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| While the Towers burned, W kept on reading |
During
the CNN Republican debate on Wednesday night, Bush replied to Donald Trump’s
opposition to the Iraq War with a strange claim.
“One thing about my brother, he kept us safe,” Bush claimed. The
statement was applauded by the conservative audience, and he wasn’t challenged
by the debate moderators, but the words completely omit the carnage of the Bush
presidency.
Most obviously, 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch. The
terrorist attacks on New York, Washington D.C., the Pentagon, and Philadelphia
were the worst attack on U.S. soil in recorded history – worse than Pearl
Harbor.
2,977 people were killed while over 6,000 were injured in those attacks
on Bush’s watch, as he dismissed the Presidential Daily Briefing that warned
him with blaring lights that “Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US.”
There were also the anthrax attacks that occurred a week after
9/11 that killed 5 and injured 17.
Soon after that was the fatal decision to attack, invade and
occupy Iraq. Not only did it expose Americans in the field to harm – killing
4,425 and injuring over 32,000 U.S. military.
When you assert that Americans were kept safe, it includes soldiers who deserve a President who sends them in to harm’s way based on the truth and who has a coherent strategy once that decision is made.
The claim that America was kept safe is also exposed by the fact
that the effort to capture/kill Osama Bin Laden was abandoned at Tora Bora, and
that the mastermind of 9/11 was someone that Bush just wasn’t that concerned about as he infamously said. America
was less safe with Bin Laden on the loose, and safer when he was killed under
President Obama.
Even when it came to economic issues, Bush didn’t keep America
safe. He allowed the real estate bubble to inflate, while failing to
provide adequate oversight of the financial industry due to limp figures like
SEC chairman Chris Cox, who was appointed by Bush and was accused of being
missing in action as the markets melted.
Exposing the strongest economy in the
world to this kind of collapse left the country – and the world, frankly – less
safe.
Jeb Bush asserting that his brother kept America safe was
absurd, and the fact that he has the same outlook on the world with the same
advisers and cronies on his team should be terrifying.
Author Oliver Willis was one of the first political bloggers in the
world (since 2000), and was among the first bloggers to interview President
Obama at the White House. I am on Twitter @owillis and write at OliverWillis.com