Wednesday, September 7, 2011
On the 9/11 anniversary
I watched some news programs this past Sunday morning and naturally virtually all of them advertised that they'd be doing long anniversary specials on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It depresses me for so many reasons it's nearly overwhelming. News junkie that I am, that day I'm going to skip these things. Besides the worst tragedy of all these attacks, what gets me most is that it was so unnecessary and so avoidable. The FBI, internally, knew Al Qaeda members were learning how to fly planes, hastily and in pretty good numbers, across the country and, worst of all, President at the time, George W. Bush had a Daily Presidential Brief back in August, warning that Osama bin Laden was trying to do this very thing. That is, that he was preparing to attack New York by plane. Finally, that same administration was still allowing small pocket knives on commercial flights across the nation. As you'll recall, that was how one group of terrorists were able to take over at least one plane, with small pocket knives. European security hadn't allowed such things for years. What it boils down to is, 9/11 shouldn't have happened, absolutely. It was totally, utterly and completely avoidable. That it did happen is shameful. Yet George W. Bush is off in Texas, fully enjoying his cushy, wealthy, fatcat life. It would be nice if Americans recognized and kept in mind his dereliction of duty and what it ended up meaning to the thousands of people who died that day, unnecessarily. Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030700216.html; http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131432&page=1;
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040801215339657; http://www.slate.com/id/2097476/;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
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2 comments:
Do you go to your basement every time there is a Severe Weather Warning? I think it very likely that the Presidential Briefings have some predicted disaster almost daily. It isn't fair to expect someone of Bush's mental ability to be able to sort them accurately.
Banning small pocket knives is security theater--it might make people feel better, but it doesn't make us safer. The post-9/11 measures that have made us safer are reinforced cockpit doors, and the realization that passengers should fight back.
There were warnings from the Clinton administration through the 2nd Bush adminsistration. It was his job to keep us safe. He didn't. He failed.
You can dismiss small pocket knives if you wish but again a) it's what they used on the flight to the Pentagon and b) they haven't been allowed in European flights for quite some time. It was foolish for us to not do the same. It would only be "security theater" if it hadn't been successful on this flight.
I would agree with you that we shouldn't have expected someone of "Bush's mental ability to be able to" be up to this level--the Presidential level--but it's what he ran for and what we needed. He failed us. And miserably.
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