Bush’s Legacy: “Setting Aside 9-11…”

september-9-11-attacks-anniversary-ground-zero-world-trade-center-pentagon-flight-93-second-airplane-wtc_39997_600x450

No sooner do I swear off politics (see yesterday’s post) than an item pops up in the news that is too good to pass up. With the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, there have been a number of conservative columnists looking back at Bush’s presidency and using it to bash Barack Obama’s. One line of comparison (tip to blogger Steven Benen) reminds me of my favorite passage from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which I happen to be teaching at the moment.

Here’s conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post:

Unlike Obama’s tenure, there was no successful attack on the homeland after 9/11.

And here’s Eric Bolling of Fox News:

I will tell you one thing, from 9/12/01 until the time President Obama raised his right hand January of ’09, the man kept us safe. And there — you certainly can’t say that since President Obama has taken the oath of office.

So… if you don’t count 9-11—and recall that Bush had been warned about an imminent Bin Laden attack a month before it occurred—the past president’s record against terrorism is better than Obama’s.

Actually, even this is questionable, as Benen sarcastically points out:

Other than the deadly anthrax attacks, the attack against El Al ticket counter at LAX, the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush’s inability to capture those responsible for 9/11, waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush’s international unpopularity, the former president’s record on counter-terrorism was awesome.

But that aside, wouldn’t life be peachy if we could all ignore any inconvenient facts. Here’s the genuinely awesome Jane Austen explaining how, except for one small thing, all the bad guys in Sense and Sensibility get away with their villainy and live happily ever after:

They settled in town, received very liberal assistance from Mrs. Ferrars, were on the best terms imaginable with the Dashwoods; and setting aside the jealousies and ill-will continually subsisting between Fanny and Lucy, in which their husbands of course took a part, as well as the frequent domestic disagreements between Robert and Lucy themselves, nothing could exceed the harmony in which they all lived together. 

To quote the Earl of Rochester, those leading such harmonious lives “need not fear another hell.” Unfortunately, it appears that all of us are about to suffer the hell of revisionist neo-con history.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

3 Comments

  1. WordPress › Error

    There has been a critical error on this website.

    Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.