As President Obama has just announced that he will close the Guantanamo Prison within a year, outlaw torture, end the flawed trials of the Al Qaeda suspects, and review the entire conduct of his predecessor's "war on terror," already one-time members of the Bush administration are complaining that Obama is dangerously weakening America in its fight against terrorism.
The common assertion of these former officials is that Bush, through all of the techniques which Obama is now dismantling, kept America protected from any further extremist attacks. But what these so-called patriots fail to mention is that Mr. Bush did not keep the USA safe. In fact, on his watch, the greatest terrorist attack in the history of the country occurred despite a plethora of advance warnings about potential Al Qeada threats. As we have learned from the 9/11 Commission and other investigations, Mr. Bush initially had information at hand suggesting a possible assault on our homeland but took no action to prevent it. So, now, are we supposed to praise this man for his several years of post-9/11 peace when he made no preparations for or paid no attention to menace of terrorism in the first nine months of his presidency -- an act of negligence which eventually lead to the worst tragedy on American soil since Pearl Harbor?