A Verbal Evisceration Courtesy Of Richard Clarke

If there is one guy in this country who I sincerely hope has the ear of President Elect Barack Obama on terrorism and national security issues its Richard Clarke. It was largely because of Clarke in my opinion that we know the depth of the EPIC FAIL President Bush was when he never acted on information indicating that Osama bin Ladin was determined to strike America. Well in today's New York Daily News Clarke once again exposes the FAIL that is Bush along with Karl Rove and his "Bush Legacy Project".

George Bush, still President, is engaging in a legacy tour of media outlets. This comes despite his earlier having said he did not know how history would judge the Iraq war "because we'll all be dead."

Actually, many people are already dead because of Bush, and that is the point to keep in mind when he talks about his legacy.

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Bush stopped terrorist attacks? Yes, some of the many alleged plots cited by the White House probably would have matured into attacks had not the U.S. intelligence community acted. Many were more aspirational than operational, and others were the pure inventions of FBI informants. (In the Miami Liberty City case, an FBI informant apparently bribed people who previously had no interest in Al Qaeda. When they swore the oath to Osama Bin Laden, they were then arrested for doing so.)

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There wasn't a second 9/11? That's obviously true, but it misses the point. First, we must remember that Al Qaeda terrorists are patient, deliberate planners who often wait years between strikes. Second, there was the first 9/11 - and it happened on Bush's watch. Without rehashing the entire 9/11 Commission Report, the historical record is pretty clear by now that Bush did virtually nothing about the repeated warnings to him that those cataclysmic attacks were coming. Unfortunately, I can personally attest to that as well.

Bush saved American lives? Tell that to the families of the 4,200 U.S. military personnel who have perished in the needless war in Iraq. While they served heroically and deserve the great thanks of the American people, the tragic truth is that they were engaged in a war we should not have been fighting and which was sold to the Congress, the media and American people with exaggerated and even false claims.

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Let George Bush keep pushing the buttons on the spin machine. That cannot change the facts. His administration's actions on terrorism, including Iraq, killed many more Americans than U.S. intelligence agencies saved in the past eight years.

You see this is why I don't buy into the fantasy that time will be kind to George W. Bush. Because I truly believe that every time that cats will try to revise his history there will be heros like Richard Clarke (or at least his historical accounts) to smack them down and remind us of the truth.