Let's just say I have had my fill of Republicans who continually crow about how the current president and his party have "protected us all since (the very saddest of days) 9/11."
To all Republicans who share this view, I have a rather simple set of questions and one observation I would like to share.
Question 1: How many years was it between the first attack on the Twin Towers and 9/11 -- the only two attacks by Al Qaida against us on our shores? (I'll give a hint: It was 8 years.)
Question 2: How many years has it been since 9/11? (I'll give a hint: It has been 7 years.)
Question 3: How is it that, if President Clinton and the intelligence community are so badly blamed for doing nothing to protect us between 1993 and 2001, that we were not attacked on our own shores for one year longer than you now attribute to superior Republican watchfulness? (Sorry: No hints available to answer that one.)
An observation: Your two greatest "heroes" in this, Bush the lesser and Rudy G., were… oh, what is the phrase? Ah, yes: In charge -- that's the phrase -- in charge of the country and city (respectively) that were attacked. I believe the military way of phrasing that is that this very attack we now mourn occurred "on their watch."
One final question about Mr. Giulliani: What was his material response to the 1993 attack on his city? (Hint: He moved the core to his emergency response headquarters into the very building that was attacked, and which the terrorists brought down on this day of mourning that stands next to Pearl Harbor or the British invasion and burning of the White House as one of the saddest events in American history. In effect, his move hamstrung reaction to the attack -- made us less safe -- by making this quite ill-conceived move.)
Concluding opinions: It is intensely galling that your party attempts to own some badge of bravery that belongs to us all while dodging all responsibility for the failures that happened on the Republican "watch" over the safety of our citizenry. Such undeserved crowing for political ends is perverse in the extreme, and ignorant of the very simple facts of our collective failure to protect ourselves.
It also suggests that, through smug confidence, we are very likely no safer now than we were seven years ago.
Comments are closed for this post.
