"Never before have so few with so much promised to take away so much from so many and then laugh their asses off as the so many with so little vote for the so few with so much." A James Pence Quote
"American Politics, a sport for the rich and enslavement for the rest of us." A James Pence Quote
With the news that America had finally brought terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden to justice one thing could be easily predicted. Despite the fact that George W. Bush failed for so long in doing just that you knew that every right-wing blowhard in America would be somehow calling this a vindication of his failed policies and misled agenda. Well, welcome to right-wing fantasy land. Today the right-wing lunatics at the Heritage Foundation are crediting George W. Bush and the Patriot Act for the killing of Osama bin Laden.
I guess the the truth is as always a painful pill to swallow. Yes, it appears as if all that was needed to finally bring bin Laden to justice was a competent leader. However, Heritage does not even mention Obama or this administration in doling out credit but encourages the extension of already failed policies. Policies that were lovingly pimped by them:
Bin Laden's death is the most significant victory in the war on terror since the 9/11 attacks, more important than death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006. Bin Laden's elimination vindicates U.S. strategy in the region, started under President George W. Bush, and it will be seen as a major success for the United States, showing the world that America will remain committed to hunting down its enemies as long it takes.
With bin Laden's death, which came by way of a small, covert strike force, there will be an impulse to believe that this action validates that covert operations are a cheap and simple answer to the most vexing national security problems. They are not. They are just one tool in the tool box. Among those tools, too, is the strategic and lawful interrogation of detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay. President Obama and Congress should not use bin Laden's death as an excuse to turn back the clock on the counterterrorism tools we need, like the PATRIOT Act.
First, the notion that George W. Bush somehow deserves any credit for this is simply ludicrous. Instead of doing his duty to the American people and bringing this man to justice long ago, he abandoned the attempt to bring him to justice allowing him to run free until last night. His "counterterrorism tools" were simply one thing. A vicious attempt to conceal his own incompetence while stealing away real Constitutional rights from Americans. Protections the right-wing have long tried to vanquish.
In fact President Obama had detailed already exactly how bin Laden and others could be brought to justice in Pakistan if they were hiding there:
On August 1, 2007, a young Democratic presidential candidate -- criticized by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, for being "irresponsible and frankly naïve" on foreign policy matters -- surprised many of his supporters by pledging to conduct military operations in Pakistan with or without that country's permission.
"I understand that President (Pervez)Musharraf has his own challenges," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said of the man who was then president of Pakistan, "but let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."
And how did the right wing react?? Well the fat, drug addicted Oxymoron and Heritage Foundation propogandist shared this gem of wisdom:
During the September 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, discussing a newly released audio tape reported to be from Osama bin Laden in which he calls for Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf, Rush Limbaugh asserted: "Well, we've got another tape from -- I get these guys confused -- Usama bin Laden. Another tape says he's going to invade Pakistan and declare war on Pakistan and Musharraf, which, ladies and gentlemen, puts him on the same page with a Democrat presidential candidate -- that would be Barack 'Uss-Obama.' " Limbaugh then aired an audio clip of a recent statement by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL): "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." Misrepresenting Obama's comment, Limbaugh then said: "All right, so, we're going to attack Pakistan. Poor Musharraf's going to get it on both ends if Barack's elected."
Fellow propogandist Sean Hannity and "architect" of many of the failures that cost thousands of lives and the loss of well over a trillion dollars producing nothing, none other than the beloved "Turd Blossom" Karl Rove showed just how idiotic and hypocritical they really are:
As always with right-wingers the truth seems to run contrary to all they say. As this episode and their own words bear out, to do the right thing in just about any situation you merely should do just the opposite of what the Heritage Foundation and the right-wing wants.
It will be funny to watch the rest of their spin in the coming days. However this time I believe most of America will see the fact of the matter. That fact is that Conservative leadership completely dropped the ball in the months after 9-11. Instead of seeking justice they used it as a propoganda campaign to get a war in Iraq and the stealing of Constitutional protections from Americans. Their only success was doing that and bringing huge war profits to a very few at the cost of us all.
So while some of President Obama's middle-east strategy has disappointed me it is not hard to successfully follow a legacy of failure and idiocy.
