Friday, April 26, 2013

With revisionists, Dubya was the anti-terrorist hero

Now that all of the celebrated dignitaries  were on their best behavior at the feel-good dedication of the George W. Bush library (somehow I don't associate libraries with Dubya), it was left to the revisionist gallery to slam President Obama for security breakdowns that his predecessor would never have experienced.

For example, Rep. Tom Cotton, a right-wing Arkansas Republican, screeched that "in the seven years after 9/11 how many terrorists reached the United States? NONE!"  Trouble is, on that deadly day 2,977 persons died at the hands of terrorists  and when I went back to check record, turns out that it happened on Bush's watch. Oh, I probably should mention that the young terrorists who staged the Marathon attacks were said to have been living in the U.S. for more than 10 years.  That would mean they arrived on our soil during the Bush years.

Then we encountered  columnist Charles Krauthammer's spin, in which he crowed about his man Bush.  "He did not just keep us safe, he created the entire antiterror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe."  Still, he couldn't resist blaming Obama fore letting it all "fall apart".

Folks, this is textbook revisionism.  You can find post 9/11 reports that said warnings of a possible attack from the air were largely ignored. You can access videos in which Bush later said he didn't know the whereabouts of bin Laden and didn't think it was all that important anyway.

But as it's often been said, Why let the details ruin a good story  - or in this case, awfully distorted history.

No comments: