March 28, 2004

Bureaucracy Blamed for Anti-Terror Ineptness

Another sad reality of 9/11 is that Clinton for eight years -- and Bush for eight months -- knew there was a major terrorist attack coming but were unable to determine how, when and where.

Shame on Osama bin Laden for not telling us beforehand.  

The Bipartisan 9/11 Commission is eagerly playing the blame game. By definition, such political free-for-alls are unable to be objective.

After two weeks of rancor, and more to come, two things are clear:

• It is impossible to know what irrational thugs are planning.
• Government bureaucracy is risk-adverse – bureaucrats themselves call it CYA, delicately translated as cover-your-behind. Pass the buck.  

Democrats agitated for a 9/11 Commission because the terrible event happened on President Bush’s watch. Ergo, it was all his fault.

Unhappily for the witch hunters, Clinton is being discovered as the greater victim of bureaucracy.  

The difference is that Clinton dithered over relatively small, scattered terrorisms while Bush reacted to 3,000 civilian deaths by declaring war on terrorism everywhere.

As a nation, the United States was attacked five times by terrorists on Clinton’s watch:

• 1993, the first Trade Center bombing -- 6 civilians killed.
• 1995 truck bomb at U.S.-operated training center for Saudi National Guard -- 5 Americans killed.
• 1996, Khobar Towers U.S. military housing at Saudi air base bombed -- 19 servicemen killed.
• 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed simultaneously – 11 Americans and scores of local employees killed.
• 2000, U.S.S. Cole bombed in the port of Aden,Yemen, while refueling – 17 sailors killed.

After the embassy bombings, President Clinton authorized launches of cruise missiles against a suspected chemical factory in nearby Sudan that manufactured aspirin, and against an abandoned Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

In the other cases, forceful retaliation was foresworn in favor of diplomacy.

Those were heinous attacks that took scores of American lives. However, no one expected Clinton to go to war over them – the numbers of victims were relatively few.

Is it fair to fault the Clinton administration for failing to "connect the dots" after eight years of scattered attacks?

Had this been done -- and the result passed on to the new Bush administration -- the 9/11 debacle eight months later might have been avoided.

Richard A. Clarke, counter-terrorism advisor for Clinton, was retained by Bush in hope of continuity.

For a while, Clarke, was heartened by the new president’s order to devise a pro-active policy of dealing with Al Qaeda.

In an August 2002 background briefing for five reporters, Clarke was effusive in his praise of Bush.

Clarke stated Bush had abandoned Clinton’s "roll back" policy regarding Al Qaeda to one aimed at "rapid elimination."

Three weeks later, the World Trade Center twin towers were leveled – and the Pentagon heavily damaged -- by Al Qaeda suicide Jihadists commandeering four loaded jetliners.

Only brave resistance by passengers of a fourth airliner – thereby plunging all to their deaths – prevented the U.S. Capitol from being demolished.  

Bush declared war against the Taliban of Afghanistan who were harboring bin Laden and cohorts. The president demanded bin Laden be handed over forthwith.

The Taliban refused. Bush sent in troops, and bin Laden fled.

Bush then declared war on Iraq that harbored terrorists, refused to account for weapons of mass destruction used against his own people, looted Kuwait and threatened the whole Mideast.

Clarke apparently is bitter over Bush’s seeming let-up in pursuit of Al Qaeda. Clarke resigned from government in January 2003 to write a tell-all book "Against All Enemies."

Highlight of Clarke’s testimony last week before the 9/11 Commission was his presumptuous grand-stand "apology" to militant relatives of 9/11 victims:

"Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you."

In the next two hours, Clarke described the time-consuming processes of inter-agency input, approvals, caveats and compromises that watered down action and blurred objectives.

Reaching consensus in a democracy is a vexing problem. Yet, it is strange that Dems blame Bush for the sins of all.

Stay tuned.

PARTING SHOTS

John Kerry, who insists Republicans are "crooked liars," plans to go to Iraq "to get the facts" – straight from Saddam no doubt.

 * * *

Vice-president Cheney is campaigning these days for Republican candidates in close races. Where is he when the boss needs him?

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org.