Anti-terrorism by the numbers

The President made his big national security speech at the National Archives today and in keeping with his forward-looking vision, blamed everything on the Bush administration… while, of course, opting to keep many of Bush’s anti-terrorism policies intact.

He called the prison at Guantanamo “a rallying cry for our enemies”. Really? You know what’s a rallying cry for our enemies? According to James Cromitie a.k.a. “Abdul Rahman” who is one of the four men who were caught in New York in an F.B.I. sting this week plotting to blowup synagogues and shoot down planes from the sky, it’s those damn Jews.

When the conversation turned to attacking a synagogue, Cromitie allegedly said, "I hate those Jewish "expletie." I would like to get a synagogue.

Cromitie also said that he wanted to return to Afghanistan to die as a “martyr”. But, but… Afghanistan is the “good” war.

Here’s what the President had to say about the 3 people we actually waterboarded

"As commander-in-chief, I see the intelligence, I bear responsibility for keeping this country safe, and I reject the assertion that these are the most effective means of interrogation. What’s more, they undermine the rule of law. They alienate us in the world. They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured. In short, they did not advance our war and counter-terrorism efforts – they undermined them, and that is why I ended them once and for all."

(italics, ours)

It’s the height of naivete to believe that these savages we’re fighting in the war on terror would treat any captives more humanely if only we weren’t water boarding our prisoners. For the Commander-in-Chief to hold this view is highly discouraging.

And reasonable people can differ on water boarding with respect to the rule of law but to claim that the decisions that were made over the last 8 years were “neither effective nor sustainable” is incredulous.

There’s a little saying, or more precisely, a single word that invokes a bottom line result when one wants to cut through the rhetoric and platitudes. It’s called “Scoreboard”. It’s a favorite of ours. Please join us, won’t you?


(Terrorism viewed as a criminal act and which no one seemed to take very seriously)

1993: World Trade Center bombing
1996: Khobar Tower bombing
1998: African embassy bombings
2000: USS COLE bombing
2001: 9-11 terrorist attacks

(Country wakes up, gets serious about terrorism, opens Club Gitmo and unleashes an orgy of enhanced interrogation techniques upon the bad guys)

Sept. 12, 2001 – present: 0

That, ladies and gentleman, is Scoreboard.