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.

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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

[kevenseven]

Know what else? Godzilla has not eaten San Fransisco!

Thank you Georgie!

[SpaceCadet]

Bush's spinmeisters have been talking about specific plots supposedly foiled by Bush. Olbermann pointed out that every single one of these dastardly plots was a complete joke. None of them ever had advanced past the "aspirational" phase. In other words, it was always big talk among small groups of losers.

One example was a plot by some guys who were going to blow up JFK Airport by lighting a fire in a fuel supply line miles away from the airport. After the Bush administration breathlessly revealed this plot to the American people, some liberal spoilsport pointed out a minor defect in this brilliantly evil scheme: There isn't any oxygen in the fuel lines to keep the fire going as it travels down the line from the point of ignition to the target facility.

[SmolderingRuin]

Every time I hear that ridiculous claim that bu sh has "kept us safe", I seethe. He was sitting on his bu tt for the first attack, and if nothing has happened since, it is just trying to prove a negative to say it's due to anything he has done. I love Richard Clarke. I would like to see HIM as head of the CIA, not that mushy Panetta.

[apoyo]

Saying that there has not been ANOTHER 9/11 points out the fact that there WAS one 9/11.

[dahlenu]

Clarke is absolutely right. America needs to recognize this.

[WyomingJack]

Not only did he not save any lives, he recklessly put millions of American lives at risk. We are now more vulnerable to terrorism than any time in our nation's history. And we have more enemies than any time in our nation's history. But at least we caught the guy who wanted to blow his feet off with exploding tennis shoes.

[kepary]

he was brought in by Clinton and kept on by the Bush administration, and when he wasnt' promoted he became a very bitter person

[kevenseven]

That is Rush Limbaugh's spin. Thanks for repeating it.

Now, setting aside the ad hominen attack on Clarke's motives, take his points one by one and debate them.

If you can.

Crickets.

[LaurenMarie984]

i believe he became bitter for the same reason other ex-Bush officials did - he forced them to lie by misleading them on the facts.

[Caymus77]

Incorrect! Clarke was brought in under George H.W. Bush. Under Clinton,Clarke was briefing the cabinet every two weeks about Al Qaeda. Under Dubya,he was not allowed to brief the Cabinet about Al Qaeda until Sept.4th 2001 despite repeated pleas on Clarke's part that an attack was coming.
ANY AMERICAN would be bitter about the failure to address warnings that resulted in the deaths of thousands iof Americans. It had NOTHING to do with promotions.

[StillIRise]

Bitter or not, he's telling the truth!

[guntotinganglion]

There is one thing that definitely sets Richard Clarke above all the rest from the Bush regime. When he spoke before the Senate, he directly apologized to the American people for failing to prevent 9/11. No one else that I know of from that miserable regime has offered anything like an apology. Bush's stiff necked self-absorption of course prevents him from ever acknowledging his failures, or more specifically, his crimes. First one must acknowledge the failure, before actually apologizing for it. Clarke showed a great deal of class, and honesty (something not in great abundance in the Bush League) in taking responsibility. Class and honesty aren't even on Spinmeister Bush's agenda.

[newsmctado]

No thats not entirely true... Bush has admitted his mistakes (or in his case mistake). According to GW, he shouldn't have had the Mission Accomplished banner flying behind him on the aircraft carrier. Other than that, he's in the clear.

[ljc]

Bush ignored his own intelligence prior to 911 as well as warnings from other countries intel. Therefore he is a failure. That being said, his so called "kept us safe" since then is another failure. As this is a global problem, his own intel has failed continuously by the fact that even though we have not been attacked, other countries have. Great Britain, India, Spain, Indonesia to name a few. If our intel is so great, why didn't we warn our allies. Is the entire worlds intel incompetent? Also, his claim that there were no WMD's in Iraq is because ALL the intel from other countries was wrong. So, I guess noone knows what they are doing. They are all incompetent, therefore not needed?

[WaltD]

Thanks Richard Clarke for trying to stop the spin by Bush, Rove and the Republican Party that Bush saved American lives! He didn't! That is pure unadulterated revisionist history.

I too hope Obama finds a spot in his administration for Richard Clarke.

[joebaggadonuts]

Before Nixon's fall from grace, no American in power in government would ever say such a thing against a sitting president. Clarke goes further here than anyone I can remember in challenging the officer in the presidency. It is outrageous that Clarke is out of office while we are still ruled by this pathetic excuse for a president.

[eremite]

Clarke is a bitter bureaucrat who hopes to curry favor in the new regime by being a Bush Basher. I'd like him to spin his own scenario of what would have happened if another direction had been taken. What would clinton, carter, or obama have done after 9/11? Would we have been safer? Would the terrorists attacked us again. It's easy enough to criticize, but who have to be able to justify your alternate reality.

[Icantbelieveher]

We would have been safer not to have gone to war in Iraq! We would have been safer focusing on stopping Bin Laden, rather than helping Al Qaeda to recruit by deteriorating the country's reputation around the world!

[eremite]

You all can blather on as much as you like, but obama will have four years to prove you all right or wrong.

[GiveUsFree]

You mistakenly assume there would have been a 9/11 under Clinton, Carter or Obama. I doubt Gore would have been running a conspicuous "drill" which gave him complete control over NORAD while 9/11 happened like - Cheney.

[poizinniv]

Maybe when they heard the warnings (from multiple sources) that someone was going to fly into the world trade center they would have listened? Perhaps even prevented it??

[LaurenMarie984]

any other president would have done the intelligent thing by listening to the intelligence reports in the first place, instead of vacationing on a ranch for 4 months prior to 9/11. If the intelligence reports were not there? ANY other president/military official/American citizen would have gone after bin Laden, the one responsible for the attacks, and not a third party. Iraq was irrelevant to thesituation at hand and because of Bush, many soldiers were killed or wounded for a cause that was not necessary.

[kevenseven]

You are repeating Limbaugh's ad hominen attack on Clarke's motives. I dare you to take his points and debate them honestly.

It was Bush who refused, REFUSED to read the Aug 6 PDB that predicted that al Queda would attack the continental US using airplanes. Five weeks before it happened. Have YOU read the Aug 6 PDB?

Why was BushCo so desperate that it not be made public?

Clinton, Carter and Obama would have read the dam ned memo, to start with, and would have demanded that their NSA do some dam ned thing about it.

But thank you for playing our game.

[MPeter]

Clark is a smart and courageous man. It is good that he called Bush and his spinners out. They are liars and miserable failures.

[tedbear]

It is amazing that Bush/Cheney Inc. are getting away without any accountability. Amazing.

[Tom Joad]

I wish Mr. Clark was not being frozen out of Obama's administration. Those who have not yet read his most recent book 'Your Government Failed You' should do so - very revealing and eye-opening. He strikes me as a dedicated individual who is thoughtful and cares about our nation's future. That said, it is reasonable to also ask of him "why weren't you able to do more during your years working with the U.S. Intel community?"

[starlady7]

He was asked. He turned down the position!

[bygollymissmolly]

What frustrates me is that every time one of the Bush sycophants, or even Bush himself, says that in public, that no one says "Well, you didn't keep us safe on 911, did you".

How Bush thinks he can brag that he kept us safe for 6 years and ignore 911 is beyond me. The MSM has to stop letting him get away with it.

[joebaggadonuts]

The ploy failed for Rudy Giuliani, and it will now begin to fail for Bush. Once out of power, the camp followers lose interest in the mis-leader. Observe it.