On Fixing Blame

Submitted by LDC (United States), May 12, 2006 at 15:28

"philosophical harrangue"? Okay, harangue it was. But, given the context, I think it not unreasonable to question the mental balance of the author, but I'm no shrink.

"...future historians will clarify that the failure of 9/11 was not an oversight, but the result of downright careless mistakes bordering on dereliction of duty that no one paid." Neither, I think. It was the result of an intelligence and analysis system designed for the enemies of the Cold War and unadapted to the new threat. No one paid, you say? On the contrary, we all paid. The only fair penalty of "payment" would be to fire the entire pre-9-11 intelligence community. Not so much "dereliction of duty" as mis-allocated duties. Throughout WWII, fault was sought for derelection of duty concerning Pearl Harbor. Looking back now, we can see that the whole system failed in 1941.

"Bush and his minions carefully protected the guilty" That, sir, is conspiratorial nonsence. It does the nation no good, and it's baseless. George Tenent was a former lobbiest appointed by Clinton. You blame Clinton? That would do as little good. Rather than fixing blame, let's hope the gov't is fixing the proces.

"paid off the victim families to avoid a lawsuit" Amazing assertion, indeed.

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