BCT Editorial – 4/28/09

This page was last updated on April 30, 2009.

Bush’s blunders; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 28, 2009.

The editorial subtitle is “Failure to finish the job in Afghanistan is ex-president’s legacy.”

The editorial says,

“Go back to late 2001 and 2002. U.S. forces, with the aid of the Northern Alliance, had the Taliban and al-Qaeda on the run. But instead of finishing the job of tracking down and finishing off those who were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America and defeating those who were giving them sanctuary, the Bush administration went to war with Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with that terrible day.

“As a consequence of the Bush administration’s military blunders in Afghanistan and Iraq and diplomatic mistakes in Pakistan, the Taliban was able to stage a resurgence in Afghanistan that has spilled over into Pakistan.”

The U.S. “went to war with Iraq,” not “the Bush administration.”

The editorial author must know we “went to war with Iraq” over a year after we drove “the Taliban and al-Qaeda” into the Tora Bora area, right?

The editorial implies we should have chased “the Taliban and al-Qaeda” into Pakistan, an ally. I wish Times editorials from that time were available on the Web.

“[T]he Taliban was able to stage a resurgence in Afghanistan that has spilled over into Pakistan?” You can tell the editorial board gets its news from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” The bulk of the Taliban fled to Pakistan, reconstituted itself there, and is trying to reestablish itself in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t fit the Times template.