Ye Olde Rad Blog

Condi Rice testifies today. If I were GWB's advisor, I'd recommend he stand up before the American people and take full responsibility for what happened on 9/11. That would take the wind out of all his critics' sails. People would respect him a lot more. The administration's hard-line that they did everything they could is a bunch of hooey.

Takes a big man to stand up and admit he made a mistake. The issue that is rubbing everyone wrong centers upon RESPONSIBILITY. Any 4-year-old can make excuses. Nobody ever wants to hear excuses. We just want someone to take *responsibility* for crying out loud. Is that too much to ask? All this excuse-making from the administration is just pissing people off.

Remember when Arnold (in his bid for the governor's office) was accused of sexually-harassing women. What did Arnold do? Did he make excuses? No. His stood up on national television and ADMITTED HE WAS WRONG. What happened next? He was elected governor of California. By a wide margin.

Have you heard any more about Arnold sexually-harassing women? No. Why not? Because people don't expect perfection. We just want someone who is big enough to take responsibility when they make a mistake. And making excuses is just another way of REFUSING to accept responsibility.

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It's not that complicated: "I'm your president. It's my job to protect you. I screwed up. I made a mistake. I was wrong. I apologize. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I learned a lesson. It won't happen again. I promise." Even that sloppy speech would be better than what we're getting now.

The president's #1 job is (or should be) the safety & security of the people. The issue is NOT whether the attacks of 9/11 COULD HAVE been prevented. But rather that they SHOULD HAVE been but *WEREN'T*. Should. Weren't.

SHOULD the attacks have been prevented? Of course! That's our government's job. That's what we pay them to do. To protect us from harm. No one questions that. So, by definition, THEY FAILED. Save the excuses.

There's a Latin phrase: Res ipsa loquitur. Which means: "the thing speaks for itself". By the very fact that the attacks occurred, and 3,000 people died, means that our government - despite the numerous warnings we now know about - failed. The fact that they won't acknowledge this failure, or apologize for it, only adds insult to injury.

And not just ANY failure. No. Rather the biggest failure in the history of the country. It wasn't just one plane, or two, or even three. It was a huge failure. Of unprecedented proportions. Now all we want is someone to step forward (like a man) and accept responsibility for dropping the ball. I can't believe they're missing this most-basic of points. It would be so simple. Heck, he doesn't even have to be sincere about it.

If you can't protect us, step aside and we'll find someone who can. Heck, God knows we pay enough for protection. When we pay all that money and they *still* screw up, that's really frustrating. And then they insult us by refusing to take responsibility for their failure. Frankly folks, I expected more from my government.

Personally, I'm disappointed our leaders are acting so childishly. I've seen *kids* act more responsibly. And I can't help but think that, if our government would've been doing its job prior to 9/11, we (the tax-payer) wouldn't now be buying billion$ of dollar$ worth of bomb$, from so-called "Defen$e" companie$, which, coincidentally, is making them rich in the proce$$. You can send a lot of kids to college for $87 billion. One single million-dollar bomb can feed a lot of starving kids.

Condi Rice said, "There was no silver bullet that could have prevented the attacks of September 11th." I disagree. It's now clear that people were jumping up and down all around her, yelling "al Qaeda!".

There was a memo titled "'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States". That bullet looks pretty silver to me. So, it appears, rather, that the "silver bullet" was handed to her. Also the "FBI indicated patterns of suspicious activity in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking".

It's painfully obvious that the "silver bullet" was even loaded into the gun and pointed for her. All she had to do was squeeze the trigger. National Security is HER JOB, folks. It's what we pay her and her agency a small fortune to do. I smell incompetence. If if it's too much for her, if she can't do the job, George should find someone who can. I know that sounds harsh, but too many people depend on her and her agency to do its job.

Condi read some of the intelligence chatter they gathered prior to 9/11, and said, "This is troubling. But it doesn't tell us when, where, or how." Does she expect the terrorists to call her cell phone and say, "Hey Condi, Mohammed here. Howzit, babe? Hey, Just wanna let you and GWB know that tomorrow morning we're going to hijacks a bunch of your planes and crash them into the WTC and Pentagon." If they did, she makes it sound like they'd wouldn't be able to stop them without flight numbers and departure times.

If that's the case, any idiot could be a National Security Advisor. I mean, her testimony made it sound like there were a bunch of clowns running the government who know next to nothing.

We pay a lot of money in tax dollars to hire people to find out exactly that kind of information. Res ipsa loquitur. The fact that she says she didn't know, by definition, is self-incriminating and means she didn't do her job. And if they can't get the job done, they should be replaced with people who can.

Condi totally played the panel. She obviously wasn't there to shed light on what happened on 9/11, but rather to defend her boss. She gets high marks for loyalty. They asked her one question and she used it as an opportunity to voice her irrelevant answers. Her evasive answers were obviously well rehearsed. They did nothing to provide closure to the families of those who lost family and friends.

Panel member: "Would you state your name for the record.
Condi: "First I'd like to say that Richard Clarke is wrong."

Let me conclude by saying I have the utmost respect for the men & women of the armed services, currently serving in Iraq, who live daily in harms way.