More Deafening Silences

Yes, Jeff Jacoby is right (Democrats' silence on jihad is deadly, Boston Globe, January 24th., 2007: A9) when he calls on Democrats to show a stronger concern about the War on Terror.

But Mr Jacoby is silent too. He fails to point out that it was President Bush who dropped the ball in the war on terror: failure to pursue Osama bin Laden into the hills of Bora Bora; withdrawing troops from the Afghanistan front on the war on terror to pursue an ill-advised side show in Iraq that has become a drain on American resources, human and financial. It is President Bush who has failed to allocate funds for checking cargo being imported into the USA. It is President Bush who has failed to insist that Chemical Plants incorporate sound protection against terrorist attack. The Bill of Particulars on the President's failures in the war on terror goes on and on.

Mr Bush, not surprisingly, was also silent on the Administration's need to undo other errors of the past years: the torture memoranda, the removal of habeas corpus, the warrantless spying program and, most recently, the Administration's attack on Lawyers. Mr Jacoby was wrong in not condemming Mr Bush's silence.

Sent to Boston Globe, January 24th., 2007.