Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Yet More reader Email
Subject: The Buck Stops Where?
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004
From: "Richard"
To: editor@201k.com
In defense of his administration's failure to act upon the August 6, 2001 PDB report, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.", President Bush shrugs off the report's warning of airplane hijackings by saying that it meant "hijackings for hostages, not hijackings to fly planes into buildings." Huh? Bush thinks that plain old garden-variety type hijackings for hostages aren't a serious enough threat to demand action? I'm amazed that anyone would buy this thinking as exoneration of Bush's responsibility. In other words, Bush felt that your basic hostage hijacking didn't require sounding the alarm. It didn't demand an immediate shifting of U.S. security operations into a serious alert that would put airlines, airline crews, airports and passengers into a heightened terrorist awareness mode. This thinking is beyond the pale of logic. It reeks of irresponsibility. It's inexcusable out-of-touch disengaged bad judgment. And he calls himself tough on terrorism?
Hello!!! Doesn't the hijacking of an airplane for hostages stand alone as a very bad thing? And the threat of that alone should have put hijacking preventive strategies immediately into play. Acting to prevent a hijacking for hostages would have been the prudent action, the automatic consequence of which would have been to prevent a hijacking for the purpose of flying a plane into a building. And that leads me to believe that maybe something could have indeed been done to mitigate the disaster of 9/11. After all, doing something would have been better than doing nothing. Even if it was simply to alert pilots, crews, airport security and passengers to be extra vigilant.
Oh yes, I forgot, the President said the FBI was looking into it. If that isn't the height of buck passing I don't know what is. Bush blames the FBI, the FBI blames the CIA, Dick Clarke blames the President and Condolezza Rice, and Condolezza Rice blames the FBI, the CIA, and Dick Clarke. Who's in charge here anyhow? I thought President Bush was supposed to be in charge. I thought that President Truman had set the standard for all Presidents to come when he said "The Buck Stops Here".
This Bush administration pass-the-buck circle reminds me of the famous political cartoon called The Tweed Ring, in which a bunch of corrupt political cronies in 19th century New York are all depicted pointing to the next person to assign fault for rampant government misdeeds.
Richard
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004
From: "Richard"
To: editor@201k.com
In defense of his administration's failure to act upon the August 6, 2001 PDB report, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.", President Bush shrugs off the report's warning of airplane hijackings by saying that it meant "hijackings for hostages, not hijackings to fly planes into buildings." Huh? Bush thinks that plain old garden-variety type hijackings for hostages aren't a serious enough threat to demand action? I'm amazed that anyone would buy this thinking as exoneration of Bush's responsibility. In other words, Bush felt that your basic hostage hijacking didn't require sounding the alarm. It didn't demand an immediate shifting of U.S. security operations into a serious alert that would put airlines, airline crews, airports and passengers into a heightened terrorist awareness mode. This thinking is beyond the pale of logic. It reeks of irresponsibility. It's inexcusable out-of-touch disengaged bad judgment. And he calls himself tough on terrorism?
Hello!!! Doesn't the hijacking of an airplane for hostages stand alone as a very bad thing? And the threat of that alone should have put hijacking preventive strategies immediately into play. Acting to prevent a hijacking for hostages would have been the prudent action, the automatic consequence of which would have been to prevent a hijacking for the purpose of flying a plane into a building. And that leads me to believe that maybe something could have indeed been done to mitigate the disaster of 9/11. After all, doing something would have been better than doing nothing. Even if it was simply to alert pilots, crews, airport security and passengers to be extra vigilant.
Oh yes, I forgot, the President said the FBI was looking into it. If that isn't the height of buck passing I don't know what is. Bush blames the FBI, the FBI blames the CIA, Dick Clarke blames the President and Condolezza Rice, and Condolezza Rice blames the FBI, the CIA, and Dick Clarke. Who's in charge here anyhow? I thought President Bush was supposed to be in charge. I thought that President Truman had set the standard for all Presidents to come when he said "The Buck Stops Here".
This Bush administration pass-the-buck circle reminds me of the famous political cartoon called The Tweed Ring, in which a bunch of corrupt political cronies in 19th century New York are all depicted pointing to the next person to assign fault for rampant government misdeeds.
Richard
