Took a Wrong Turn and Just Kept Going

Not to be incautious or anything, but perhaps there should be more investigation into how the current Administration's priorities, as it took office, could have contributed to our nation's vulnerability on September 11. A comment in Daily Kos pointed to an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, entitled "The Pros From Dover", which addresses this issue:"Three years into the Bush administration, in spite of a host of developments in the national security realm, there has yet to be any serious inquiry into its methods of policymaking and their impact on American security. That inquiry is overdue." It summarizes what has been discussed, about the possible neglect of Clinton administration anti-terrorism efforts, the apparent shifting of focus to Iraq and to changing relations with Russia and the rest of Europe, and the parallel intelligence analysis conducted under the Vice President. It concludes with this disturbing thought:

The truth about 9/11 is one of two things. Either Rice’s NSC machinery did not work, or else it worked perfectly to ensure that what Bush and his cohorts considered a marginal issue like terrorism did not clutter up the schedule of a president intent on another agenda--transforming America’s relationships with traditional allies and former enemies. Either of these conclusions is disturbing. Once the Iraq war is factored into the equation the outlook is even more troubling. Again the NSC machinery operated in a fashion to prevent important objections or alternative policies from coming to the fore. U.S. policy going into the Iraq war was indifferent to alliance politics, to failures to attain needed U.N. approval, to U.S. military objections that the war plan was inadequate, to intelligence warnings that war would be succeeded by guerrilla resistance, to global public opinion, to international disarmament monitors who failed to turn up evidence supporting the Bush rationale for war, and more.

Read the whole thing. It's important to find out what really happened.