Bush didn't "learn the lessons of 9/11."

[gulliver]

Bush keeps saying that he will always remember the lessons of 9/11. I guess it is up to us to remember our lessons about Bush's history with lessons.

Student Bush accused Iraq of seeking uranium after he supposedly learned the lessons of 9/11. The President of the United States made an incendiary, terrifying charge in a matter of war in the President's State of the Union Address to the Congress of the United States. It turned out to be wrong! Given Bush's role (President), the speech (President's State of the Union) and the setting (Congress of the United States), I have to ask, "How does one make a mistake that big after learning the lessons of 9/11?"

That's an unacceptable mistake from a president, but Bush, true to form, topped it. Diligent student that he is, Bush, master of the lessons of 9/11, rushed us to war in Iraq, once again citing intelligence that turned out to be wrong.

Sure Bush has excuses. He always does. But excuses are the mark of a bad student, not a good one. In the case of a president, they are the mark of a bad president.

Epilog for DUers.

Like most people here, I don't believe Bush got bad intelligence. The above talking points are to counter that excuse when Bush fans offer it. If Bush got bad intelligence after "learning the lessons of 9/11," that's his fault.

[Cocoa]

1. our president didn't learning

[KlatooBNikto]

4. Like a con man he has nothing but contempt for his marks.It shows.

[AIJ Alom]

2. I'm tired of the intelligence agencies taking the fall for 9/11.

I'm tired of the intelligence agencies taking the fall for 9/11. They didn't fail the nation. Bush did by not doing anything after the intelligence agencies gave him that PDB on August 6, 2001.

I'm sure Bill Clinton got a similar PDB in November of 1999. But you won't find it. The Bush team has all Clinton's terrorist related material classified. Don't want to embarass Bush.

The Clinton Administration immediately sprang into action, telling all law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout, warned Americans to be careful abroad, and remember this was before the Dept of Homeland Security and Terror Alert Levels. The Clinton team stopped the global Millenium plot, arresting people in Jordan and Ressam at the Canadien border (yes a border guard who thought it was drugs caught'em, but the Clinton team did heighten the alert for law enforcement). Check the archives of any news organization. Bill Clinton's team was ready to take action and prevent the attacks from unfolding in Jordan and in the United States.

If Clinton or Gore were president in August of 2001, 9/11 would not have happened. American security forces, like in 1999, would have been alerted, the government would have stopped the attacks.

What did Bush do in August of 2001 ? He played golf and had a good time on vacation. No terror alerts, no nothing.

Bush did learn an important lesson on 9/11. Being president of the United States is serious business and he should have done more. And in our collective national sorrow, following 9/11, we Americans united behind the man who failed us.

Each time I see Republicans use the September 11th attacks for political gain, I remember this, they do so because George W Bush used it masterfully from the start of the tragedy to hide his own incompetence. Shame on W.

[catbert836]

3. He didn't learn those lessons

because he was to busy being taught how to read by first-graders.