In the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush stood alongside rescue workers at Ground Zero and vowed that the people who had done this to us would pay. Soon after, the United States engineered the overthrow of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and seemed close to capturing Osama Bin Laden.
But then everything seemed to go out of focus. The Afghan warlords the Bush Administration sent in to capture Bin Laden let him slip through their hands. And Afghanistan faded from Bush’s attention.
A new danger was trumpeted: Saddam Hussein. Bush and his senior administration officials delivered hundreds statements to build up the case that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda. But there were no WMD’s in Iraq. There was no link between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Bush, along with his senior officials, clearly manipulated information and lied to the American people.
A war that did not need to happen has so far claimed the lives of more than 97,000 Iraqis, as well as nearly 4,200 U.S. military personnel.
At home, the Bush administration curtailed basic human and civil rights in the name of the war on terror. Bush ordered the illegal surveillance of phone calls and email and his senior officials attempted to justify the torture of detainees. Secret operations have been conducted by military personnel around the world. Terror-watch lists have sprawled out of control to ensnare civil liberties advocates. The specter of secret tribunals at the Guantanamo detention camp and the torture at Abu Ghraib shattered the credibility of this nation as a force for freedom and the rule of law.
Back in Afghanistan, the Taliban have regrouped. And Bin Laden? He seems to have survived the Bush years just fine as well.
Back in Afghanistan, the Taliban have regrouped. And Bin Laden? He seems to have survived the Bush years just fine as well.
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