Stolen from the Washington Examiner, worth reading.
The vindication of former President Bush?
President Bush was reviled and hated at an almost unbelievable level while in office, with almost no accusation or conspiracy theory untried or unbelieved by the left. Every single action the man took was considered evil and horrible, every single event was an excuse to shower bitterness and spite toward the man and all he did. President Obama's career and political campaign for eight years was largely shaped by how he acted toward President George W. Bush. Now all that has changed.
In one event, on May Day, the entire case against President Bush was demolished by one of his greatest critics: President Obama.
Lets start with the invasion of Iraq, which was solidly opposed by the Democratic Party by 2004 when they realized they needed a tool to attack the president with for the elections. It was in Iraq, because of the US presence there, that a courier was captured, a courier that gave us key information that led to the location of Osama Bin Laden. Bush's decision to invade Iraq turned out to not be a distraction after all, but they key to getting Bin Laden.
Guantanamo Bay, long decried by the left as a haven of human rights violations and extralegal activity, a place President Obama swore repeatedly to close down (and has not) was the location where information critical to the location and killing of Osama Bin Laden was uncovered. Instead of being a blight on America and the source of Osama's popularity, Gitmo became his doom.
Other secret prisons, held up as proof of the sinister, awful nature of the Bush administration, were the site of other information needed to find Osama Bin Laden.
For years, the left argued that the Bush administration and no other administration has ever used torture to get information from terrorists and terrorist suspects. They argued this was ineffective, and further that it was evil and something that America should never use. Several leading figures, including Leon Panetta, have noted that it was the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" long called "torture" by the left that got us information to find and kill Osama Bin Laden - techniques still in use by the Obama administration. Direct, targeted killings by military drones, bombs, and soldiers was condemned by the left during the Bush administration, but with a single stroke, the Obama administration reporting the use this tactic to end Osama Bin Laden showed the validity of the tactic. Not only that, but the Obama administration has long argued that this tactic is perfectly legal. Tho were previously attacked as "Dick Cheney's Assassination Squad." The left's A List talking heads such as Seymore Hersh, Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart, among others all specifically attacked this team as an extra-legal tool used by the sinister Vice President Cheney to carry out a personal agenda. Now we find out that it was this very team which moved into place and carried out the mission against Osama Bin Laden. Patriotism, previously mocked and attacked as being crass, manipulative, and even a tool of the political opportunist is suddenly popular again on the left. When Osama Bin Laden was announced dead, the celebrations and patriotism began, with flag waving and chants of "USA! USA!" heard outside the White House. President Obama's passive "lead from behind" method of downplaying and reducing US leadership in the world was a direct reversal of President Bush. Bush was called a "cowboy" and reckless, and the bold, open view of America as a leader in the world was despised. Now, however, the USA is seen to lead by taking out Osama Bin Laden personally, striking into the heart of another nation to carry out a mission in a unilateral manner without any UN approval or world-wide permission.
The truth is, the Bush administration's tireless efforts to fight terrorism worldwide in the face of unbelievable opposition and pressure by the left was so effective and so right that now, even hard left former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had to recently thank President Bush.
This was a long process that started years ago under the Bush administration, and was carried out using the same techniques with the tools and areas established by the Bush team by the Obama administration. Two presidencies in a row worked to bring about the death of Obama, resulting in justice for the man who attacked America twice on its own soil.
President Bush told America we needed to be ready for "patient justice" before we could finally see Osama Bin Laden taken in. And President Obama, one of the Bush administration's most strident and vocal opponents, used the very tools, techniques, and tactics that he attacked previously and very publicly to accomplish it all, vindicating former President Bush and six years of the War on Terror before Obama took office.
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