Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Only Terrorism They Notice Is Successful Terrorism

Following the news yesterday that six radical muslims planned an armed attack on Fort Dix, I expected most people to be proud of the unnamed store clerk who turned them in. I expected Americans to be happy that yet another terrorist plot was foiled. I expected that even Liberals would be impressed that, yet again, we have avoided an attack on American soil.

I was wrong.

When you have disgraceful tripe like this coming from the Left, you really start wondering at what point we get to question their patriotism.

I try not to be a cynical person. When mainstream news outlets report on disrupted terrorist plots, my first instinct isn’t to question the timing or doubt the validity of the report, but rather to cheer.

But when it comes to disrupted plots, the Bush administration’s track record is discouraging. Too often, threats have been irresponsibly hyped far beyond the facts. Like the boy who cried “wolf,” the Bush gang has bred cynicism, making it almost impossible to consider news like this at face value...

First, it’s worth noting that today’s success was due to intelligence gathering and law-enforcement efforts — the very techniques the Bush White House has consistently ridiculed as ineffective in counterterrorism. For that matter, as Steve M. noted, “[A]pparently no warrantless wiretapping led to these arrests, no torture of suspects in overseas prisons, nothing liberals have objected to in the Patriot Act. Remember that when you’re told that these arrests prove that we can’t trust liberals and Democrats.”

Second, the alleged “Islamic radicals” may not have been quite as dangerous as the initial reports had led us to believe.

Shorter Carpetslogger: We don't have any of our usual complaints, so let's complain that we don't have complaints.

I'm dumbfounded that there are people (read through the comments and you'll see some of them) that don't feel stopping domestic terror is a big deal because it either wasn't large enough or didn't deal with one of their pet peeves. You can bet if no one had stopped these creeps, the Left would be hanging the attack around President Bush's neck like an albatross.

But don't give stepped-up awareness or procedures any credit for foiling yet another plot.