From today's NYTimes
editorial:
The real challenge came after the Afghan invasion, when Mr. Bush had to decide what to do next -- rethink the outdated world view his advisers had brought into office, or snap back into old reflexes and go after Iraq, the enemy of the last generation. It was then that he chose the wrong path.
Regardless of what the 9/11 commission finds, this is Bush's real failing. The 9/11 commission sparked a very important debate: Has Bush really done a good job battling terrorism?
What happened after Afghanistan should be the answer to that question.
We've all heard many times, very often from Bush's own mouth, that 9/11 changed everything. If so, then why did Bush choose to fight an old enemy (Saddam) using old methods (a military invasion)? If 9/11 was truly a sea-change in the shape of the world, then why did Bush not respond with new innovative methods?
Bush's major innovation in the post 9/11 world was the first strike doctrine: terrorism makes it so that we can't let threats gather -- we have to hit them before they can hit us. This is what Bush's first strike doctrine has achieved.
Beyond a deepening quagmire in Iraq, what else has Bush's strategies in the War on Terror gotten us? A few captured al-Queda chiefs. Many terrorist bodies. Full cells in Guantanamo. But the chiefs have been replaced, new terrorists have been recruited, the prisoners in Guantanamo have proven useless (except if you consider the recruitment value of the human rights violations visited on them).
Bombings continue worldwide, Americans are still afraid to travel abroad, the threat of terrorism shadows every major gathering, every conceivable event. Bush's War on Terror has done nothing to change this.
Bush has brought outdated strategies and ossified thinking to a war that, by his own admission, is like nothing we have ever seen before.
The 9/11 commission was useful in that it sparked a debate on Bush's effectiveness as a leader in the War on Terror. It is time to move past that. Richard Clarke's testimony has done its damage, but there is far more damage to be done in assailing Bush record post, not pre 9/11.