Looks like it's time to block yet another server that allows EvilMinPin to crawl out from under his rock and onto the site.

And now to our regularly scheduled comment: Great article, Gary, right on the money. I'm sick of being told that if I'm not in a state of perpetual evening-of-9/11 agitation I must hate America. And you're right that Bush's weakness and cowardice infected the body politic.

Carl Rove was Grima Wormtongue; W. Bush was Gollum. Maybe Colin Powell was Boromir.

"called upon us to stand for a braver, better America. An America that will not abandon its moral principles at the first setback. An America that knows its real power lies not in its mighty army but in its mightier ideals."

This is such a ridiculous idea, that if we have high and mighty ideals we will be protected. Mr. Obama said the same thing on Monday. So if we have "high ideals" and take the "moral high ground" we will never be attacked again? The fanatics that hate everything the Western world stands for will just stop when they see we are showing off our high ideals? You people have your head in the sand and I fear that some day innocent people will pay the price of your naivete. The Islamists want to destroy the Western world and our high ideals will not stop an attack. President Bush protected this country for 7 years, the terrorists knew he wouldn't take anything from them and would come after them if they attacked again. I don't care if they used torture. When you are dealing with evil men who would kill innocent women and children even of their own country, there should be no sympathy. Wake up people before it's too late. All this blather about how American will once again lead the world and be respected again is ridiculous. Doing the right thing doesn't always bring respect, sometimes it brings just the opposite.

But once again I point the finger at the american people who have the mentality of frightened ....... you can't frighten people who actually think ....

No one made the american people fall for the bullshit that a few idiots offered up (include the Congress in that) ....

And as you said, Bin Laden perfectly achieved his goal of producing fear thru the hands of the fear-mongering Bush administration.

very intersting piece of work.very well put together..i agree with all facts and opnions..but why so long for you guys to speak the truth? or to voice your opinions.you guys as journalist are the peoples voices, you guys know the truth but neglect to promote it. which makes you just as much a coward as bush!..where im from a coward doesnt call another coawrd A COWARD..smh

Kamiya hits another out of the park.

The most accurate look-back on the Bush years I've seen yet. Let it stand as what history will remember.

As Ben Franklin said, those who give up freedom for security will ultimately have neither.

Just think about it.

I was watching a new documentary on Air Force One. There is one scene where Bush is leaving Baghdad and he apparently called the cockpit 4 separate times to ask if they were out of missile range yet. The first mention made it sound urgent, but the fourth call invoked images of a scared sh*t-less Bush cowering in the corner of the most secure aircraft in the modern world. An airplane equipped with anti-missle technology, flying with an escort of fighter jets and followed by a duplicate Air Force One. A far cry from "Bring it on."

You have not been paying very close attention to Salon, Moveon, and a thousand other alternative press/internet publications. Turn off the TV, stop reading Time and Newsweek (if you read at all), and do your homework. ALL this was clearly and forcefully put out there since Day 1 of the Bush administration.

No, jpike, having high ideals will not protect us from terrorist attacks. But why do you think "being protected from terrorist attacks" is our only or even our primary goal in the "war on terror"?

I think even George W Bush himself would agree that the primary goal of the "war on terror" is to put an end to terrorism -- stopping any particular attack is important too, but in the long run it is the use of terror as a political tool, itself, that must be discredited, or the "war" can never be "won".

By adopting torture, the US was implicitly advocating terrorism as a useful tool (torture being a form of terrorism, applied to individuals). By adopting torture, the US allowed the terrorists to make their case that their actions were necessary to fight a foe that was just as morally debased as they are. By adopting torture, the US blurred the line between "the good guys" and "the bad guys" in the eyes of the rest of the world... and it is those people who will decide whether to support terrorism, or not, in upcoming decades.

W's problem was that he thought only of tactics, and never of strategy. He was playing checkers while bin Laden played chess. Hopefully Obama will do better in that regard.

-Jeremy

The executive branch has already set the precedents on torture, which Congress and the Courts did not strike down. Unless there are prosecutions of those, high and low, who approved the use of "enhanced interrogations" (torture), that precedent will stand for the future. Putting the past hehind us, as Pres Obama proclaimed, is nonsense. All crimes are in the past, when they are discovered - unless they are also in the present.

I believe the new president left a loophole for "national security" in his executive order. Am I wrong?

"But once again I point the finger at the american people who have the mentality of frightened ....... you can't frighten people who actually think ...."

Since the most fear-ridden people in the western world are the leftists, what does this say about their intelligence?