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

[wwwtips]

Richard Clarke, you are a courageous and patriotic American. You spoke out against the Bushes about the coming attack to your country but they never listening to you and started a war in Iraq killing their own young and brave soldiers. The Bushes must be prosecuted as a war criminal not only in the name of their own soldiers but in the name of hundred of thousands Iraquis civilians killed during the invasion.
Your words and the action of the Iraqui journalist throwing his shoes to Bush represent the frustation
and angers of the people around the world.

eugenefromcanada

[dooleynoted]

Of course it never gets mentioned but in addition to the 4,000+ American lives thousands and thousands of Iraqis died as a result of the Bush-cheney policies. But they don't count for the neocons and their lemming followers.

[shanghaislim]

Clark should be back in the NSA

[lisakaz2]

Yep. We know but the Bou$hees wanna keep spinning anyway.

[RepublicanMicky]

Thank you Mr. Clarke

[Rog49Thomas]

Once again we see liberals resort to facts, logic, and reasoning in an attempt to discredit President Pan's many imagined accomplishments.

It just won't work.

Let me point out one incontroverible fact.

Each and every day for the past eight years the sun has reliably risen in the East in the morning and set in the West in the evening.

Many of you out there who voted for President Elect Neo are taking quite a chance with our country's safety by presuming this will be the case after 21 Jan!

[lisakaz2]

You admit you're bat---- crazy huh? And maybe a racist too. Wonder why you didn't use magic before "Neo"?

[BLinCincinnati]

Still amazes me how many people fail to pick up on sarcasm or satire...

[IndyGirl19]

I think you maybe misunderstood Rog's post. You are both on the same team. :-)

[Rog49Thomas]

My post seems to have distressed you. For that apologies.

A couple of other thoughts.

(1) I have a "pet" name for each political figure. PE Neo as he will defeat the Matrix. HRC as Sister Yoda because she ran on her vast and timeless experience. The current occupant of the White House as "Pan" (as in Peter Pan) because he never grew up.

(2) Sarcasm doesn't seem to travel well at HuffPo.

As they say (or at least I am fond of saying they say), there are three building blocks for a functioning democracy: an active citizenry, access to information and the ability to reason critically.

[JimR]

I think you misunderstood it.

[Boboday555]

I bet Y'ALL won't enlist for President Obama either huh y'a Loyal NON-ENLISTING Bushy!
Typical neo-KKKon.

[BLinCincinnati]

*sigh* Yet another one...

[IndyGirl19]

Too true!

[littlepuffycloud]

WTF? What in the world are you trying to say?

[EtTuBrute]

Rog - ROFLMAO!!

Went back to read some of your other posts and almost died laughing when I read this thread (not only your post, but the comments below it are hilarious). Luckily I wasn't drinking any liquids at the time (hate that expel-it-t­hrough-the­-nose thing).

My hat is off - "As they say (or at least I am fond of saying they say), there are three building blocks for a functioning democracy: an active citizenry, access to information and the ability to reason critically­."

With your permission, I might use that as a tag line somewhere.

Keep on keeping on. - EtTu -

[RepublicanMicky]

We have a saying here in Ohio:
Fool me once, shame on me, ah,... fool me again,...a­h,...fool me again,...d­on't believe you.....
Anyway,...­..we have that saying here in Ohio.....

[vtlt8]

These people are worse than liberals.

[Boboday555]

...liberal­s like Jesus?

"Blessed are the Peacemakers"
"Turn The Other Cheek"
"Love Thy Enemy"
"The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth"

Sounds pretty Liberal to me Cletus...w­ouldn't Y'ALL say?

[Rog49Thomas]

Yes but look at some of the stuff that liberals and their fellow travelers brag about having achieved:

(1) Work place safety regulations
(2) The eight hour day
(3) Abolition of child labor
(4) Paid vacations and holidays
(5) Direct popular election of senators
(6) Regulations for food safety
(7) Initiative and recall

And that's just the short list.

Imagine what a better place it would be if we all lived in the magic world of Galt's Gulch.

[ccclj]

First World Trade Center attack was under Clinton, who also had OK City, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Kohbar Towers, African Embassies just to name a few. Good job there Richie boy.

[LITNUP]

don't contradict Rich with facts or logic... Counter terrorism adviser???What advice did you give Clinton?

[theMightyT]

how about just lying through the teeth? seems about all cclj is good for...

[Caymus77]

Go read "Against All Enemies" and get educated. Clarke lays it all out in detail.

[theMightyT]

oklahoma city bombing wasn't a terrorist group

neither was waco

nor was ruby ridge

none of these domestic incidents were preceded by a massive intelligence gathering effort resulting in Clinton being given a dossier entitled X Determined to Att.a.c.k which he then completely ignored.

Kohbar Towers wasn't a domestic attack. If you want to list all the ter.r.o.r attacks that have occured overseas as a comparison, boy do you lose big.

I understand your pathetic attempt at comparing apples to oranges is really all you have left, but it's so pathetically, transparently st.u.pi.d i'm surprised you posted it anyway...

care to try again?

[ccclj]

So you don't consider Militias, separatists or extreme religious groups terrorists? Point is the Clinton administration had many more incidents that could have been prevented

[theMightyT]

oklahoma city bo.m.bing wasn't a ter.r.o.ri­st group

neither was w.aco

nor was ru.by ridge

none of these domestic inci.d.ent­s were preceded by a massive intelligence gathering effort resulting in Clinton being given a dossier entitled X Determined to Att.a.c.k which he then completely ignored.

Kohbar Towers wasn't a domestic attack. If you want to list all the ter.r.o.r attacks that have occured overseas as a comparison, boy do you lose big.

I understand your pathetic attempt at comparing apples to oranges is really all you have left, but it's so pathetically, transparently st.u.pi.d i'm surprised you posted it anyway...

care to try again?

[Forester]

Clinton's smartest move? Pulling OUT of Mogadishu.

[JimR]

First World Trade Center attack was on February 26, 1993. Not sure when exactly Clarke became Clinton's chief counter-terrorism adviser. But for the sake of argument let's say it was when Clinton took office on January 20, 1993. So yeah, in his first month on the job, he didn't predict an attack that had been in the works for 2 years.

[JayeSF]

This won't be the last sort of these public comments/e­ditorials.

I applaud Mr. Clarke...n­ow....

But ask the obvious (as one asks of Scott Mclellan, etc., etc., etc. )

Where were YOU when this was going down ? Why the silence THEN ?????

[RedDogBear]

What are you talking about? Have you read any of Clarkes books? Before 9/11 he was doing everything and anything he could do trying to get Rice (his boss and the person responsible for US security at the time of the attack) or Bush to even DISCUSS terrorism and Bin Laden. They weren't interested. After 9/11 Clarke spent months trying to work within the administration, at first believing that at last they would take homeland security seriously only to leave in disgust at their incompetence. He has been speaking out ever since, writing books and Op Eds. He was vilified for a while after leaving the Bush administration until it was obvious that everything he was saying was true. Equating him with Mclellan is ridiculous.

[Querent]

Isn't it amazing how many people mistake their own ignorance for the absence of something in the real world? On every thread there's one ignoramus who demands, "How come you never mentioned this before?" of the very people who have been telling them important facts for years. If they didn't know about it, they think it never happened.

[JimR]

He wasn't being silent. The people in power weren't listening.

[EtTuBrute]

You WERE kidding right?

This WAS sarcasm, right?

Or - basic research was an institutionally prohibited pursuit at some institution of "higher learning" I am unaware of?

[Damaven]

Any intelligent American knows spin when they hear it and anybody reading any paper or looking at any TV, listening to any radio, knows Bush destroyed us.

[Sumocat]

Right on. After 9/11, Bush kept the terrorists from coming here by giving them more Americans to kill in the Middle East. It's like offering sacrifices to the volcano.

[Rog49Thomas]

and as effective

[Ramirez]

Richard Clark is a team player. Obama should give him a job as some sort of spokesperson or something.

[RoseZ]

It was offered. Clarke declined. It was on Olbermann last night.

[RedDogBear]

Interesting. I watch via podcast and haven't seen last night's show yet.

[RedDogBear]

I agree. His last book was one of the most well written and compelling national policy books I've ever written. A "here's what's wrong and here's how to fix it" manual for national security. I was hoping he would be picked for head of Homeland Security and I hope he still gets some role. BTW, I think people like Clarke also show how empty the critique "how can we have change with ex-Clinton people" is. Just because someone worked in the Clinton administration doesn't mean they are tainted. Each person should be evaluated as an individual.

[Tom Joad]

I'm with you, Ramirez. I don't understand why RC is being frozen out of the Obama administration. He strikes me as a forthright, dedicated public servant. He doesn't pull his punches, speaks his mind. Something sorely needed inside the beltway.

[ccclj]

Because he is a loon, who was used by the Dems when they needed him, but want him no where near Obama. They know he will say anything to sell a book

[comacoma]

Prosecute Bush for all his crimes against humanity..­. only then will justice come even close to being served.

[filo]

If Diogenes met Richard Clarke he could have retired. He has my utmost respect as an honest man. He deserves a medal for the things he said in the aftermath of 9/11. He continues to speak the truth knowing he will be raked over the coals by the right wing zealots.