Bush's Chutzpah

Who knows if he’s hiding in some cave or not. We haven’t heard from him in a long time. . . . I don’t know where he is. I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you.  George W. Bush, 2002.

 He sure has "choot-spa, as Michele Bachmann would say.  We already know that George W. Bush is psychologically incapable of admitting mistakes, so it is hardly surprising that he continues to regret nothing about his post-9/11 actions, from misleading the country into war with Iraq to authorizing torture.  On the contrary, capitalizing on the opportunity afforded by our focus on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the former president can be found boasting about his dismal record while trying to take credit where credit is not due.

In an interview with USA Today, the former president audaciously claims that his administration played a critical role in the the events that led to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“The work that was done by intelligence communities during my presidency was part of putting together the puzzle that enabled us to see the full picture of how bin Laden was communicating and eventually where he was hiding,” he said. “It began the day after 9/11.”

Here in the reality-based community, we know different.  As Think Progress points out, it is "well documented that the Bush administration missed an opportunity to get bin Laden in Tora Bora in 2001."  In 2005, "Bush shut down the CIA’s unit dedicated to finding bin Laden in order to shift resources to Iraq."  And by 2006, Bush told reporters that that bin Laden was “not a top priority use of American resources.”

 Mission not accomplished.