How can we trust George W. Bush to fight the war on terror? He all but ignored critical intelligence reports prior to 9/11. He fought the creation of the 9/11 commission. He fought against critical testimony from himself and Condoleeza Rice before the commission. He fought the creation of a commission to investigate the intelligence failures in Iraq. He only "flip-flopped" on those positions after intense political pressure.
Now, three years after 9/11, he's dragging his feet on intelligence reform. Congress has introduced a bi-partisan bill to implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Instead of jumping to support it, he's offering a series of impotent half-measures.
Why hasn't Osama Bin Laden been killed or captured? Why is the Taliban still operating and terrorizing the people of Afghanistan? Why haven't we found the source of the anthrax attacks? Why haven't our ports and or borders been secured?
Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorists are operating with impunity all over the globe. More than 200 were killed in the Bali nightclub attack. There were 191 killed and more than 2000 injured in the Madrid train bombings. More than 300 people, including many children, have been killed in a Russian school attacked by Chechen rebels linked to Islamic extremists. Just this Thursday there was yet another embassy bombing.
In spite of all the rhetoric, the Bush administration has been ineffective at fighting the war on terror. With Republican control of both houses of Congress, Mr. Bush has no one to blame but himself.