Protecting America

In a speech today, President Bush noted that 14 high value prisoners have been transferred from the CIA program to Guantanamo.

Significantly, on the topic of the CIA interrogations, the President added that:

"I can say the procedures were tough, safe, lawful and necessary."

Good. It's about time that someone started to mount a defense of the methods that have worked in preventing another 9/11 attack and describing how the information that's been obtained has been instrumental in keeping the country safe.

It's all about highlighting the contrast between the Republican and Democrat approaches to fighting terror. Democrats would like the American people to believe that no further attacks have occurred within our borders because there's no real threat that needs to be robustly defended against -- and that the biggest danger has been the Bush Administration's insistence on methods like tapping Al Qaeda phone calls and its refusal (until the Hamdan decision) to extend Geneva Convention protections to terrorists.

The truth is that the threat is out there, it's real, and it's not enough simply to take reactive measures like searching every cargo ship -- about hte only conrete idea that's come from the Democrats. Better yet is to thwart plans before they're executed . . . which is why interrogations and other measures of the sort the President discussed today are so important.

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats will continue to try to persuade the voters that the biggest danger in the war on terror is the active measures the President has taken to prosecute it.