Today is the anniversary of 9/11. It is an event that the left is trying to memory-hole because it lays out in stark terms that American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington was right: we are engaged in a "clash of civilizations," and the people who claim that "liberal democracy" is now the dominant force in the world. 

There are a lot of things that indicate that, as a nation, we've refused to learn the lessons of 9/11. New York City, for instance, has elected an out-and-proud terrorist simp as mayor. He employs, as his chief counsel, someone who bragged that he immigrated to America so they could defend terrorists captured by the U.S. One of the most disappointing episodes in today's remembrance ceremonies is former President George W. Bush.

To be clear, I voted for George Bush twice. I thought him a man of character and integrity. I thought he exhibited the leadership the nation needed in the aftermath of 9/11. I think his speech at Ground Zero was one of the most epic pieces of purely extemporaneous political speech in American history.

His first pitch of Game 3 of the 2001 World Series also served as a metaphor for his leadership. He went into what could've been a very unfriendly venue to deliver a pitch that, he had to know, would be ruthlessly mocked if it were anything other than dead center of the strike zone, and he delivered.

One reason I ended up blogging at RedState was that I felt the attacks on him were grossly unfair and undeserved.

That said, I think history has shown that he was gravely wrong in two aspects of the global war spawned by 9/11 that have prevented America from chalking up a clear victory and making America weaker today than it was on September 10, 2001.

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Former President Bush appeared with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas on Wednesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The event was titled,  "A Legacy of Service: America at the 25th Anniversary of 9/11." The full video is below. See: As 25th Anniversary Approaches, 9/11 Museum Focuses on Generation Born After the Attacks – RedState.


First off, Bush is sticking to his bizarre "Islam is a religion of peace" line. My colleague, Kyle Becker, anatomizes that claim in his post titled George W Bush Claims Islam Is 'Religion of Peace' for 9/11 Anniversary — So Much for 'Never Forget' – RedState.

I don't want to get into comparative theology here, but seriously? After our experience of the last two decades, how can any sane person still say that was the correct position? I understand the political necessity of mouthing something that wasn't 100 percent true for tactical advantage out of necessity; I don't understand doubling down and saying the falsehood was empirically correct.

Allowing Muslim immigration into the U.S. over the last 20 years and not recognizing Islam as a hostile ideology makes as much sense as allowing Japanese immigration between 1942 and 1945. It makes as much sense as allowing Chinese students to attend U.S. universities that are working on Defense contracts. It makes as much sense as letting the country that armed, trained, and sheltered the Taliban so they could kill our troops be our intermediary in peace negotiations with Iran.

The second trope he launched was, in my view, the most damaging. It is the rationale that dragged us into a war with no good outcome, a war for which no one could ever state victory conditions, and that gave our enemies their best recruiting tool. Here he talks about the necessity of freedom and people's right to reach their full potential.

 Because this is what we went through uh 250 years ago. Again, it's a belief that everybody wants to be free. And we saw that in Afghanistan. People say, "Well, they don't want to be free. They've been, you know, they don't know the difference." Of course, they know the difference. Young girls going to school for the first time in their lives knew the difference. Women becoming doctors and professors know the difference between a free society in a tyrannical society. And, sadly, those women who began to realize their full potential no longer have a chance to realize their full potential.

This is a noble sentiment. Unfortunately, it bears as little resemblance to reality as some rabid DEI bureaucrat insisting on equal outcomes for everyone. There was never any logical reason for us to be in Afghanistan after the June 2002 "Loya Jirga" that created a post-Taliban government. At that time, we had achieved our objectives as laid out in President Bush's original ultimatum. Continuing an on-the-ground military presence there was the worst sort of mission creep; see Afghanistan Didn't Have to End This Way, but We Made Sure It Did – RedState. 

This lust to impose Western liberal democracy was a dumb idea with predictably horrible consequences. The "schools for girls" nonsense not only put a target on the back of anyone who might have been an ally, but it also served as a recruiting tool for the Taliban. It made the U.S. mission in Afghanistan easy to portray as a U.S. war on the brutal Bronze Age tribal culture of Afghanistan. Quite honestly, the only way the "bring freedom to Afghanistan" thing was going to work was if we were willing to suppress Afghan culture and the massive violence that would entail. This was not going to happen when the entire chain of command in Afghanistan, over two decades, punished anyone who offended Afghan culture; see HARD TO BELIEVE. US Army Does the Right Thing And Keeps SFC Charles Martland On Active Duty – RedState.

All the "schools for girls" thing did was ensure misery for those who participated and swell the ranks of the Taliban with men who were defending their way of life.

Our experiment in transplanting Western liberal democracy into societies that were one step removed from eating dirt was a failure. For all of his strengths in the days and weeks immediately following 9/11, Bush had as much to do with the ultimate national shame of Abbey Gate as did Joe Biden because without the mission creep in Afghanistan, Abbey Gate would never have happened.