From a comment thread...

[libertango]

...on Calpundit.

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"Al-Queda struck the US pretty hard when Clinton was President..."

Ah. A new-found meaning of the phrase, "pretty hard".

Total number of US citizens killed by al Qaeda during the Clinton Administration: 35

Total number of US and NATO citizens killed by al Qaeda during the Bush Administration: 3200

That assumes al Qaeda really did do the attacks today.

But, hey, what's two orders of magnitude among friends?

"I personally fear that should Kerry get elected, the terrorists will know that the response from the Oval Office will be pretty weak (police work, etc.) that they will feel emboldned to do more of their dirty work."

Strangely enough, that's why some feel al Qaeda attacked only 9 months into the Bush Administration.

Given that this Administration has yet to do anything that actually works against terrorism -- as the mute graves of a hundred times more victims during this Administration than the previous one should show -- it would seem that feeling is justified.

If this Administration wants to be judged by its response to September 11 (and now March 11 against a NATO ally), I would say it should be judged by the total lack of preparedness of September 10. And after today, I would say that after one year of occupying Iraq, and two and a half years of occupying Afghanistan, this shows how impotent this Administration's moves against terrorism have been.

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ADD-ON: This Administration was told, repeatedly and by many of our allies, that one couldn't fight terrorism and carry out a personal vendetta against Iraq at the same time.

Now 200 citizens of a NATO ally are needlessly dead because when it came to terrorism, this Administration couldn't be bothered.

Rhetoric? Sure. Reams of rhetoric. But anything that would've actually been effective? Not a chance. Not from these guys. Terrorism is too useful to them when it comes to drumming up votes.

And if there's any better refutation to the idea that Iraq had anything at all to do with al Qaeda, I can't think of it.

Comments

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Given that this Administration has yet to do anything that actually works against terrorism

And worse given that some fairly good indications that something was up back in 2000-2001 were ignored or put on the back-burner. At the same time there is evidence that planning was being done to invade Iraq (started in 2000) and Afghanistan (started spring 2001) When asked about the hijacking intel, Rice said "well, what were we supposed to do, shut down the airlines?" Given that the Administration was cutting back on the 'sky marshall' program at the time, there would seem to be answer waiting there.

And it goes beyond intelligence and its processing. I wonder what the answer to the question "why did it take so long to get the intercept fighters up on Sept 11?" will be. All this push for a missile shield, and we can't get planes into the air until it's too late. "Well, the interceptors worked great. Too bad the warhead hit LA 15 minutes earlier".


Almost completely unrelated, but I remember you saying something on the subject:

On Thursday, March 11, Log Cabin Republicans began airing a 30- second television spot against a proposed anti-gay amendment to the United States Constitution. The commercial, featuring then Vice-Presidential candidate Dick Cheney, will air in the Washington, DC region and in seven swing states around the nation: Ohio, Missouri, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=119-03112004

[crionna.livejournal.com]

200 Spaniards are tragically dead because no one noticed 10-13 different backpacks being put down and walked away from. Would this attack have worked in Israel? Doubtful.

So, what's the plan Stan? Start from 9/11 and tell me specifically what should have been done. I'm willing to look at a different candidate, but not one who simply says, "Gee that was dumb". In most organizations criticism without an alternate plan gets you yelled at, not praised.