Thursday, September 11, 2008
Seven Years And Counting
It has been seven years today since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center by al Qaeda. President George W. Bush has been pilloried for his War on Terror and, in particular, the Iraq War. The fact remains that no terrorist attack has been successfully carried out in the United States since that fateful day, while Europe hasn't been as fortunate. Should President Bush be given credit for keeping us free of terrorist attacks?
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6 comments:
Was the Anthrax Attack chopped liver?
Absolutely, George Bush should get credit for the fact no terrorist attacks have occurred since 9-11. Just like he should get the blame FOR 9-11. You tell me how the scales tip on that one.
Next thing the White House is going to be bragging about is that we haven't had any apathy-related disaster deaths since Katrina. Yeaahhh, White House.
It's interesting that the GOP would like to claim that their policies have kept terrorists from attacking us while simultaneously arguing that their economic policies have not been the cause of the collapses in the financial, mortgage, and job markets. Unfortunately, in a lot of ways 9/11 is like Christmastime to some folks in the GOP. Under the 9/11 tree, the Bush Administration finds a shiny new "Get Out of Governing Free" card they get to wave around. Considering the number of Constitutional rights that have been stripped away in the last 7 years, I shudder to think what the Republicans would want to do if/when the next attack occurs.
Please list each constitutional right, small question, that has been stripped away from Americans since 9/11 and specifically identify how the Bush administration successfully pulled it off.
Let's see...Habeus Corpus, Right to Privacy, Protections from Illegal Search and Seizure, Rights to due process, Freedom of Assembly.
Let's not also forget the Administration's attempts to avoid even minor Congressional oversight about Iraq, such as ignoring legal subpoenas to testify, refusing to turn over email records and documents requested by Congress, Dick Cheney's curious redefinition of his office as a separate branch of government, and let's not forget the outing of Valerie Plame.
Hey, how about the Administration's practice of paying columnists like Armstrong Williams to tout their policies on Education (which is both illegal and a definite blurring of the 1st Amendment protections for the press).
How about the terror watchlists, Gary? That's where Americans are deliberately blacklisted, wether they are actually guilty of anything or not. How many innocent people have to be denied access to travel on an airplane (hell, Gary, even CHILDREN have shown up on the terror watchlist)? How many innocent people have lost their jobs because they erroneously showed up on this list? So much for "innocent until proven guilty".
I don't even have to get into "Freedom of Religion", do I Gary?
As serious as the potential for Al Queda attacks may or may not be, the ends don't justify the means in regards to the current Bush policies. It presumes that every American is a potential criminal or terrorist, more so if they happen to belong to an unapproved religion (shall I have to say which one?).
When I was growing up, we were always told about how the Soviets would throw people into prison camps without actually convicting them of a crime, would equate dissent as treason, and routinely spied on its citizens in order to ferret out the counterrevolutionaries that may or may not have existed. Any of this sound familiar to you as you look at life in the US in 2008?
Considering both Michelle Malkin and Anne Coulter famously floated the idea of internment camps for Muslims in the emotional aftermath of 9/11, my concerns about how the US might react after the next attack aren't entirely out of bounds.
Oh, that's right..."you're either with us or against us"...I keep forgetting...
I am not sure why sending 4,000+ troops to their death fighting terrorists (although not initially) is not counted. If terrorists attacked us on a Navy ship like the USS Cole, we would count that as terrorism, but somehow this undeclared war is not. Well,I believe that these are deaths by terror, which George Bush and his insane preemptive war policies is totally responsible for.
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