President George Bush has come under severe criticism from his political detractors for his failure to take appropriate and timely measures to stop the terror attacks launched by Al-Qaeda last year.
The administration has admitted that it received warnings of possible airborne attacks by Al-Qaeda members.
The administration explained that President Bush was so busy with other matters that he did not get enough time to read the proposed plans to eliminate Al-Qaeda which was placed before him two days before the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration also argued that the information it received in August about the possible terror attacks was so generalized that no precise action could have been taken on the basis of it.
White House’s defense of Bush, obviously, is very weak because the Federal Bureau of Investigation submitted in July last year a report about the suspicious manner in which some Arab students were attending aviation schools.
It is also reported that the Central Intelligence Agency warned in 1999 about the possibility of an Al-Qaeda attack against government offices and the hijacking of US planes.
The sloppy way in which the president and his administration handled the situation has raised several questions about the functioning of both the president and the American administration. According to the US media, the president should have placed the report before the public instead of concealing the facts and allowing Al-Qaeda to carry on with their murderous plans.
The conduct of the government also raises such questions as why it took eight months to announce the existence of this report and why it was made public particularly at this time?
In their attempt to defend the president, the vice president and the national security advisor charged the Democrats with making the report a weapon to campaign against the GOP and the president in the upcoming elections.
There is also a dispute over the formation of the committee to investigate the performance of the Bush’s administration. It is yet to be seen whether the committee will take members from outside the Congress and whether it will be an impartial body.
There are also several other points to be considered when assessing the performance of the Bush administration. The country’s economic growth has slowed down while the defense spending rose considerably. It should also be noted that the Afghan war failed to achieve its goal of catching Osama Bin Laden and his associates. The US also failed to chase or bust Al-Qaeda network in other parts of the world. The Americans also find that the popularity of their government is at its lowest in most countries because of the way the US foreign policy is conducted. The opposition to the American government has increased throughout the world in an unprecedented manner. Double standards and contradictory stands have also resulted in a loss of the American credibility.
