Richard Clarke: Bush Didn't Save Any Lives

In a New York Daily News editorial, former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke harshly criticizes his one-time boss for suggesting he saved American lives during his presidency. The idea that President Bush kept us safe (a cornerstone of his current legacy tour) is just "Karl Rove spin," Clarke writes.

There wasn't a second 9/11? That's obviously true, but it misses the point. First, we must remember that Al Qaeda terrorists are patient, deliberate planners who often wait years between strikes. Second, there was the first 9/11 - and it happened on Bush's watch. Without rehashing the entire 9/11 Commission Report, the historical record is pretty clear by now that Bush did virtually nothing about the repeated warnings to him that those cataclysmic attacks were coming. Unfortunately, I can personally attest to that as well.

...

Bush saved American lives? Tell that to the families of the 4,200 U.S. military personnel who have perished in the needless war in Iraq. While they served heroically and deserve the great thanks of the American people, the tragic truth is that they were engaged in a war we should not have been fighting and which was sold to the Congress, the media and American people with exaggerated and even false claims.

...

Let George Bush keep pushing the buttons on the spin machine. That cannot change the facts. His administration's actions on terrorism, including Iraq, killed many more Americans than U.S. intelligence agencies saved in the past eight years

Read the whole thing.

Clarke recently said that Barack Obama's election has "taken the wind out of al Qaeda's sails." During the election, he criticized John McCain for being even more eager to go to war than Bush.

Comments

[lovethesinner]

There's Katrina, too. Bush didn't do what he could have because he wasn't even engaged enough to know what was going on. They had to play him a DVD of news reports to wake him up, and by then it was too late.

The only people Bush kept safe are only safe because they haven't been prosecuted... yet.

[naeldwyck]

When Bush says he kept America safe, he actually means he kept America scared, and seeing the election results, and his approval ratings these days, I'm not even sure that's true anymore.

[realpolitic]

Richard Clark is a hero. He was shunted aside by the Bushies because he was a truthteller and not a sycophantic suckup. Bush can only tolerate the presence of those who think he is the second coming whose policies are devined by God.

[RTIII]

I agree with people who suggest Obama should hire this guy somewhere in his administration - perhaps... National Security Advisor?!
.

[Shadow08]

We are always able to count on Richard Clarke to give us the truth. He's a great American, who has asked for nothing in return.

[SiberianRat]

I agree completely.

[Da Centrist]

I hope everybody reads this because if i hear one more time that Bush has kept us safe for the last 8 years without a correction from the interviewer I'm going to turn off my TV...Yeah that'll show 'em.

THERE HAS BEEN ONLY ONE TERRORIST ATTACK ON AMERICAN SOIL.
IT HAPPENED ON 9/11/01
THE PRESIDENT AT THE TIME WAS GEORGE W. BUSH. HE DID NOT KEEP US SAFE ON THAT DAY AND HAS MADE US MUCH LESS SAFE SINCE.

Try as they might with the power of the internet (Thx HP) the truth can no longer fade and while history might still be written by the winners there will be a place to find out what the losers thought as well.

Light > darkness

[LiberalUnderYourBed]

AMEN!
Well spoken.

[Huffingbrownbag]

Bush kept me safe from Osama, anthrax, bad breath and diaper rash.
If you don't believe that then you'll probably believe four drug-addled losers with no weapons, no plans and no clue were an imminent threat to Fort Dix...or three middle aged gasbags were ready to blow-up fuel pipelines to JFK airport... or nine homeless wanna-be gang-bangers living in a abandoned building in Florida were ready to bomb the tallest building in Chicago or your next door neighbor who is suspiciously flashing his Venetian blinds in an Morse-code kinda way is injecting fluoride into the water supply.

[kevenseven]

Face it people.

Godzilla never ate a major American city while Bush was in office.

Think about it.

[RTIII]

Anthrax
.

[Shadow08]

Godzilla may have changed it's name to Katrina...in that case...

[pjs2004]

The statement that Bush kept us safe irritates the s**t out of me also, every time I hear it. It always comes from right wing Republicans because it's the only thing they can BS the general public with, to call Bush a success. Ask those very same Republicans if Clinton kept us safe then. By the same logic, Clinton would have kept us safe as well. There was a bombing in '93 and then no other attacks on American soil, when Clinton was in office. You think the Repubs would agree with that?? No way. In fact, even if they do agree with that, they'd have to agree that Bush messed up. He knew that the WTC was attacked once, yet another attack on it happened on his watch, not on Clinton's.

[Shadow08]

Considering 9-11 happend Bush's watch, and now all they have to claim is this falshood of them keeping us safe is a clear window into how bad the last 8 years have been for this country. If that's what an outgoing admin. has after 8 years, it's nothing but an admission of abject failure, meant as pap for the serioulsy stoopid.

[SpeakSense]

Bravo Mr. Clarke. Let's try not to let the history books put in Rove's version of history.

[rabiddog6708]

From NBC's Mark Murray
A "Then and Now" to show what the United States looked like when Bush was entering office and what it looks like now as he's leaving.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

SATISFIED WITH THE NATION'S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

[courtreporter]

I'm so glad someone FINALLY has come out and said this .... it drives me crazy when people say that Bush kept us save because there were no more attacks on US soil. Tell me, how many TOTAL have we ever had? Pearl Harbor, the first WTC bombing, and then 9/11. It's not like we've had hundreds and then because of Bush's greatness it all of a sudden stopped. 9/11 happened under his watch because he didn't listen to REAL intelligence. Then we went into Iraq and I feel much less safe now than I ever did. Thank you, Mr. Clarke, for TELLING THE TRUTH!

[RTIII]

ANTHRAX.
.

[Skeptiqone]

Yes, and right now there is a woman, Heidi Harris, on Hardball saying that Bush saved lives since there was no more 911.

Christopher Matthews, said that there was no denying that fact.

Why do people think that he is smart?

[proudloudlib]

I'm surprised he let her speak at all. He really loves the sound of his own voice.

[lungfish]

Sure Richard, agreed on all points and glad you are saying it....

However, every time I see the reference to lives saved and lost you only comment about American lives....

Bush put certainly tens of thousands, some say hundreds of thousands or more, Iraqi and Afghani civilians in their graves and if we are going to discuss the malfaesance of this Administration we have an obligation to admit that those people existed and are now dead because of the hubris and incompetence of a bunch of C student draft dodging cowards who ended up in charge of the worlds most powerful military and economic system. They were murdered by Bush and co as surely as if he had shot them himself.

Our soldiers fought and paid with their lives for a dishonorable cause. The 4200plus soldiers who died had their lives wasted by these men, thrown away for some Neocon plan for American "glory".... They fought and died with honor and service for a draft dodging, lying, incompetent coke head.

[nervousexpat]

Hear Hear! It always bothers me that media only ever seems to mention American deaths. As if others' lives never mattered.

[GolfingDevil05]

Thank you, Mr. Clarke, for your continued service to this country, and for reminding everyone that President Bush and Vice President Cheney did not INHERIT 9/11, but in fact failed to PREVENT 9/11. While it's true we haven't been attacked since that happened, it's a bit like asking your insurance company to reward you for not having been in an accident since you got drunk and ran over those kids in the crosswalk eight years ago.

To paraphrase Chris Rock, Bush and Cheney need to stop asking us for things they were supposed to do in the first place. They don't get any more credit for keeping us safe than the 42 adminstrations that came before them, and any credit they do get should be lessened by the cost of the 7,000+ lives that have been lost by victims of 9/11 and the soldiers sent to fight and die since then (4,000 of those lost in the wrong country).