Debbie Schlussel: On Bush's Good-bye Speech & His Real Record of "Keeping America Safe"
As you probably did, I predicted that, last night in his goodbye speech, President Bush would tell America how he's kept us safe in the War on Terrorism. And he didn't disappoint in that prediction.
And while it was a classy speech, it simply wasn't true. Yes, there have been no Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11, but Bill Clinton could have said the same about the 1993 WTC attack when he left office.
But here's the reality check: As I've been saying for years, George Bush wasted a tremendous opportunity to actually make us safe in the long run, instead of a phony, ephemeral facade for the duration of his Presidency. He could have restricted Islamic immigration and conducted mass deportations, like they are now doing--far too late--in France. Instead, he welcomed more and more Muslims into our country, quadrupling the number of Saudi student visas and granting Visa Waiver status to a gazillion countries which are home to those who hate us.
In the long run, because of their birthrates and immigration laws allowing them to sponsor relatives, we will be less safe--in fact, we will lose our country to Islam. It may take 100 years, but it will happen, and that will be Bush's true legacy. Look at Israel, The Muslim Arab birthrate is what's governing much of the situation they find themselves in.
And instead of cracking down, he created a giant bureaucracy that panders to Muslim extremists and rubber stamps citizenship and green card applications--you know, the falsely-named Department of Homeland Security he bragged about in last night's speech. The same Department of Homeland Security whose chief, Chertoff, feted Hezbollah's two most important imams--open supporters of the terrorist group that murdered hundreds of Americans--in Dearbornistan.
And after 9/11, President Bush further emboldened the enemy by establishing a special, unconstitutional division of his Justice Department, devoted to the civil rights of Muslims and Arabs. The group has gone after other Americans innocently expressing their views about Islam and exercising their free speech rights. This makes us safer? Not really. It makes the enemy on our own shores safer, though.
Ironically, one story that epitomizes how Bush made us less safe is this one that just happened yesterday, as Bush was preparing to go on camera:
A federal judge has turned down a request to stop the Bush administration from instituting new visa rules that will make it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers to harvest spring crops. . . .The new Labor Department rules go into effect Saturday, three days before the Bush administration leaves office.
There was once a guy named Mahmud Abouhalima, who got one of these agricultural worker visas. But instead of helping farmers, he was driving a cab on the streets of New York City, where there's far more fertilizer and far fewer crops.
He was one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers--in fact, he was one of the leaders of the plot--and an Al-Qaeda terrorist.
Thanks, Bushie, for allowing a whole new generation of Mahmud Abouhalimas to enter the country and making it a whole lot easier.
That is your real legacy. In a few generations, not only will America not be safe, it may not be America at all.
Posted by Debbie on January 16, 2009 11:51 AM to Debbie Schlussel