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Bush: We "Learned" About Terrorism

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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 01:31 PM
Original message
Bush: We "Learned" About Terrorism
Edited on Thu Sep-07-06 02:23 PM by bigtree
September 7, 2006

"People who know only a little do not understand how little they know and are therefore prone to error." -- Pope

It's been five years since the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and on the Pentagon, and the individuals Bush says were responsible are still at large. In Afghanistan, where the U.S. and coalition troops invaded, occupied, and installed a U.S. compliant government, bin-Laden's Taliban has been attacked and has been dispersed, but, nonetheless, still exists as a resistant force which attacks the U.S. forces and their interests and allies daily.

This week, neighboring Pakistan made peace with the Taliban's tribes which operate along their border in a clear divide with Bush's ambitions in his terror war; creating a protective paradox as bin-Laden reportedly is hidden in the areas Pakistan's military has promised to stand down from. Deadly misguided air strikes from U.S. drones and incursions by U.S. forces across Pakistan's borders have done little except draw the residents there to more sympathy for al-Qaeda and made them more likely to resist attempts to apprehend the terrorist and his accomplices.

Yet, Bush wants Americans to believe that he has 'learned' from the indifference his administration showed at the start of their term to the growing and imminent threat from bin-Laden. It was, in fact, the Bush administration who presided over the worst attack on our nation since Pearl Harbor, no matter how much blame they and their supporters would deflect to the previous administration. The terrorist's 'plans' were first described in the pre-September 11, White House document entitled, 'Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.', which was not given any serious consideration by the Bush administration before the tragic events of that day.

Bush spoke today in Atlanta in the fourth installment in the latest round of his fear and smear campaign he's waging in advance of the upcoming midterm congressional elections. Bush and his party hope to hold on to power to continue with their diversion in Iraq, and to continue their efforts to tie the nation to Bush's imperious protection racket where sovereign nations are thrown into chaos so that he can ride in on his high horse and claim to rescue us all.

Bush bragged today that his administration "learned' of the plans of the terrorists, because they "told us" so. "In the years since, we've come to learn more about our enemies," Bush said, "we learned more about their dark and distorted vision of Islam. We learned about their plan to build a radical Islamic empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia. We learned about their dream to kill more Americans on an even more devastating scale. That's what they have told us."

ABC News noted today that "Bush marked day three of his election year PR campaign with a speech in Atlanta, on the same day that NATO's top commander urged allied nations to send reinforcements to war-ravaged southern Afghanistan and news outlets reported that the official August numbers of violent deaths in Iraq were three times greater than the administration had earlier reported, requiring an upward revision of the numbers to 1535 from 550."

The DNC immediately responded to Bush's Atlanta dodge with their statement that, "once again, the President used the time tested GOP tactic of fear-mongering to win elections and distract from their failed policies."President Bush's smear and fear tactics during the week leading up to 9/11, are just another example of Republicans putting their party's political interests ahead of our country's," the DNC dispatch from DNC communications director Karen Finney reads.

"Five years after 9/11 and after years of tough talk, the Bush Administration and its rubber-stamp Republican Congress have still not taken the steps necessary to keep our country safe. We can't just talk tough. We have to be tough and smart. The 9/11 Commission recommendations have not yet been implemented. Our first responders still have not received the tools they need for real-time communication to save the lives of Americans in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack. Our ports, airports, chemical and nuclear plants have not been safeguarded. Democrats want to aggressively fight the war on terror and ensure that we utilize the important tools to capture terrorists, bring them to justice and keep America safe. Democrats are offering a new direction for America that includes redeploying our troops so that we can effectively fight the war on terror and secure our homeland."

From the debacle at Tora Bora, where Osama bin-Laden was allowed to escape into the mountains, to the diversion of forces and resources to Iraq, to the Bush administration's mindless evisceration of our civil liberties at home, there has been a continuing, five-year failure to achieve any of the goals and effect any of the protections that Bush has repeatedly promised Americans.

Now he's reduced to repeating the same threats that Americans have been introduced to and inundated with by the media and the White House propaganda machine. Bin-Laden's statements and declarations have been dredged up by Bush again, despite his earlier dismissal that he rarely thinks of the terrorist at all; despite the closing of the government agency whose mission was exclusively concerned with bin-Laden's capture, without any transfer of that responsibility to any other prominent concern.

All that Bush appears to have learned in the five years since 9-11 is that political mileage can be had from simply repeating and promoting the tragic imagery and taunts of those they hold responsible. But, Americans have heard all of the war stories and already know all about the bogeymen actors in Bush's terror play.

What they need to hear is the admission from the Bush administration that their indifference and mismanagement failed our nation at the start, and they are failing us now in their skewed focus on Iraq; and on feathering their already bloated, new intelligence bureaucracy which is obsessed with monitoring the activities of ordinary Americans.

Bush is living proof that, just a little learning can be a dangerous thing.
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opihimoimoi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. How come his wonderful staff has to learn about this crap..I guess
they are the NOOBs/Rookies we knew they were

Learning on the Job? I thought these guys knew their shit?

I guess NOT
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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 01:55 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. unbelievable incompetence
foreign policy driven by republican election year politics
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opihimoimoi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 04:51 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Pathetic......truly Pathetic and Sad this is happening to America.
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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 11:07 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. sad is me using your post to kick my own thread
Edited on Thu Sep-07-06 11:09 PM by bigtree
but, here I go! :hi: :kick:

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: September 8, 2006



ATLANTA, Sept. 7 — Setting out his own narrative of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush on Thursday defended his administration’s record on domestic security, saying he had “learned a lot of lessons” on that day and had made Americans safer as a result.

In Mr. Bush’s version of events, there was no mention of the August 2001 intelligence report warning that Osama bin Laden was plotting to attack inside the United States. Nor was there any of his own early response, judged by his critics to have been erratic, after learning, during a visit to a Florida elementary school, that planes had crashed into the Word Trade Center.

“I learned a lot of lessons on 9/11,” Mr. Bush said at one point. At another, he said, “We’ve learned the lessons of 9/11, and we have addressed the gaps in our defenses exposed by that attack.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/08/washington/08bush.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 02:20 PM
Response to Original message
3. Remarks by Bush on the Global War on Terror (transcript)
September 7, 2006

Remarks by the President on the Global War on Terror

Cobb Galleria Centre Atlanta, Georgia

10:24 A.M. EDT

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060907-2.html
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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
4. .
Edited on Thu Sep-07-06 03:16 PM by bigtree
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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 03:52 PM
Response to Original message
5. .
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bigtree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-07-06 07:10 PM
Response to Original message
7.  Bush Says America Safer, Learned Lesson
Bush Says America Safer, Learned Lesson
By UPI Wire
Sep 7, 2006

ATLANTA, Sept. 7, 2006 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush assured an Atlanta audience Thursday that the United States is indeed safer than it was five years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.

In what he described as "a progress report," Bush outlined steps taken to combat key stages he said led up to the terror attacks, "the gaps in our defenses that each stage exposed, and the ways we've addressed those gaps to make this country safer."

The president said the United States was safer "because we've taken action to protect the homeland. We are safer because we are on offense against our enemies overseas. We're safer because of the skill and sacrifice of the brave Americans who defend our people."

Bush said the first gap to close was "America's approach to terrorism" and the need to not only watch for terrorists in this country but to warn others not to harbor them elsewhere. Other steps dealt with a wide range of security matters.

"We've learned the lessons of September the 11th," Bush said.


http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_21238154.shtml
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