fight against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and elsewhere," states John F(bomb) Kerry(*) in today's Boston Globe.

In a collective effort to pin the blame on Bush/Cheney for the attempted terror attack on board flight 253, the Obama administration and his lapdog media have tried to explicate themselves from any criticism. In fact, MSNBC has been reporting that the failure to nab the perp in this failed attack "might have been intentional and not accidental," and that the intelligence community's "information was in some way deliberately withheld from some higher or broader authority to make someone look bad." After all, how could something like this happen only 11 months into Obama's presidency? Wasn't he the anointed one who set out to right all of America's past transgressions? Well, wait a minute. A quick review is in order here.

Barely 8 months into Bush's first term, the US was attacked by these same Islamo-fascists. Immediately afterwards, Bush assembled his team to restructure our nation's security measures, and essentially told them, "never again." It didn't take long for congressional democrats, the media, and the ACLU to start harping on the outrageous privacy violations these new rules implied (such as wiretapping suspect phone conversations with known terrorist groups overseas). Despite the never-ending and over-hyped complaints, the fact is that the Bush administration's policies kept our nation safe thereafter. Do you not recall the predictions for further attacks shortly after 9/11? How ungrateful and shameful it is for these elites to bash Bush in the face of historical fact. It's high time for the Obama administration to own up to its own failings and stop blaming everyone else.

Let us recall just one year ago when the stimulus bill was being negotiated. All revisions or alternatives offered by Republicans were shot down. Why? Because in the words of Obama, "I won." This same 'go-it-alone, I-know-best' attitude permeates all of this president's policies, so the laying of blame on others just doesn't stick.

Since Obama's swearing-in ceremony, the US has been faced with an attack on an army recruiting station in Arkansas, the attack on Fort Hood, and the most recent terrorist plot on board flight 253 (which was foiled by alert passengers). All the perps were young radicalized Muslim men. Do these attacks come as a surprise? They shouldn't, if you are of the mentality that we are at war. On the other hand, if you believe these are isolated criminal acts perpetrated by deranged nut-jobs, then you should (and will continue to be) surprised.

Furthermore, let us not forget our then-vice presidential candidate's admonition that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking...Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” Is there any doubt on the part of the world as to this president's mettle? Consider Obama's refusal to cut short his Hawaiian vacation on the news of the flight 253 incident. The same could be said about Michael Leiter's refusal to return from his ski vacation (by the way, he is Obama's director of the National Counterterrorism Center) Or how about Obama's fifth attempt at addressing this recent terror plot before finally uttering the words, "war on terror." One can't help but feel the lackadaisical approach the Obama team is taking with these attacks.

Prior to his aforementioned statement, however, the same Joe Biden (running as presidential candidate) said of Obama's aspirations for the same office, "The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." With the challenges Obama faces everyday, how true this statement resonates for us all. God help us.

(*) Refers to Statesman Kerry's dropping of the F-bomb while describing Bush's handling of the Iraq war.