Posted by
Doug McQuiston on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:58:25 AM
"Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom -- the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time -- now depends on us. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."
-George W. Bush, September 20, 2008
As a new President plans his transition, I am pausing lately to give a little thought to the one on his way out. When George W. Bush took office in January, 2001, no one could have predicted the calamitous eight years that awaited him. His Presidency was transformed, and in a very real sense, sacrificed, on September 11, 2001. From the moment the planes hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the fields near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, he knew that whatever plans he might have had for his administration over the next four or eight years were gone. His mission had fundamentally changed.
In his joint session address to Congress nine days after the attack, President Bush made the Nation a promise. Its essence is highlighted above. In the last days of his Presidency, many people in the chattering classes have forgotten that speech, and that promise. But he never did. Though the years since have been fraught with setbacks, and he and his administration have made more mistakes than can be counted, President Bush has never broken faith with his country. He never tired; he never faltered; and he has not failed.
It is not by accident that this country has not suffered a single terrorist attack, within its borders or in its embassies outside of the war zones of Afghanistan or Iraq, since September 11, 2001. Had anyone predicted then that the nation would remain safe from terrorist attack this long, they would have been considered delusional. Commentators at the time were certain there would be many more attacks, even catastrophic ones, with the only question being when. At the time, it seemed an impossible task to protect the country from the onslaught of Islamic terror attacks we all feared were coming. Yet it was that very task to which President Bush and his team dedicated themselves.
In the end, perhaps it is the very success of their efforts these last seven years that, more than anything, has led to the decline of President Bush's reputation. The success of the Global War on Terror has given the country the luxury of worrying about its recent economic setbacks to the exclusion of everything else. We’re no longer worried about the existential threat of terrorism. The success of the Surge in Iraq (a surge that President Bush embraced late, to be sure, but embraced nonetheless), has caused the war to fade from the front pages as an issue.
But as he leaves office, President Bush can take some heart in the fact that while many have forgotten, there are still millions of us who remember. We remember what this country faced seven years ago. We remember like it was yesterday. We also remember the promise he made to us on September 20, 2001. We remember he warned us that the battle to win the war against Islamic terrorists would be long, fought in the twilight of secrecy or obscurity. He warned us that it would be a war with little credit given to its heroes, and with "victories" we might never even see in the open. But he promised that with the battle on, he would never leave the field until he was done, or spent in the effort. We know, (though his plummeting popularity polls suggest most no longer do), what it took for him to keep that promise.
More needs to be done, to be sure, and new threats lurk around every corner. We pray our new President is up to the task. But though you'll never see this written anywhere but here, he has President Bush, and that magnificent military he commanded, to thank for how close he will be to victory in the war on Islamic extremist terror when he takes office.
It may be a hundred years before the history of the Bush administration can be written with sufficient detachment to be accurate. I am by no means a Bush apologist, and could spend the next several entries in this journal cataloguing his failures. But I won't. I know that in many ways Bush has willingly sacrificed his reputation for victory in the cause to which he dedicated himself on September 20, 2001. He did what he thought was right, and never backed down in the face of the whirlwind. Of course, I will also never forget that there are nearly five thousand soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the country's cause, too. President Bush would want all the focus on them, as it should be. I am sure his first prayers, in his quiet moments, are for them and their families.
In thinking of this President as he fades from the stage and makes way for his successor, I recall the words from an old Irish rebel tune from the late 1700's, The Minstrel Boy:
The minstrel boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you'll find him.
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.
"Land of Song," said the warrior bard,
"Though all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard;
One faithful heart shall praise thee."
Godspeed, Mr. President.