George W. Bush went home to Texas nearly six years ago, but the nation is still working through the contentious national security legacy he left behind. A hotly disputed Senate report on the CIA's brutal interrogation tactics is tearing open barely healed political wounds first opened after the September 11, 2001, attacks. The report found CIA tactics were more brutal than previously known and accused the agency of keeping the Bush White House and Congress in the dark about them. The questions raised by the Intelligence Committee's document -- about how to wage a relentless war on terrorism within constitutional and moral constraints -- seem as intense as ever.Bush anti-terror legacy still contested six years after he left officeObama warns against refighting old argumentsMcCain: the American people 'need answers'Obama's own 'war on terror' tactics in question
And in some cases, Obama is facing his own criticism for his approach to terrorism, including his decision to vastly expand a drone program bequeathed him by _. The reaction of a deeply polarized Congress to the long delayed _ report, not to mention fierce CIA push back, shows how hard it will be to build any national consensus on the proper approach to a threat like terrorism. His remarks were particularly notable because Obama defeated _ in 2008 in an election that served as a rejection of Bush's national security leadership.