Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Just When I Was Starting to Like W

In quiet moments over the past few weeks I have indulged in some fond reminisces of George W. Bush. Yes, I thought to myself, he had his faults, but he was generally decent. Decent in a way Mitt Romney is not. Bush went out of his way on September 17, 2011 to state that Islam is not the enemy of the United States and Muslims are welcome members of our society. Romney now embraces the purveyors of islamophobia in his party. Bush also ran two campaigns almost completely free of the taint of race-baiting. Romney continues to stand by his demonstrably false welfare attack ads, the only purpose of which is to exploit lingering racial resentment long associated with welfare.

Then I saw this.

Kurt Eichenwald, a reputable reporter, is asserting that the Bush administration knew much more about Bin Laden's plans well before the infamous August 6 daily intelligence brief. The people running his national security apparatus convinced themselves that this was just a clever hoax, a la Patton's fake army prior to the D-Day landings, to distract from the real threat: Saddam Hussein.

If this is true it should permanently destroy any lingering doubts about W's place in history. Disregarding evidence of Bin Laden's plans to continue focusing on evidence regarding Saddam Hussein that did not exist was gross negligence. This is not even a matter of hindsight being 20-20. This is what happens when policy is faith-based instead of evidence-based.

The opportunity costs of the war in Iraq haunt me regularly. If we had not fought that unnecessary war our national debt might be significantly lower. Or we might be well on our way to a functional high-speed rail system. Or we may have been able to finance massive upgrades in schools and public housing to increase energy efficiency and indirectly fight climate change. Or a combination of any of these or other worthy projects.

Now we need to consider the possibility that this obsession with Iraq may have prevented us from stopping the attacks of September 11, 2001.

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