GIVING CREDIT

Posted at 9:38 a.m. ET

We've pledged here to give credit where it's due, even to our opponents.  We wish the other side would do the same.  The Bush administration is coming to an end, and the lack of any graciousness by the liberal press is telling.  The fact is that Mr. Bush, with all his shortcomings, has accomplished a great deal, but the party-line media simply won't acknowledge it.  Peter Brookes, of the Heritage Foundation, does acknowledge it, in a column today.  It is welcome:

It's not just by chance that there hasn't been another terrorist strike here at home since the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in the skies over Pennsylvania - more than seven years ago now. While far from perfect in execution, the Bush administration pulled out the stops in fighting terror at home and abroad, which, prior to 9/11, had been considered by many to be little more than a law enforcement problem.

Since 2001, the government has thwarted a number of plots, including conspiracies to blow up airplanes and fuel farms, assault an army base, and attack Los Angeles and Chicago skyscrapers - and surely others.

Mere luck, say the Bush haters, the same "luck" that saw a drastic drop in crime in New York under Rudy Giuliani.

Aiding this success has been a reinvigorated national security establishment, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence and joint intelligence and law enforcement centers.

Of course, they're a threat to civil liberties, say the Bush bashers.

Ties with Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, have been normalized after years of troubled relations. Japan is now making increasing contributions to international security across the globe.

Indonesia?  Isn't that where Obama grew up.  Why, he would have made the Indonesians love us, say the Bush detractors.

While progress has been glacial, Washington did get Pyongyang to agree to end all its nuke programs.

US-India relations are better than ever due to Bush administration efforts.

And...

Today, Afghanistan is a lot better off: more than 30 million Afghans no longer labor under terrorist Taliban rule. Healthcare access is up; child mortality is down. Six million kids go to school, including nearly 2 million girls who would not otherwise be allowed to.

Don't expect any credit from "feminist" organizations.  They'll follow whatever line their leftist idols give them.

And don't expect "human rights" groups to give credit on this one:

In Africa, President Bush spent more on fighting HIV/AIDS than any previous American president. As a result, medicine is reaching more than 2 million African HIV/AIDS patients. Anti-malaria programs have gained traction, too.

In a shocker, Libya's Colonel Qaddafi renounced terrorism and gave up his weapons of mass destruction programs, including one for nukes. We now have a Tripoli embassy for the first time in three and a half decades.

And...

President Bush also kept his campaign promise of fielding a missile defense system to protect the American people from the threat of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction from the likes of North Korea and Iran.

Won't work, say the bashers.  But it will.  Finally...

Sure, there are still challenges in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China - plus al Qaeda - that the next administration will have to grapple with. The same was true for the Bush team when it took over in 2001 from the Clinton administration.

The fact is international relations is a tough business - and will continue to be. Countries pursue their national interests - often at others' expense, including ours. But the Bush administration has made real progress in advancing our interests during its tenure, especially in preventing another terror attack right here at home - no small feat.

Accordingly, it deserves more credit than the conventional wisdom affords it.

Lotsa luck.  Given who controls the universities, and the media, it may take decades before Mr. Bush is given proper credit. 

January 11, 2009.