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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Tuesday, March 23, 2004 :::
John Podhoretz has a somewhat sarcastic column about Richard Clarke's new book in today's New York Post:Some might suggest that the book is a distorted, false, sour-grapes account from a demoted government official who wants to settle scores and destroy the Bush administration in which he served as a holdover staffer from the Clinton years.
But that's because they simply don't comprehend the power and the glory that is Dick Clarke.
[...]
If you knew anything about Washington, you would surely think that a staffer on the National Security Council - traditionally a role without a great deal of authority - wouldn't be a major decision-maker during the day of and the days following the attack on this country.
That's because You Don't Know Dick Clarke.
Clarke says he all but ordered the president of the United States not to return to Washington on that day. ("Figure out where to move the president. He can't come back here until we know what the s--t is happening.")
By his own account, it was Clarke who gave the order to "authorize the Air Force to shoot down any aircraft . . . that looks like it is threatening to attack."
You thought it was Dick Cheney who gave that order? You were wrong - at least if you believe Dick Clarke. He gets more serious later in the piece:What Clarke reveals in "Against All Enemies" is that - not to put too fine a point on it - he is a self-regarding buffoon. But his solipsistic silliness won't give pause to the Democrat-media desperation to rewrite recent history in an effort to delude voters that the 9/11 attacks were the fault of George W. Bush's inattention.
They were not Bush's fault, and they were not caused by his inattention. Nor were they Clinton's fault. They were the fault of Osama bin Laden, who attacked and killed 3,000 Americans and would happily have seen that number read 30,000 or 50,000.
We need to remember this, and we are in danger of forgetting it in the raging partisan kerfuffle.
In the months after 9/11, the Bush administration refused - absolutely refused - to try to blame the attacks on the Clinton administration's failure of vision. The nation needed to be united in its determination and could not afford to surrender to finger-pointing.
Well, guess what? The Clinton administration's senior foreign-policy officials will be appearing this week before the 9/11 commission - to do to the Bush administration exactly what the Bush administration refused to do to them. RtWT.
Incidentally, I think some finger-pointing can be healthy, especially if it's the "that's what the problem is, so let's fix it" sort. In other words, if its the sort that leads us to an improved system, rather than distracting us from improving the system.
::: posted by Steven at 1:45 PM
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