Etalkinghead

Since the release of the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing some on the left have had the courtesy to drop the line that the Bush Administration had clear warning of 9/11 and did nothing about it. They have not had the decency to admit they were wrong or to apologize but at least some have stopped repeating it.

What they have done is move on to grasping at even thinner straws to blame Bush.

The newest canard, which I heard repeated by local New York talk radio co-host Ron Kuby, is that if Bush had raised a public alarm based on the August 6 PDB more lives would have been saved on 9/11 because more people would have instantly assumed terrorism and would have been quicker to flee the Trade Center towers.

It is maddening that the people on the left who are repeating this tripe are the same ones who are quick to mock the administration every time the threat level is increased. They are the people who if Bush had done what they are now criticizing him for not doing, would have accused him of drumming up hysteria based on flimsy intelligence.

It also maddening that Bush is being blamed for anyone’s unawareness of the possibility of terrorism. Particularly the unawareness of anyone working in a building that had already once been bombed by terrorists.

And where are the criticisms that the previous administration, under who’s watch the intelligence gathered in the August 6 briefing was gathered, didn’t raise an alarm and increase public awareness of the possibility of terrorism? How many deaths might that have prevented?

I think the concept of understanding why we did not know 9/11 was coming is invaluable. I think the concept of understanding how decades of policy regarding terrorism failed to protect us equally important. But the desire to place blame is beyond useless it is destructive.