Pres. Obama has declared today a national day of service and remembrance.
No surprise that the right wing is attacking him for it.
I apologize, but this day led to the ultimate politization of our national tragedy and I won’t ever let it pass unremembered.
See, this day hits me differently than others, particularly so now that I live here. I simply cannot think of the horror on that day without thinking of how George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their administration used it to get from a horrific attack to changing the foreign policy of this country into one of preemptive war.
The video here is old, something we put together a very long time ago. It’s too quick on the draw and needs another edit, but if you want to fully read everything, just pause it. Otherwise, the sentiment still applies today, at least around here.
Today is also a moment to remember why we initially went into Afghanistan. It’s one reason Pres. Obama calls it “the good war.”
Seeing the images played again on MSNBC never fails to send a chill up my spine. For me, I think of Kristen Breitweiser, whom I’ve traded many an email with and also interviewed when her book came out. That interview still on my podcast page, “the best of TM” section, which is at the bottom of the page. Some of you may not remember, but no one fought harder to get at the truth of how the terrorists came to slip underneath the U.S. intelligence radar. But Kristen also reminds us of the sheer incompetence of Rudy Giuliani that day.
It was a national tragedy, which if you think about it happened at this very moment so many years ago, at the very point Pres. Obama is in his presidency.
A collective failure for sure, but I will never understand how Louis Freeh got a pass on that day. …or for that matter the Republican Congress during William Jefferson Clinton’s impeachment, who thought his zipper was more important than the nation’s business.
But no single move illustrates the Bush-Cheney administration’s failure like the demotion of Richard Clarke from his cabinet position; the man who knew more about counterterrorism than anyone in government, because the new Administration took the tact of “anything but Clinton.”
Pres. Clinton warned the new President. But not even when Bush got the PDB screaming BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN US did he budge.
But it took both parties and scared politicians to get us into Iraq, including our best and brightest. I railed at their cowardice to stand up to Bush at the time on radio, because they were afraid a no vote on a bad war would be used against them in the upcoming election.
It’s why we must always hold our elected officials accountable, especially on matters of war and peace. We can’t ever let it happen again.
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