It is September 12, 2008, which means it has been seven years and one day since that infamous moment that is etched in every American’s memory. We all know where we were and what we were doing when the terrorist attacks occurred.
Ever since, we have lived in a “post 9/11” world. In that “post 9/11” world our national government has ramped up its anti-terrorist activities exponentially. The result? We have not had another successful terrorist attack on Americans here in the homeland.
Are you surprised there has not been another successful attack on our civilian population? Frankly, I am. If someone had told me seven years ago that we would have gone this long without being hit again, I would have judged them naïve and hopelessly optimistic.
It is not because the bad guys have not been trying. The New York police commissioner explained yesterday that they have identified and thwarted at least six terrorist plots against New York City alone!
We have NOT been successfully attacked since 9/11, and a large measure of the credit must go to President George W. Bush.
And yet he is accorded relatively little credit, especially by the media. Nevertheless, President Bush’s policies have put the terrorists on the defensive and have given us the ability to thwart a significant number of potentially deadly attacks.
The current issue of Foreign Policy (Sept/Oct 2008) has a cover photo of President Bush in a Stetson hat with the caption: “Lonesome Cowboy–Why you’ll miss him when he’s gone.” Inside is David Frum’s article “Bush’s Legacy,” which argues that historians will be far kinder to President Bush than present pundits.
I agree. And the first sentence in any historical assessment of George W. Bush’s presidency will be “He kept the country safe from attack in the wake of the unprecedented deadly attacks on the American homeland on September 11, 2001.”