Out with the old...

This are interesting times we live in, and I think all my readers know I have very definite opinions on the changing of the "guard" in Washington DC. I will be sharing those within the next few days (once I can formulate my thoughts in an articulate manner.)

In the meantime, a couple of columns written by others, that I think are a great read.

The first one addresses President Bush and the Global War on Terror. Depending on who you talk to, the decision to send troops into Iraq was either the worst defining moment of President Bush's time, or was the ONLY decision that he could make. I happen to agree with the latter, and I am SURE that history will vindicate Mr Bush. Then I found this:

January 19, 2009

Bush Will Be Vindicated in the War on Terror

Dr. Walid Phares

With the end of the Bush presidency in sight, it’s time to take stock of the War on Terror, something that didn’t begin with George W. Bush but which entered the American collective consciousness on his watch. So, where are we now, as we get ready to usher in a new era with a new president?

The measurement of the successes and failures under the Bush Administration isn’t a simple matter of calculus. Many questions make the final assessment complex and inextricable. Here are few examples:

1) Did the Jihadi war against America begin on September 11, 2001? Of course not! It began in the years and decades before the attacks of 9/11.

The ideology of Jihadism rose in the 1920s. The Islamist movement, through both Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood, indoctrinated large pools of recruits around the world during the Cold War.

In the 1980s the United States was targeted in Tehran and in Beirut. In the 1990s, Americans were attacked in New York in 1993, massacred in 1993 in Somalia, killed at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, attacked in 1998 in East Africa and again in 2000 in Yemen.

By the time bin Laden’s men crumbled the towers in Manhattan and the Pentagon on 9/11, four presidents had been advised by their experts to avoid a “global confrontation” with terrorism.

In contrast, George Bush broke that taboo and on October 7, 2001 he declared a “War on Terror.” He should have identified the enemy with its real name, the Jihadists, but at least he informed the nation, that indeed, we were at war with “an enemy.” And for that mere fact he was vilified for seven years...

Go over to Family Security Matters here to read the rest of this thoughtful, well-reasoned column.