Bush’s Record on Predicting Terrorist Actions

George Bush sure thinks he is an expert on what the terrorist think. For example, the New York Times reports Bush is saying that “an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq would only embolden terrorists and make America and its allies more vulnerable to attack.” Maybe, or maybe less people would be willing to give up their lives to attack us if they didn’t see the United States as a threat to themselves and families.

I’ll leave that question for another time. What I’m really interested in today is statements like this where Bush or people in his administration claim to have great insight into how people in al Qaeda think. During the election we heard all sorts of warnings, even suggestions that Bin Laden wanted Kerry to win. (Never mind the fact that Bush did exactly what Bin Laden wanted in attacking a secular country such as Iraq and assisting al Qaeda with their recruiting).

If George Bush is such an expert on how Bin Laden thinks, I can’t help but wonder why he didn’t know they were going to attack before 9/11. He didn’t even need great insight considering that his own intelligence briefings before 9/11 said Bin Laden was going to attack. I also wonder why he didn’t realize that Bin Laden would easily bribe his way to safety if locals rather than the US military went in after him at Tora Bora. Again he didn’t even need to have a great deal of knowlege. John Kerry was warning him against this course of action.

With this track record we should ignore any statement out of the Bush Administration which attempts to predict what al Qaeda will do or how they will respond to any US actions.