I'm sick of politicians whining.The last thing we need in Washington is more bureaucrats demands endless meetings and commissions and reports and hearings and findings before taking action. They know what needs to be done, but they just don't have the will, or the brains, or the guts to do it. As a result, something horrible happens that could -- and should -- have been avoided in the first place. Then, after the fact, these wimpy bureaucrats defend their lack of action by complaining that nobody led them by the hand.
Now, don't anyone accuse me just yet of becoming a gun-totin', school-prayin', right-wing war hawk. Hear me out. Because the whiner I'm referring to is none other than our tough-as-nails National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice.
After stalling for what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Rice, you finally appear under oath before the 9/11 Commission (yeah, another commission, but we actually need this one). And what's your testimony? "We weren't told that they'd use hijacked airplanes as missiles." "We couldn't tell the FBI what the CIA knew." "The terrorists didn't tell us that they would actually attack on September 11." Whine, whine, whine.
We know it was your job to defend President Bush. We know you were supposed to try to explain everything away. But you sounded like a schoolchild complaining that she failed her math test because "the teacher didn't tell us that '3 + 4' would be one of the problems."
In case you didn't know, Dr. Rice, your job is to take these little bits of information and put them together to form a cohesive picture. Your office receives FBI reports and CIA reports and DIA reports and NSA reports and who knows how many other reports from foreign intelligence agencies. You're supposed to figure out what's going to happen before it happens, and then advise the President. But you failed to put it together.
And then, did you do the honorable thing and resign? Of course not! Regardless of your failure, you were arrogant enough to presume that you were the only one who could do the job. And now, all you can do is whine.
You and your staff -- the people who failed us on 9/11 -- are still at your desks, still receiving reports and, almost certainly, still not putting them together. But that's not the scary part.
The scary part is that your boss, our President, failed miserably after 9/11. He should have been leading the charge to find out who fell down on the job. He should have been demanding resignations from those people. And he should have been leveraging the worldwide support to form a true coalition against real terrorist threats. Instead, he hasn't fired a soul, he's squandered the support of the world, and he's gone after mirages.
But it's even worse. While American soldiers, sailors and Marines are dying in Iraq because President Bush lied to the Congress, the United States and the United Nations, the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. Meanwhile, instead of the new government taking shape in Afghanistan, the Taliban is regaining control. And Al Qaeda is recruiting people from Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and who knows where else (right here in the U.S.?) faster than you can point a finger and say, "I want you!"
And nobody with power in Washington (meaning you, Dr. Rice) is helping the President do anything to stop it.
So we know that unless somebody starts doing their job instead of dishing out "cover your you-know-what" memos and whiny testimony, there will be other attacks. "Attacks," I said, as in more than one. And they will be even worse than 9/11. Because every action you've taken has just made the terrorist groups even stronger and more determined.
The smoking gun should have been in your hands, Dr. Rice. It was handed to you long before 9/11, and you dropped it.
Copyright 2004, Dan Jacoby
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