"Both sides failed to prevent 9/11"... that's total BS.

[zaj]

I see people all over the net on both sides (begrudginly) claiming that "both sides failed to prevent 9/11".

Don't fall for that BS.

Clinton didn't fail to prevent 9/11. Clinton did prevent his own 9/11 with the millenium bombings.

What he failed to do was kill the head of al Qaeda. That's NOT the same thing.

But Bush failed to kill bin Laden as well. And Bush actually did fail to prevent 9/11. Hell, he failed to even TRY to prevent 9/11.

The intelligence was there, it was right there. The information available to Bush was NOT identical to that available to Clinton.

An attempt is now being made to deflect the failures of this administration. First it was to say "no one could have known", then it was to blame Clinton directly. Now in the face of all the evidence against the Bush administration in the 9/11 report, they are attempting to say the rational and even-handed sounding "Both sides failed to prevent 9/11".

Don't fall for it, and don't let it go without correction.

[GreenArrow]

1. even bigger BS

the American people were at fault for 9-11.

[bossfish]

2. Not all Americans...

Just the abortionists and gays

[Old and In the Way]

3. If 9/11 had happened on Clinton's watch.....would the Republicans

have run their own Congressional investigations? You betcha.

Clinton/Gore gave them the Hart-Rudman Commission report on terrorism. Cheney shitcanned it and conducted secret energy policy meetings to divvy up Iraq. Bush spent 43% of his time on vacation.

Clinton was 9 months removed from having responsibility. But who would expect the Republican Party to take responsibility and accountability? Criminals don't do that.

[kat21]

7. Question -

Was it 9 months before 9/11 or 11 months? Doesn't the newly elected president spend the time before taking office getting up to speed?

[Old and In the Way]

11. I'd say Bush was responsible on the day he takes the oath...1/20/01

[Parche]

4. BS

They say our intelligence was at fault on that day, well GW Bush
does NOT have any intelligence.
What was at fault was our defense system in place and our so called
leader at the time
How is it that every single part of our defense strategy either was
not in place, or just happened to fail just on that day alone?
coincidence? I think not

[Yogi]

5. All I know....

bush was in charge when 9/11 happened. He sat in the school and did read My little goat or whatever it was and did nothing. I hold him personally responsible.

[VOX]

6. Harry Truman said the "buck stops here." 9/11 happened on *'s watch...

Say a garrison has an trooper on guard duty -- he does an outstanding job, stays awake and alert, and is aware of his situation and surroundings. He is then relieved by another trooper, who snoozes, is hesitant, can't make decisions on his own, etc. The garrison is overrun on his watch.

Who's at fault in this scenario? The first guard, who did his duty, or the second, who fell asleep?

[MercutioATC]

8. Acyually, that statement DOES bear some merit.

U.S. funding of OBL began with Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.

[wrate]

14. If you look at it that way, then it's every American's fault

Which is in my personal opinion how it should be looked at. Because 9/11 is the result of decades of mistaken policies. Like the funding of Israel by the US Government, the overthrowing of legitimate governments in Middle Eastern countries to impose puppet Governments, the support for Israel policies in the occupied territories, etc. etc. etc.

All of this with the approval and the financing of the American people.

You cannot think of 9/11 as monolithic event which bears relation to nothing except Al Quaeda and a few crazy Arabs that "hate your freedom". Because it is everything except that.

The 9/11 commission findings are only a political arrangement between Democrats and Republicans that strips responsibility from everyone. This way everyone can continue with their lives as they have done until today and the politicians can continue screwing peoples lives (American's or otherwise) without having to answer to anyone. All to be able to hold on to their power and their money just a little bit longer.

[MercutioATC]

15. That was kind of my point.

Both parties are guilty of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" foreign policy. It's not a fault of the Republicans, it's a fault of us all. In my opinion, THAT'S one of the issues that needs to be addressed. We (ALL of us) need to find a better way of dealing with our neighbors.

[TahitiNut]

20. Well, 9/11 happens every year. It has something to do with the calendar.

:shrug:

[kentuck]

9. Don't the Democrats control the House, Senate, White House, and all..

..the intelligence committees in the House and Senate and don't they make all the decisions about our foreign policy??? Oh, all those are controlled by the Republicans? Never mind.......

[JayS]

10. To play the flipside here, by the millennium bombings are you...

...referring to the terrorist stopped at the Canadian border by an alert Canadian border guard? Clinton had his own 911s to deal with: 1993 WTC bombing, Waco, Oklahoma City...

[CaTeacher]

19. Yes--it actually makes me upset that we

always hog all the credit--and don't give the Canadians their fair share.

If it weren't for our great neighbors to the north--we would have been f'd.

[nyhuskyfan]

22. There was some luck involved...

But it was also incredibly lucky that Zacharias Moussaoui more or less gave us a huge clue into what was going on in August, 2001. Or the flight schools in Phoenix became suspicious in July.

Whether the attacks could have been prevented or not nobody will ever know. However, you'd like to think that the country is doing everything in its power to prevent them from happening, and that the leaders are at least making an effort to be informed and make decisions. Bush, after getting the famous August 6 PDB, continued on the longest presidential vacation in 32 years and never, not once, discussed the possibility of Al Qaeda attacks with anyone on his staff in the 36 days between the PDB and September 11 (you can read that in the 9/11 Commission report -- pages 260-262).

Clinton, meanwhile, in 2000, risked warnings to his own personal safety to visit Pakistan to try to engage in diplomacy to get Bin Laden (page 183, I think). He also had daily discussions with everyone on his staff building up the Millennium plot.

If Bill Clinton was president and:

1) He was on vacation for 42 percent of his presidency, including an entire month while the intelligence systems were "blinking red"
2) His vice president was put in charge of a counter-terrorism task force that never bothered to meet. Not once.
3) His national security advisor didn't think it was his or her responsibility to oversee domestic agencies, and devoted her attention to missile defense.
4) His attorney general said that he or she didn't want to hear any more about Bin Laden and cut funding from counterterrorism initiatives.
5) His deputy secretary of defense said that there's no way Al Qaeda could attack us without a state sponsor.
6) He was handed a plan from the previous administration about how to deal with the terrorist threat and ignored it.

The right wing and their media shills would have crucified him and demanded that everyone on the staff resign in shame.

The first WTC attack also happened in Clinton's first two months in office. Nobody ever blamed George Herbert Walker Bush.

[opihimoimoi]

12. Condi is the SECURITY ADVISOR... all we got is excuses and deflections

NO APOLOGIES>>>>>NONE.....

In Japan, she would have had to commit sempuku/hari kari....

She had shamed herself and her Master/Husband/Boss.

[greekspeak]

13. I still do not understand why Clinton bears any responsibility.

He said to Chimp, "look out. There is some bad shit on the horizon for you to take care of." Chimp said, "Not now, Cigar Boy...we are too busy trying to strategize Iraqi oil money into our own pockets. Take your report and flush it. God, idiot. I am TRYING to get out of here on vacation, if you don't mind." Well, loosly translated out of Chimpeze. I suppose that the Clenis pinned MonkeyFace down in the chair in that classroom and made him read that fucking book to those kids. Bipartisan my ass.

[stavka]

18. ...again, I'd say Read Coll's book.

he doesn't have any sort of axe to grind. I'd say as a government, we began dropping the ball once it became clear the Soviet's were leaving Afghanistan and the Pakistanis and Saudis aren't our puppets, and have their own evil schemes

[Tactical Progressive]

16. Presidentially, 9/11 is 99% Bush-Cheney's fault, 1% Clinton's fault

To Republicans, including of course America's right-wing 'mainstream' media hyenas, that's "both".

[MercutioATC]

25. What about Carter? He's the one who originally approved OBL funding.

[stavka]

17. Read Steve Coll's "Shadow Wars " I'd say that is a fair statement

Everybody here was so hard on to get the Unical Taliban deal going, and placate Pakistan, people were barely working to contain bin Laden until it was too late...and THAT was under Clinton.

[ThomWV]

21. Since When ....

Since when is it the sworn duty of an Ex-President to defend the country?

The only person in or out of Government who was responsible for the defense of the United States of America on September 11, 2001 was George W. Bush, of Crawford, Texas and he failed in that responsibility.

[CaTeacher]

24. Just wait until Clinton speaks tonight!

I think he is the BEST speaker in politics today. He will set everyone straight about the issues.

And he is going to convert many to our side--he will also get out the vote like no one else can!

[Zorra]

23. The country was being attacked, but I didn't want to frighten the children

Bu$h knew.

[DinahMoeHum]

26. Bottom line - Clinton passed the baton to *, and * threw it in the toilet.

:evilfrown: