Pop Quiz Mr. President: Why Did You Fail?

Heritage Foundation ^ | 1/02/10

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On New Year’s Eve, the White House received the preliminary assessment from federal agencies detailing the shortfalls of a terrorist bomber got on a plane bound for Detroit. The president admitted the government had more than enough information to justify keeping Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab off the aircraft. Obama concluded the system failed.

Here is what the president did not explain: This is the same system that stopped the London-based terrorist plot in 2006. On that occasion, intelligence connected the dots; counterterrorism agents penetrated the conspiracy; Homeland Security developed countermeasures; and with international partners the U.S. took down the terrorists before any bomber got near a plane.

Obama had the same system at his disposal as the last president. One built between 2002 and 2008 in the aftermath of the first wave of terrorist attacks– 9/11; the anthrax letters; and Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. A system that President Bush drove day-in and day-out, 24-7-365 to find and stop terrorist threats before they got off the ground. That’s why the 2006 plot and 26 other plots since 9/11 (21 under the Bush presidency) were found out and stopped. What Obama did not explain is how it worked for the last president, but failed for him.

Systems will never be perfect. The enemy keeps changing its tactics—innovating, improvising, adopting. There will also always be gaps, miscues, and mistakes. That’s the nature of how government works. There is no better antidote for these problems than leadership from the top. A leader that establishes the priority; sets the right tone; demands results; and then follows-up.

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A terrorist from Nigeria, whose father warned U.S. Embassy officials weeks earlier about his son's radicalization, goes to Yemen for equipment and training from Al Qaida. He then takes his valid US visa and uses it to buy a plane ticket with cach, carries no luggage and boards a plane bound for Detroit.

How did that happen?

Well, under Obama, we have a government that reads terrorists their rights and calls their acts of war "man made disasters". That is change, certainly, from President Bush. But is not change you can believe in, unless you believe in the decline of your own country, like an idiot.

[jveritas]

Our terrorist enemies have been greatly emboldened by this man weakness, cowardice, and absolute lack of leadership, and because of this they are going to cause us a lot of harm.

They have already made two terrorist attacks on our land since Obama became a President. In the first one they succeeded when terrorist Nidal Hasan killed and injured dozens of our brave troops in Fort Hood. In the second one, the terrorist attempt on the Detroit plane, they succeeded in overcoming all the security measures against terrorism despite the warning from the terrorist father two months ago regarding his and only the terrorist failure to detonate the bomb saved us from an absolute disaster. However the very scary fact remains that the terrorist were able to penetrate all the security measures against terrorism.

It up to all of us now to prevent our terrorist enemies from striking us again, we must be all very vigilant.

[historyrepeatz]

Obama failed because he believes Bush angered terrorists thus triggering more attacks, when in actuality Obama’s passiveness, weakness, appeasement and total ignorance of terrorist motives has served only to invite more attacks and more often.

[nathanbedford]

Faulting the administration for a lack of leadership is not meant as a partisan criticism. Scoring political points won’t make us safe. Nor are finger-pointing or snipping and point-scoring much helpful.

Apologies to the Heritage Foundation which is usually right on in its observations but this pile of mush is nothing more than a reflex apology in advance to avoid the dreaded criticism of the P-word: partisanship. Nothing could more broadly misconceive how our system actually functions.

Our democracy works on partisanship. Politicians avoid stealing because they might get caught and they get caught because there is another party hoping to catch them and expose them to the voters so they can get power and have a chance to steal. So it is with running a bureaucracy. Bureaucrats and politicians, like normal people, prefer the easy way. It is the job of the opposition party to make the easy way more painful than the right way.

Bipartisanship is an illusion and one should never apologize for one's partisanship, it is akin to apologizing for one's ambition, one's wealth, one's talents, or one's patriotism. Partisanship is what makes the system go round.

[freekitty]

Because Obama and his administration and the lapdogs MSM act as though they are from the third world; ignorant and childish. Only deeply immature people with no real leadership act in such a manner. Their way of thinking has failed in the past and will fail again.

[matthew fuller]

"What Obama did not explain is how it worked for the last president, but failed for him. "

It worked for ObaMao, too. It is totally abhorrent to patriotic Americans, but Barry and the democrat party actually WANT the US to fail. THAT IS THEIR PLAN! Black Liberation! Reparations! Many, many people are now catching on.

[matthew fuller]

"It up to all of us now to prevent our terrorist enemies from striking us again, we must be all very vigilant. "

How do we prevent the terrorist in the white house from striking us again?

[matthew fuller]

"They have already made two terrorist attacks on our land since Obama became a President. In the first one they succeeded when terrorist Nidal Hasan killed and injured dozens of our brave troops in Fort Hood."

And by the way, Nidal Hassan was a obvious, flaming terrorist for about five years under Connecticut-born President George W. Bush. Not that I mean to cut obamao any slack.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> and only the terrorist failure to detonate the bomb saved us from an absolute disaster.

that, and the decisive actions of one very brave Dutchman who himself personally neutralized the threat without regard to his own personal safety.

According to Fox News, his name is Jasper Schuringa, and in my humble opinion he needs a medal. People like this should be remembered alongside Todd Beamer and the heroes of Flight 93.

[Yaelle]

While I agree with this article, it is poorly written with atrocious grammar and punctuation. Is this really from the Heritage Foundation?? Maybe it was written by someone not familiar with English?

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Lots of people have not had personal experience with these Leftist thugs, so can’t image they want America to fail. Like the failure to believe there could be a 9/11, the failure of so many to understand what the goals and methods of these people are is at its core a failure of imagination.

[Rocky]

Well, under Obama, we have a government that reads terrorists their rights

and prosecutes US military personnel for mistreating the little darlings from Al Qaeda.

[knarf]

Rush commanded it.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Why did the Kenyan fail? How about this from the NY Times from April 2009:

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday made public detailed memos describing brutal interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The release of the documents came after a bitter debate that divided the Obama administration, with the C.I.A. opposing the Justice Department’s proposal to air the details of the agency’s long-secret program(s).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17detain.html

[Rennes Templar]

“The enemy keeps changing its tactics”

Enemy? What enemy? Zero thinks his only enemies are on Fox News.

[wiggen]

Its also the defanging of our anti terrorism apparatus. Take away the tools and expecting the same result is a bit naive.