Politics
7 Things Democrats Would Have Freaked Out About If Bush Had Done Them
Obama’s national security policy has continued some of the most controversial moves of the Bush administration. Silence from much of the left.
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Democrats were overjoyed when George W. Bush left office in January of 2009.
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Obama had promised to end Bush’s hawkish foreign policy and the “war on terror’s” detention and interrogation regime.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
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But in the beginning of his fifth year as president, Obama’s record has been surprisingly similar to his predecessor’s in those areas.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
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1. Democrats fought George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq in 2006.
Hans Deryk / Reuters
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You would think Democrats would react the same way they did to Bush’s surge policy:
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2. American deaths in Afghanistan have skyrocketed since Obama took office.
Steve Ruark / AP
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Actually, the death tolls in Afghanistan under each administration look like this:
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3. President Obama’s drones and special operators are working down “kill lists” of suspected terrorists.
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
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Obama even put Anwar al-Awlaki — an American citizen — on such a list.
Al-Awlaki was killed under secret authorization from the justice department in 2011.
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In 2011, a teenage American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was taken out in a drone strike without a trial.
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If Bush did this, Democrats would literally hyperventilate.
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5. In Pakistan alone, the administration has launched more than 300 drone strikes.
Via thenewstribe.com
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Pakistani civilian casualties due to these strikes are as high as 800 according to international estimates.
AFP / Getty Images
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6. Obama promised to end the Bush-era torture interrogation practices.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
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But last year, three U.N. reports described the torture occurring in Afghan facilities under Obama’s security watch.
Andrew Burton / Reuters
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7. Obama was unable to deliver on his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which Bush had also said he would close.
John Moore / Getty Images
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“We may not be so different, you and I.”
Courtesy of the Bush Center, Houston Texas.
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