Well, Dick, let's get a few things straight, in case you've forgotten.
- The Bush administration did not keep this country safe. I seem to recall that the worst terrorist attack in this nation's history happened on 9/11/2001, eight months into your administration. As I recall, almost 3,000 innocent civilians were killed. Four planes were hijacked. The Pentagon ended up with a big hole in it. One plane was ditched into the ground only after courageous civilians aboard (sound familiar?) stopped the terrorists from plunging the plane into another target, probably in Washington, D.C. So all this "Bush kept us safe" nonsense is just total crap.
- Your administration had more than enough time and evidence to know the attack was coming. The Clinton administration warned you about the danger, which your administration ignored. Richard Clarke, Clinton's chief counter-terrorism advisor, stayed on with the Bush administration and he, among others, warned you that al Qaeda was going to try terrorist attacks against the U.S. He was marginalized and his advice ignored.
- What was the title of that Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) you guys got in August, 2001 again? Oh, yeah -- "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In U.S."
- Your administration set up another big bureaucracy, Homeland Security, to deal with terrorism (as if we don't have a boatload of alphabet soup agencies that don't talk to each other already).
- Your administration had the 9/11 commission come up with recommendations as to how to make this country safer. Your administration then neglected to carry out most of the recommendations.
- Your administration was responsible for setting up the new rules regarding air travel that were in place when the would-be bomber got on the Delta plane.
- In 2004 your administration came up with yet another bureaucrat to oversee things (the alphabet soup agencies and Homeland Security apparently not enough) called the Director of National Intelligence. His job was supposedly to get the agencies we had talking to each other. Guess what -- they still weren't talking to each other years later when you left office.
Oh, and need I remind you that the Iraq War would never have happened without you. As Secretary of Defense under the elder Bush's administration, you advised then President George H.W. Bush not to go into Baghdad and remove Saddam Hussein from power after he had invaded Kuwait. A huge mistake you later tried to rectify by making up lies to get us into the Iraq war with W's administration. I don't believe for a split second you thought there were any WMD in Iraq at all. I think you advised W to go to war because you regretted the decision you made as SecDef under the first Bush administration.
So you tell me, Dick, what gives you the right to come out of your hidey-hole every week and criticize this administration for anything?
