Six days after the September 9/11 attacks George W. Bush made a visit to the Islamic Center in Washington where he spoke out against discrimination against Muslims living in the U.S. He said Americans should respect Islam.
In this respect he was far better than Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the Executive Order putting American citizens of Japanese descent into camps.
Mr. Bush said this: “The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. That is not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”
George W. Bush had many faults, but sometimes he made me proud. The visit to the Islamic Center and his remarks there was was one of those times.
One of the handful of times I couldn't disagree with you more. Bush Jr. is the main reason I left the Republican party followed closely behind September 11, 2001.
ReplyDeleteFirst, W could have looked at the enormous amount of intelligence regarding Bin Laden and the threats to the US. Google the August 8th memo which states "Bin Laden determined to strike the US". Second, there is a $2 million dollar stock option on American Airlines which is still unclaimed. Why is it unclaimed because the person who would cash it in would have way to much explaining to do. Finally, option trading the day before September 11 was 90 times the average on the airlines. Not 90 percent more but 90 times. It would be hard to argue that statistical anomaly.
Sorry for the rant but if read the book "The Grand Chessboard". Geopolitics is all about your spot on the chessboard.
You have to remember that the intelligence agencies had many hints that Japan might attack the U.S. in 1941. Some information is not processed, is not believed, gets lost in the bureaucracies, or just slips though the cracks. To believe that Bush had pre-knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and did nothing is akin to believing that Obama is a Muslim. George Bush may have been many things, but I sincerely believe that he was--and is--an American patriot.
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