Swatting That Bug In His Ear

I don’t know if anyone got this subtle point in Condi’s testimony, but it appears that there were structural impediments in the US government that meant that no one could have prevented 9/11. She did everything possible, but the structural problems meant nothing could be done. Because of the structural problems. If they had known that the terrorists were going to attack Washington and new York, they would have moved heaven and earth to stop them. But, there were these structural problems. So there was nothing they could do.

Oh and also, the August PDB was not a “warning” it was an “historical assessment.” So, even though this “historical assessment” entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States” was undertaken during the very time that George Tenet was running through the White House with his hair on fire about an impending terrorist attack, there was no reason to be alarmed. The president wanted to stop swatting flies, so they put this little bug in his ear. It was no big deal.

If only Richard Clarke had tried to “buck her up” before his September 4th memo (in which he raised the spectre of hundreds of dead Americans) about how the bureaucracy would fight implementing the terrorism policy. Maybe then she would have been more aware of how to deal with the national security bureaucracy. But then, that whole “shaking the trees” thing is bs, so probably not.

Besides, the Clinton administration should have fixed the structural problems and locked up the cockpit doors long before the Bush administration came into office. They couldn’t possibly have done anything about all that in only 233 days. They had tax cuts and missile defense to take care of.

Update: For those who didn’t know previously about the title of the August 6th memo, here’s a copy of the article in the Washington Post from Common Dreams, dated May 18, 2002.