The following appears in today’s New York Times, Rice Faults Past Administrations on Terror:
Bush’s national security adviser said on Thursday that the Clinton and other past administrations had ignored evidence of growing terrorist threats and that despite repeated attacks on American interests, “until Sept. 11, the terrorists faced no sustained, systematic and global response” from the United States.
“They became emboldened,” the adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said of Al Qaeda, “and the result was more terror and more victims.”
The Bush Administration and its terrorism policy have been given terrible black eyes of late as highlighted by the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. So Ms. Rice and other top minions have decided when you have no defense go to the offense. The governement’s terrorism policy is a shambles. But in order to divert attention from its failures, the guiding principle seems to be: “Blame the guys who came before us.” The hope appears to be that such an offensive approach (which is also ‘offensive’ in the objectionable sense of the word) will buy time until the Administration can get back ‘on message.’ The only problem with this perspective is that Bush policy will never get back on message. Hussein and his loyalists only get stronger and more lethal. Al Qaeda is not gone or even seriously weakened though we have killed many of its followers. Things are likely to get worse before they (if ever) get better. This situation is not likely to change for a long, long time if ever.
