Clarke Post Mortem

Dr. Krauthammer, coroner:

Richard Clarke using the nationally televised Sept. 11 commission hearings to address the families of the victims. "Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you."
Many were moved. I was not. For two reasons. First, the climactic confession "I failed you" -- the one that packed the emotional punch -- was entirely disingenuous. Clarke did the mea culpa and then spent the next 21/2 hours of testimony -- as he did on every talk show known to man and in the 300 pages of his book -- demonstrating how everyone else except him had failed. And they failed because the stubborn, ignorant, ideologically blinkered, poll-driven knaves and fools he had been heroically fighting against within the government would not listen to him.

Message: They failed you.

Second, by blaming the government for the deaths of their loved ones, Clarke deftly endorsed the grotesque moral inversion by which those who died on Sept. 11 are victims of . . . George Bush. This is about as morally obscene as the implication (made by, among others, the irrepressible Howard Dean) that those who died in the Madrid bombings were also victims of George Bush.

This is false. They were all victims of al Qaeda and al Qaeda alone.[SNIP]

Clarke's clever pseudo-apology -- we failed, meaning, they failed -- played perfectly to the families in the gallery, who applauded and warmly embraced the very man who for 12 years was the U.S. government official most responsible for preventing a Sept. 11. A neat trick.

Yes it is, Doc. One would almost admire this trick if it weren’t so mind-bogglingly stupid, if there weren’t so many people that over-looked this bit of logic in their zeal to find something—anything—to pin on George W. Bush, and if this fiasco, this farce-tragedy called the 9/11 Commission hadn’t turned into such a waste of time and money. Dangerous also.

The terrorists have had a great couple of weeks or so, no?

Comments

[og]

"grotesque moral inversion by which those who died on Sept. 11 are victims of . . . George Bush."

Of course. Didn't you know this? And George Bush is personally ruining Howard Stern's career. (never mind that the Freedom of speech howard complains about losing referred, originally, to political speech, a freedom he still has, and continues to use. Clue, Howie, the first amendment was not specifically penned to include penis jokes)
George is also personally responsible for the economy (though, only when it's bad) the lack of WMD's, the bad CIA reporting, the cost of gasoline (No war for oil!!!!) and the death of multitudes of baby harp seals.

Sheesh, will they ever get a clue? Okay, that was the dumbest question ever.

[Rae]

Isn't it intereesting that many people have been saying this, but not one liberal journalist, in the interest of true investigative reporting has asked him about it?

[Jeffersonian]

It's too bad that Richard Clarke chose to write this particular book at this time. After being on the job chasing terrorists for decades, he could have written a tome that really explained what it was like, where we fell short and what he thought could be done to improve our capabilities. By making this book a combination CYA/Bush Bash, he's cheapened his service, diluted his authority and clouded the issues.