Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US - 8/6/01 blogswarm

by Erin Alecto

Six years ago today, Bush ignored the warning, which Condi famously derided as an "historical document." For six years, we've witnessed the administration's disinterest in doing anything to prevent another attack - a prospect some on the right find desirable. For them, terror is a political tool, not a physical reality, as demonstrated most recently last week with the "emergency" FISA bill demanded by Bush, and delivered by Blue Dogs who jump at the slightest mention they'll be considered "soft on terror." I can't imagine how those who voted for the bill can still believe Bush is giving more than lip service to "keeping us safe" after he's clearly shown he's not interested in even the most basic safeguards against more attacks in the US. Seriously, what good is listening to foreign communications when you don't have enough translators to go around?

One little-discussed, but hugely significant, exchange during the candidate debate at Yearly Kos (complete video of the entire debate can be found here at John Edwards' blog) concerned the effectiveness of George Bush's "Global War on Terror." I agreed with Edwards when he stated outright that we are not safer since George W. Bush deliberately ignored the August 6th Presidential Daily Briefing - we are less safe. And I say "deliberately ignored" because since then, decisions made by this administration such as firing Arabic translators because they're gay, the silencing of whistleblowers like Sibel Edmonds, the refusal to implement any of the 9-11 recommendations, the deliberate leaking of Valerie Plame's identity, the failure to enhance inspection at US ports, not to mention the best recruiting tool bin Laden could ever have hoped for: the Iraq debacle, clearly show that this administration hasn't been interested in actually doing anything to make the US safer from dangerous extremists. Unless, of course, you consider peace activists extremists. While everyone on the panel addressed the issue cogently, outlining steps they would take to prevent future attacks, (though I was put off by Hillary's insistence that we were safer because first responders are being upgraded - that's not prevention, that's aftermath), what struck me about this conversation was that it was happening at all. After six years of neglect, it's about time someone had something to offer besides "be afraid...and go shopping."

thanks to iamcoyote for the heads-up on Ripley's blogswarm - a list of participants can be found at The Zen Cabin