Bush Kept America Safe -- Obama Has Failed on His Watch

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama took different approaches to terrorism. Bush took the war on terrorism seriously and communicated that down the line. He took the war to the terrorists, decimated al-Qaida and left Obama with a reasonably stable Iraq. Obama decided to lower the volume and announced in Cairo that the "War on Terror" was over. He closed Gitmo, withdraw prematurely from Iraq, was ambivalent about Afghanistan, ceded Syria leadership to Russian President Putin, and let Russian planes to fly over US aircraft carriers without pushback. President Obama did not take the war on terrorism seriously, and shredded the normal rules of engagement. ~~~~~ International islamic terrorist attacks during the George W. Bush presidency reflected Bush's success in largely confining the radical islamists to the Middle East. On Bush's watch, islamic terrorist attacks, mostly by al-Qaida and Taliban suicide bombers, occurred in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Notable but isolated exceptions were the London Underground and Madrid railway attacks. ~~~~~ International islamic terrorist atracks during the Barack Obama presidency have reflected his refusal to confine islamic terrorism to the Middle East -- his catastrophic withdrawal from Iraq, his preference for the Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt, his indifference toward Israel, his indecisive Syria civil war policies, and his rapprochement with Iran that destabilized US Middle East allies and kick-started Iran's encroachment into Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. Obama's monumental failure in his choice of foreign policy strategies has had equally monumental consequences worldwide. Iraq has in practical terms ceased to exist, reverting to sunni-shiite tribal areas and facilitating Iran's control of Iraq and the creation of the Syria-Iraq-Iran shiite arc. Russia saw the arc's value and steam-rolled the weak Obama to position Putin as shiite godfather. Syria sank into vicious civil war, leading to the flow of refugees and hidden islamic terrorists into Europe from the Middle East and North Africa. This has so divided, angered and financially drained Europe that the EU may not survive. It has also opened Europe to a major islamic terrorist onslaught and may be tipping Europe toward an irreparable moslemization. One is hard-pressed to find another presidency so disastrous. ~~~~~ The increasing drumbeat of terrorist attacks in the US made me rethink President Bush. He wasn't an eloquent or intellectual President, but he knew his job was to keep America safe and he did his job. He also kept the world safe, despite the almost universal international disdain for his lack of "style." ~~~~~ President Obama was angry Tuesday because Donald Trump gave him a negative performance review. Obama lashed out at Trump, criticizing his call to ban Moslems from entering the US -- temporarily, to put in place a vetting system that works, but Obama always skips that part. Obama also belittled Trump's criticism of his handling of the war on terror. Obama should be angry -- at himself. He has failed. Innocent people were murdered by islamic terrorists in San Bernardino and Orlando -- 63 Americans who deserved to be kept safe by their President. Yet, President Obama was as wobbly and pointless as ever when he spoke to the nation about Orlando. John Podhortez said Obama was so determined to avoid the subject of islamist, ISIS-inspired or ISIS-directed terrorism that he ended his remarks with "an astonishing insistence that 'we need the strength and courage to change' our attitudes toward the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community." Podhoretz called it "disgusting....There’s no other word for it." ~~~~~ Dear readers, Obama always says global warming is a bigger threat than global terrorism. It shows -- even before San Bernardino and Orlando, polls found that Americans view Obama as soft on islamic terrorists, with 60% saying Obama doesn’t do enough to prevent terrorism and is losing the war on ISIS. By any measure, Obama's islamic terrorism watch has been pitiful.