Fiddling while The World Burns

In 1998, Richard Clarke attempted to talk Bill Clinton out of doing anything about terrorism.

Clarke said that he and other top national-security officials at the White House went to see Clinton to warn him that he would likely be accused of “wagging the dog” in order to distract the public from his political embarrassment. Clinton was enraged. “Don’t you f***ing tell me about my political problems, or my personal problems,” Clinton said, according to Clarke. “You tell me about national security. Is it the right thing to do?” Clarke thought it was. “Then f***ing do it,” Clinton told him. - Jane Mayer

Now it appears that terrorism was not his primary focus in late 2001, either.

The other major question Clarke raises is a creative one. What if someone else had been President on 9-11, and decided to use the new support for the US in a positive way, not just to wipe out Al Qaeda which he surely had global support for, but also to do something to improve something about the world. He doesn’t answer the question, but it’s still an interesting one. - Dave Winer

Of course, Dave may not remember that he made a similar argument.

Let’s look for ways to add peace to the world, not to go to war. These were heinous and cowardly acts, it’s just beginning to sink in how much things have changed. Can we make things turn for the better? I wonder, I’m not sure, but I have hope. - Dave Winer

I wonder what would have happened if the President had focused on something other than terrorism following September 11th?

According to law enforcement sources, Mohammed told interrogators that al-Qaida initially planned to hit five targets on the East Coast and another five targets on the West Coast as part of a massive hijacked jet attack on Sept. 11, 2001. But after it was decided that those attacks would be too difficult to synchronize, plans were hatched for two waves of attacks. The second wave at a later date, law enforcement officials said, was to include the Library Tower, the tallest building in the West. - Richard Winton

Eighteen months ago, it was a threatened surface-to-air-missile attack on Heathrow airport over which the security forces sweated. Just such an attack had been tried in Mombasa in Kenya, although luckily it failed. People laughed and accused politicians of cynical manipulation when tanks were deployed around the airport, but the threat was real. At least two suicide bombers are known to have been recruited in the UK by Bin Laden’s former military com mander, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks who is now in US custody. Those men have not yet been found. - Jane Corbin

I, for one, certainly feel safer knowing that Richard Clarke is no longer responsible for protecting me.

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Comments

Sorry for the confusion -- I was talking about the war in Iraq, not fighting terrorism. No one as far as I know have questioned going after Al Qaeda. The question is why did we go fight a war in Iraq and what does that have to do with terrorism?

I don’t doubt you are serious about the War on Terror. I just think that the case for the link between Terrorism and Iraq is compelling enough for me. There is just too much evidence to dismiss.

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Fiddling while The World Burns

Clarke vindicated from the slander of Bill Frist

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