September 11 Unanimity: Did G.W. Bush 'Squander' It?

Granted. In terms of policy, Obozo is Bush lite.

Still amazed that people who would immediately stop placing any faith or trust in a person who began a statement with "I swore that I wouldn't tell any one this, but..." still point to the statements of people who broke their oaths of confidentiality and revealed what was at best incidental & tangential information as proof that GWB mislead the American people.

CARE to share THAT smoke AND kool-aid?

He was totally embarrassing.

Iraq is such a success! Sunnis are killing Shiiites and Shiiites are killing Sunnis. And, Christians and other religions are being slaughtered. Under Saddam, none of this happened. I know that he was no angel but there were no terrorist attacks and explosions. And, what did America get for all of this? Thousands of dead Aericans and a trillion dollars blown for this worthless Iraq that could have been spent in rebuilding America!!!

The only reason America became divided was because the left did everything they could to undermine the wars that they wanted from the start. All they needed was a little opening here or there and they played it to death. Kind of like now how they use "tea party racists" when there's no proof of it. They make up talking points and run with them whether it's true or not. As long as they can win elections, they'll say anything to undermine instead of coming up with their own ideas.

Let's see here...the mid-east is the most it's been stable since Iraq became a democracy. Afghanistan is Afghanistan (unchangeable.) Bush did what was right during his administration, however there were back-stabbers in the democrat party and the lame stream media that wanted a defeat for our country, sound famillar? In the future obama will be know as the first black president that went beserk and over taxed OUR grandchildren and was an incompetent seconf coming of jimmy carter. Bush will be vindicated, obama will be demonized.

Bush cheney rumsfeld wanted for war crimes.

By choosing to fight two wars and put the bill on a credit card and keeping his tax cuts in place, W destroyed our economy beyond the wildest dreams of bin Laden. I do not think he lied to us; he was the victim of really &*^s poor intelligence about Iraq. But it will take us a generation to dig out of the hole his policies dug for our economy. That's all him.

Bush took the fear from 9/11 and used it to force the greatest rape of American freedoms in our history... He created, Homeland Security. He passed the laws limiting freedom of speech against them. He pushed to remove the requirements of cause for warrants. He made it illegal to ask about what the charges against you were. He jailed citizens for years on suspicion. But blaming only Bush is stupid. Congress voted to attack our freedoms as well...

As for the wars; Hillary, Obama and the Democrats blame Bush for going to war in Iraq. Yet they voted for us to go, (Obama missed the Iraq vote, but voted for Afghanistan), but some how it is Bush's fault that they died not "check the facts"? Regardless of "the facts", they are responsible for their vote. Changing your mind AFTER you send troops into war, and NOT calling them home is despicable.

Bush will someday be vindicated of all the Democrat charges, fake reports, erroneous information when it is no longer to their benefit to lay blame on him for everything. He had a really bad situation dumped in his lap, and not only had to deal with a new enemy, but an old one the opposition party.

Who is larry Elder and why does he have a column? He SHOULD have his own show on Faux News.

Bush deserved every bit of criticism he got. He started one war to get bin Laden, let him get away, then kept the war going anyway. He started another war under false pretenses. The fact that he sold it very effectively doesn't excuse it. He used 9/11 as an excuse for huge intrusions into the civil liberties of every American. He did vastly more to contribute to the economic disaster we are in today than any of his predecessors. And again besting his predesessors, he destroyed our image abroad with indefinite improsonment and torture of prisoners of war. Then there's the 'Bush doctrine' in which he says we have the right to attack any country anytime anywhere we feel like it if we think that some day they might be a threat to us. Imagine how we would react if some other country decalred that power over us. These are just a few of the highlights. What's really scary about Bush is that anybody approved of any of this. But then it's been shown over and over that many people will choose perceived safety over freedom.

For the best summary of George W. Bush's presidency, I choose to reference, of all people, Carrie Fisher. In her memoir, she describes a story told to her by one of her former husbands who actually served as a staffer for Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Apparently, George Sr. was known for having a rather immature sense of humor and for a unique talent he possessed: he could fart on command. In particular, he developed a habit of popping into a room where some important meeting would soon take place, letting one go and running out so this meeting would have to be held with the smell of his gas lingering in the room. Miss Fisher capped this story off by declaring "You know, sort of like what his son did to the whole country."

I'm goin shopping.

This seems like a factually devoid and partisan opinion piece to me, predicated first upon a point of view and ignorant of evidence. To state that 70% of Americans supported going to war in Iraq is disingenuous at best, is this figure before or after top administration figures made repeated insinuation linking 9/11 and Iraq? I'm not sure that percentage is even accurate, but regardless, in this day and age it is possible, and perhaps important to take a larger and more global view. We live in an interconnected and bigger arena, there were protests around the globe against the invasion and collapse of stability. The global community saw through it. So did many in the US, and they may be labeled as "lefties" if one wants to dumb down the conversation and take a 2-dimensional and non-nuanced worldview, but perhaps they were more informed. Perhaps they were aware of the existence of, and policies advanced by, the organization The Project for a New American Century (PNAC), with it's long-standing intention to oust Hussein and take over Iraq's oilfields. Perhaps they were aware that much of the top players in the Bush administration were members of that neocon group, PNAC. Perhaps they were appalled at witnessing the 9/11 attacks, which were perpetrated by an organization that had no role and place in Iraq, become repeatedly and intentionally associated with Iraq by continued insinuation by Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. Maybe some folks, both "lefties" and righties" were disgusted to witness the administration playing on the fears of the American people; those fears being utilized to justify extraordinary rendition, the suspension of Habeas Corpus, warrantless wiretaps, sneak-n-peak and gag-order searches, the travesty of international law that continues to be Guantanamo, torture, ballooning deficits and the other ever-so-lovely legacies of the Bush administration. Perhaps these erosions of long-standing US values, liberties and freedoms in the face of a unilateral and fascist administration were the antithesis of American ethics for a lot of people. (This is leaving out WMD intel that was cherry-picked from Cheney's office to justify the Iraq invasion and the fact that (yes that same) George Tenet was trying to warn these clowns about Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda's plans to use planes as weapons months prior to the attack, but couldn't get their attention. One can ignore evidence, fact and history Larry, but it will only make their assessments that much more ignorant. In the long term, all of these truths will go down in history.

Bush USED these Repub wars for the sake of ONLY those who love war, including the Cons whom used it for profit, the Neocons who used it to spread what they call American Exceptionalism and THEIR idea of American democracy/Capitalism(the very few rich get richer and the rest of us pay for it) and the Theocons attack on all of Islam, especially including the popes(my religion).

The Bushies used their wars to push Reagan Republicanism. When he/they should have pushed Americanism for all Americans.
Bush used his wars of choice to rape our economy. Repubs alwayd profit at ther expense of our nation.
The Bushies used their wars to divide America.
The Bushies used their wars to push BIG corporations and BIG Religion.
The Bushies used their wars to GREATLY ENLARGE the Right Wing invasive government. He/they also used them to take away our liberties and freedoms.
He used them for Profit, that our children will be paying back to Communist China for a great many more years.
The Bushco used their wars to intimidate Americans.
He/they used their wars to crfeate great fear among Repubs.

Mr. Elder, please stop trying to prove the null. All the wasted money and compromised freedoms we suffered under GWB does not equate to a safer US. Remember Franklin said those who sacrifice freedom for security will have neither. The Iraq war was all about oil and defense contractors. Let's take a look at how the Iraq war benefited Halliburton, Dynacorp, Washington Group International, Aegis, International America Products, Erinys, Fluor, Perini, URS Corp, Parsons, Armor Holdings, L3 Communications, AM General, HSBC, Cummins, MerchantBridge, etc... The list goes on.
The Iraq war is about one thing only. Money!

I'm still not sure he wasn't behind 9/11 in some manner let alone did he squander unanimity - I know he is a war criminal so why aren't we asking the real questions here

Squandered it?

He and his evil sidekick took advantage of it to swindle the American people out of a budget surplus for a massive budget deficit and two wars that killed twice as many great lives as we were supposed to be seeking justice for.

They should both be punished for war crimes and