During a visit with the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan President Bush said this about the water boarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:
“Yeah, we water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” Bush said of the terrorist who master-minded the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. He said that event shaped his presidency and convinced him the nation was in a war against terror.
“I’d do it again to save lives.”
KSM was the person who, according to President Barack Obama, captured the imagination of the world when he sawed off Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s head with a knife and broadcast the grisly murder to the world. Listening to President Bush it’s refreshing to hear a president speak directly and unequivocally about the murderous Islamists that want to kill Americans. Jennifer Rubin said this about Bush’s comments and how they compare to our current president:
Emotional. Direct. Morally unambiguous. Deeply loyal to allies. A true friend of Israel. A clear-eyed understanding of the enemy we face. Yes, Obama is the un-Bush, and the U.S., the West, and Israel are the worse for it.
While I took issue with his failure to rein in spending and Republican Congressmen who spent money like Democrats, I sure miss the Bush/Cheney team now. Those fiscally irresponsible Republicans in Congress were just pikers compared to the Obama/Pelosi/ Reid crew we have in charge now. In the far more serious arena of national security and the war on terror the contrast is even greater. Ed Morrissey makes the point that if President Bush had made this comment just a year ago the elite media would have been in high dudgeon, demanding that the former president beg forgiveness for such honesty. They’re strangely quiet today because not only has the nation experienced several terrorist attacks (some successful) but also because of the stark reality of the present Executive who is unprepared and unwilling to confront an enemy the Bush administration openly called out (to say nothing of this administration’s utter disloyalty to Israel).
Yeah, I miss George Bush.
