Comments on Flypaper

Since the comment section is limited in space, I'll enter some comments in a new entry.

While I agree with the statement President Bush has taken the fight to the enemy, Joe was being very selective in his remembrance in his comparisons of terrorism.

In the Carter administration, there was only ONE domestic action that could be called a terrorist attack. That was in 78 or 79 when a domestic radical group took over the top floors of 3 Washington DC office buildings and held people for some type of ransom. I don't remember the group's name or what their demands were, but do remember it lasted less then a month. Now terrorist attacks against Americans outside the US is a different matter. Iran Hostage Crisis is one, and a number of Americans were kidnapped and some killed in Europe and in Lebanon in the late 1970s. I agree that in Carter's case, he did not respond forcefully to the attacks on Americans outside the US during his presidency.

During Clinton's administration, there were several terrorist attacks in the US, one by a foreign terrorist organization and the rest by domestic organizations.
The foreign attack was WTC 1 in 93. Clinton treated it as a law enforcement problem and so we caught the bad guys who did it but didn't notice they were part of a larger organization. Oklahoma City was a domestic organization and caused more damage and killed more people then WTC 1. The government came down hard on the domestic groups and they didn't do anything more after that. Most of the people who were part of the Militia groups most likely didn't approve of Oklahoma City either so left. I'm not sure how to classify Wacco and Ruby Ridge, that was where the Government took a VERY strong hand and as a result some people died who may not have needed to.

Bush has transferred the fight from the US (no more domestic attacks) to the Middle East and protecting Americans is his prime responsibility. So while I agree that Bush is doing a better job countering the terrorist threat then Carter or Clinton (or even Reagan to some extent) did, Joe's comments need to be corrected so we compare apples with apples.