The Weird and The Wacky Meet

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Could 9/11 Been Prevented?

President George W. Bush’s former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke, has written Against All Enemies, a book that says the Bush administration could have prevented the World Trade Center bombings.  Clarke, who has served under every President since Reagan, offers criticism of each one’s approach to terrorism

                 He characterizes President William Clinton as the president who tried the hardest to address the danger of al-Qaida, going so far as to create plans that were undermined by politics and the scandal called Monicagate.  Yet, Clinton does not get off scot-free.  He was the head of the previous administration, and according to the New York Times, did have a few missed opportunities to kill Osama bin Laden.  But the Clinton administration was aware of the threat and making an effort to address it.

                 In contrast, Clarke says that, before the 9/11 attack, the Bush administration failed to take terrorism seriously.  This raises the issue of whether the 9/11 tragedy was an unfortunate surprise or an avoidable mistake, and focuses the Presidential race on who will protect this country and who has failed.

                 The 9/11 attack has been characterized as unexpected, but it’s not as if al-Qaida had come out of nowhere.  In an Associated Press interview, Michael Greenberger, who worked in the Justice Department under Clinton, says, “Even before Clarke testified, there was a substantial record that Clinton administration officials had specifically told [Condoleezza Rice] and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, on the change over that al-Qaida was the No. 1 national security priority.”

                 There are even some who would say that the Bush administration knew, at least in part, that there was a great terrorist threat looming.  In 2002, Bernard Weiner wrote an article for Counter Punch that stated both Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney had gone into hiding two months before the attacks.  This was not mainstream news at the time.  Now it has to give us pause because more information is coming out, giving us reason to doubt Bush’s account of the events.

                 So, where does all this leave us?  With a President who has taken credit for his response to the 9/11 attack while hiding his complicity.  Bush made war against Afghanistan but failed to capture bin Laden.  Worse, he tried to distract us from this failure by attacking Iraq over imaginary weapons of mass destruction and outright lies about Iraqi connections to al-Qaida.   The net result has been to use up all the international sympathy and good will, and alienate our allies while motivating the next generation of terrorists.  In essence, Bush has done more harm than good.

                 In the meantime, the economy is still floundering, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics joblessness in 2004 is still 2% higher than in 2000, and our budget surplus has turned into a gaping debt because of wartime expenditures coupled with tax cuts for the rich. 

                 Can all of our country’s problems be blamed on the collapse of the World Trade Center?  No.  But it certainly didn’t help.  It led to a loss of confidence in the American people and the economy, and the $80 billion plus spent on the goose chase in Iraq could have been put to better use in unemployment checks.

                 There is an old proverb that states, “There’s no use crying over spilt milk.” This directly contradicts, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”   Should we forgive Bush of his sins and focus on his cleanup of 9/11?  Not until he comes clean and we know exactly what he did wrong, so we can decide whether he’ll do it again.  We have to learn as much as we can about what happened, and never forget what happened, so history isn’t repeated.  If this means letting Bush shoulder the blame, so be it.

Copyright 2004

World Trade Center

By Amanda Evans

Original Publishing Date: 04/22/04