Sorry, this whole post makes no sense to me.ThomasMorgan wrote:
This whole argument is absurd. Saying that the Patriot Act alone is deferring terrorist plots/actions is like saying that the shoes I wear repel tigers. I don't see any tigers around here, so it must be true. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your view) no one will ever know what would've happened had these terrorists succeeded in their plot to do whatever it was they wanted to do. We also don't know if they would or would not have been caught if the Patriot Act had not been put in place.
If you want to be technical about it, it's never the president's fault if the US gets attacked on its home soil. Do you really think the president has any information about potential terrorists in the US? The Department of Defense and Homeland Security deal with those issues directly, not the president. Blaming Bush or Clinton or whomever you shift the blame to is not only incorrect, but it's ignorant. If you're looking for someone at whom to point a finger, look no further than the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
Oh, and before anyone points it out, I'm well aware that Homeland Security was created in response to 9-11 and that those attacks cannot be attributed to them.
You can't say that there were no "tigers around here" because, there were, we caught them ( hence this thread). So to say you can't tell if our president's actions has any effect is saying, the only way to tell if his actions are effective is to have something blown up, then of course, we can sit back and call him a failure. the fact that these plots and other like them have been foiled IS the proof that something good and positive has come from Bush's actions. It is like saying, you can't tell if the paint sealer on your car is working because the paint isn't fading.
There is a Department of Homeland Security to deal with these issues since it was created after 911, (Bush created it). So yet another positive example, that you just really acknowledged, of another thing that has come about due to the actions of this administration.