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International News Title: Thank You, President Bush It has been one year now since George W. Bush left office. In that year the United States has endured terrorist attacks at home and abroad. By President Obama’s own admission, anti-terror intelligence has under his watch suffered a “systemic failure.” The unemployment rate has gone from six to ten percent. Public trust in Congress has fallen to an all-time low, while Obama’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest point of any president in his first year in office. The future of our modern health care system is in doubt an unpopular overhaul in disarray and its proponents vowing to “pass something.” In the latest opinion polls, two-thirds of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. This situation was different during the presidency of George W. Bush, who completed his first year in office with the highest approval rating of any president. After 9/11, thanks to the sophisticated network of intelligence rapidly put in place (including unauthorized wiretaps and enhanced interrogation, both effective means of gaining real-time intelligence, and both now rejected), there were no further attacks on the homeland. This was not happenstance. It was because George Bush was determined to defend the United States at all costs, even at the cost of assaults by civil libertarians and by opponents seeking to score political points. Few would dispute the fact that the electronic surveillance and enhanced interrogation protocols put in place by President Bush saved lives. In the few short weeks following the 9/11 attacks, our military dislodged Taliban-protected terrorist camps in Afghanistan, thus denying the enemy a ready base of operations. The brief and (on our side) almost bloodless war that liberated Afghanistan from the Taliban drove al-Qaeda into hiding, denying them a base for training future terrorists whose only purpose was to attack the United States and its allies. No one will ever know how many lives were saved by President Bush’s swift and decisive action, but it must be many thousands. Despite criticism of the war in Iraq, much of it mounted hypocritically by Democratic senators who sanctioned the war with their own votes, that war was also just and necessary. At the moment when the war was initiated it was generally believed that weapons of mass destruction were stockpiled in Iraq. Even Hans Blick, the Swedish diplomat in charge of weapons inspection (whose inspectors had recently been kicked out of Iraq), stated that WMDs “probably” existed in Iraq. We now know that Saddam Hussein intentionally misled the West into believing that he possessed WMDs because of his greater fear of Iran. Ninety-nine U. S. senators voted to support the war believing that the weapons did exist. Had they existed, they would have posed a grave threat to our security. President Bush was right in taking no chances. He should be honored for having made a courageous decision to protect his country and its allies from the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that were thought to exist and that would most certainly have been employed, and perhaps found their way into the hands of terrorists, if they had existed. Sooner or later, of course, Saddam would have found a way to produce WMDs on a large scale, for, as was learned from an audiotaped Iraqi cabinet session, that was one of his highest priorities. If we had not fought when we did, at a time when Saddam did not possess WMDs, we would have had to fight later at a time when he did. How much costlier would that have been for our troops, and how much more dangerous for allies like Israel and Turkey? Throughout the long insurgency that followed large-scale fighting, President Bush stood nearly alone, unshaken by the savage attacks of those who would damage our national security by imposing “timetables” or passing resolutions for “immediate withdrawal.” One such critic now occupies the White House, but oddly enough, his Middle East policy now resembles that of his predecessor, even to the point of retaining Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Those who scored cheap political points, even at the expense of potentially undermining our national defense, now find that the Bush policy was the wisest course after all. It is also clear that the Bush economic policy, much criticized by the opposition during his eight years in office, was also more successful than was thought. The tax cuts passed at the beginning of the Bush presidency soon lifted the economy out of the deep recession inherited from Bill Clinton. They also formed the basis of 72 straight months of economic expansion, a peacetime record. And they created jobs: with an unemployment rate hovering around 5% , the United States during George Bush’s second term was the envy of the developed world. How is Bush’s successor doing on this score? Not only did the U. S. see a record economic expansion during the Bush years, the country set another record. During eight years in office, neither George Bush nor any senior member of his administration was tainted by even a whiff of scandal. In contrast with so many governors, big-city mayors, and members of Congress—and, yes, congressional Republicans as well as Democrats—the Bush administration set the highest standards for honest and decent governance. This remarkably clean administration was a direct reflection of Bush’s unwavering moral standards. By contrast, during his first year in office, Obama has withdrawn one appointment after another, seen his Treasury Secretary accused of tax evasion, dismissed Van Jones and a host of other appointees, and presided over a drive for health care reform that relies on a backroom auctioning of favors and exemptions. George Bush, you were a wise and good president, one with whom we were blessed during a time of unparalleled danger. You led us through difficult times, and you led us well. Thank you for your selfless and humble service, your good humor in the face of unprecedented personal and political attacks, and your forbearance in the face of unwarranted criticism. Thank you, above all, for the example of your devout and humble faith. That sort of conviction is much needed, and much lacking today, on the part of the current occupant of the Oval Office. We can only hope that by some miracle, from some depth of common humanity if not from previous schooling, it will be summoned up. I believe that it will not be long before America looks back on the Bush years with renewed appreciation, yearning for a leader of your moral stature. Now that a year has passed in which a majority of Americans believe your successor has accomplished little or nothing, it will not be much longer before we will see you and Laura as you really were: one of the most courageous, faithful, and decent couples ever to grace the White House. Thank you, President Bush, for eight years of dedicated service.
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#2. To: dont eat that (#0)
'My greatest fear as our troops approached Baghdad was that they would be hit with WMD's.' Former President William Jefferson Clinton, in the immediate aftermath of our toppling Saddam and Son's regime.
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