In a rare public appearance, former President George W. Bush reflected on his presidency and his life out of the spotlight, poked fun at himself, and plugged his upcoming book while speaking at a conference for a finance trade association in Chicago on Thursday.And then at the end:
"In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amid a real danger," he said.Just two sentences and he got 'em both wrong.
The former president said his greatest failure in office was not passing Social Security reform.
Did he keep the country safe?
No. Not on 9/11, he didn't. The greatest terror attack on the nation's soil occurred on his watch and he was warned that something was going to happen. His administration dropped the ball and three thousand people died in New York City, The Pentagon, and in Somerset County, PA.
Was his greatest failure not passing Social Security reform?
No. His greatest failure (if it wasn't this failure to protect the nation on 9/11) would probably have to be causing the deaths of 4500 American servicemen and women (by lying about Iraq, about the WMD, about al-Qaeda). And then there's the domestic surveillance (an impeachable offense), and the torture (a war crime).
Everybody forgets the October 2001 anthrax attack - probably because it was domestic in origin. But it, perhaps more than The Day That Changed Everything, scared the crap out of Americans and paved the way for Iraq - remember, "anonymous sources" insisted that the anthrax was Iraqi in origin.
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