How much credit should Bush get.....

[leatherneck]

How much credit should Bush get for the Obama Administration's recent success against al Qaeda? From what I know (all from reading; none from personal experience), the intelligence gathering process is built gradually (particularly overseas). If that is true, does the Bush Administration deserve a lot of credit for building up the CIA and the FBI, which has resulted in the recent successes (including the detection announced today of thwarting another underwear bomb)? Was it the Bush Administration that placed a much bigger emphasis on unscrambling the CIA and the FBI to make those organizations more effecient in handling and sharing intel information? The unmanned drones also have been very successful. Was it the Bush Administration that placed a large emphasis on the development, use and improvement of the drones?

 

If the answers to those questions are yes, should some of the more ardent critics of Bush be willing to at least give him some credit for laying the groundwork that has resulted in the US being safer today?

 

Some well thought out responses please. Leave the petty, knee jerk partisan responses for the other threads. If you have nothing substantive to provide, please don't respond. Thanks.

[Run To State]

I absolutely think he deserves a lot of credit as does Obama for continuing what Bush laid out.

[mcpapa]

Makes no difference to me who wants to take credit. Had the CIA Alec Station Unit not been disbanded in 2006, would OBL have been taken out sooner? We can't know the answer to that question. Did other Bush policies speed up the successful operation under Obama's watch? Probably so, but hard to quantify.

 

Again, I don't care who gets the credit or who wants the credit. One thing matters to me.

 

 

He gone.

[Bert]

I absolutely think he deserves a lot of credit as does Obama for continuing what Bush laid out.

 

This is my stance. I think W and those he surrounded himself with in his administration did a wonderful job of beefing up national security. I know many howl about the Patriot Act infringing on justice but maybe it was needed. On the same note, I think Obama has done well to keep up what the previous administation did and has prevented additional attacks on our country.

[Hatz]

How much credit should Bush get for the Obama Administration's recent success against al Qaeda? From what I know (all from reading; none from personal experience), the intelligence gathering process is built gradually (particularly overseas). If that is true, does the Bush Administration deserve a lot of credit for building up the CIA and the FBI, which has resulted in the recent successes (including the detection announced today of thwarting another underwear bomb)? Was it the Bush Administration that placed a much bigger emphasis on unscrambling the CIA and the FBI to make those organizations more effecient in handling and sharing intel information? The unmanned drones also have been very successful. Was it the Bush Administration that placed a large emphasis on the development, use and improvement of the drones?

 

If the answers to those questions are yes, should some of the more ardent critics of Bush be willing to at least give him some credit for laying the groundwork that has resulted in the US being safer today?

 

Some well thought out responses please. Leave the petty, knee jerk partisan responses for the other threads. If you have nothing substantive to provide, please don't respond. Thanks.

 

I think the intel work done does go under George's watch as well as Obama.

 

However I still believe that the Iraq buildup and conflict allowed our country to take the "eye off the prize." (Bin Laden) I think Bush's lack of patience in the efforts to capture Bin Laden and demolish Al Qaida are part of the issues we have faced the last 9 years in Middle East policy and in the strain on our military.

 

So credit is due as well as blame IMO.

[Guest Birdflu]

The Bush Administration definitely laid the foundation for the capture of Bin Laden. President Obama, to his credit, pulled the trigger and took Bin Laden out. I am just curious, if 9/11 had happened under President Obama's watch, how things would have worked out. That is probably a subject for another thread.

[leatherneck]

I think the intel work done does go under George's watch as well as Obama.

 

However I still believe that the Iraq buildup and conflict allowed our country to take the "eye off the prize." (Bin Laden) I think Bush's lack of patience in the efforts to capture Bin Laden and demolish Al Qaida are part of the issues we have faced the last 9 years in Middle East policy and in the strain on our military.

 

So credit is due as well as blame IMO.

 

The bolded seems reasonable on the surface level. Do you have anything to back up your belief? Reports from senior intel folks saying that had we not invaded Iraq, we would have had the resources to get OBL earlier?

 

The intel gathering, sharing and analysis capabilities were in such a shamble (from what I've read), I'm not totally convinced that not invading Iraq would have made a difference. One could feel that our country's resources are deep enough for one to believe that once the country set it's sights on OBL, it wasn't the lack of resources or inattention caused by the Iraq invasion that delayed getting OBL; rather it was simply the time needed to rebuild the intel community that caused the delay. Help convince me your belief is the correct one.

 

And for the record folks, I'm not saying President Obama does not deserve his just credit; rather, I'm wondering if the historians out there are already beginning to temper their thoughts on President Bush's presidency and whether they should.

[Randy Parker]

I believe the President credited his predecessor went it all went down & he was right to do so.

[woodsrider]

I fail to see how invading Iraq had any negative impact on finding OBL. If anything it probably helped. How much intelligence came from captures in Iraq? Maybe lots, maybe some, maybe none. Which ever it was putting 50,000 troops in Iraq had no effect on the CIA and other intelligence agencies doing their jobs of looking for OBL. I have a hard time believing the US's military and intelligence community are as weak as they would have to be to believe fighting in Iraq took anything away from the search of OBL.

[True blue (and gold)]

I certainly feel that President GW Bush should get a great deal of credit for the "take out" of bin Laden. I'm still not a fan of the Patriot Act, however.

[rockmom]

I absolutely think former President Bush deserves a lot of credit. He put alot in motion that was the foundation for the eventual find. HOWEVER, I still do not believe Iraq helped, or that we should have taken that action AT ALL. I belive the same Intel would have likely been gathered more expeditiously had we stayed focused on Afghanistan, and not spread our resources into destroying Iraq.

[acemona]

I think he should get just as much as bill clinton gets.

 

If he gets credit for something that happens 2 years after he left office because of the ground work he laid (although he himself said UBL was not that important to him) then he has to also get credit for the miserable economy that was occurring 2 years later.

[PurplePride92]

I think he should get just as much as bill clinton gets.

 

If he gets credit for something that happens 2 years after he left office because of the ground work he laid (although he himself said UBL was not that important to him) then he has to also get credit for the miserable economy that was occurring 2 years later.

 

Good point.

[westsider]

I think logic dictates that if we hadn't diverted many of our resources in Afghanistan to Iraq in 2003, it's possible that we could've captured or killed bin Laden much earlier than we did. I've always felt that we did divert many of our resources for a very unnecessary second war front.

[Randy Parker]

I think he should get just as much as bill clinton gets.

 

If he gets credit for something that happens 2 years after he left office because of the ground work he laid (although he himself said UBL was not that important to him) then he has to also get credit for the miserable economy that was occurring 2 years later.

 

He does get credit for the lousy economy.