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.

Editors' Note:

This post has been corrected to remove phrasing that was copied from The Hill.

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Democrats were overjoyed when George W. Bush left office in January of 2009.

Obama had promised to end Bush's hawkish foreign policy and the "war on terror's" detention and interrogation regime.

But in the beginning of his fifth year as president, Obama's record has been surprisingly similar to his predecessor's in those areas.

1. Democrats fought George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq in 2006.

Obama copied it in Afghanistan in 2009.

You would think Democrats would react the same way they did to Bush's surge policy:

But they were really more like:

2. American deaths in Afghanistan have skyrocketed since Obama took office.

Actually, the death tolls in Afghanistan under each administration look like this:

So you would think Democrats would react like this:

But they are much more like this.

3. President Obama's drones and special operators are working down "kill lists" of suspected terrorists.

Obama even put Anwar al-Awlaki — an American citizen — on such a list.

If Bush did this, the Democrats would be all like:

But now they are more like:

4. Drone attacks have risen sharply under Obama.

In 2011, a teenage American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was taken out in a drone strike without a trial.

If Bush did this, Democrats would literally hyperventilate.

But with Obama they are more like:

5. In Pakistan alone, the administration has launched more than 300 drone strikes.

Pakistani civilian casualties due to these strikes are as high as 800 according to international estimates.

So the Democrats should be like:

But they are a lot more like:

6. Obama promised to end the Bush-era torture interrogation practices.

But last year, three U.N. reports described the torture occurring in Afghan facilities under Obama's security watch.

When Bush did this, Democrats were like:

Now:

7. Obama was unable to deliver on his pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which Bush had also said he would close.

When Bush did this, Democrats were all like:

And...

8. And...

But now they are much more like:

"We may not be so different, you and I."

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