The 9/11 terrorist attacks 22 years ago were predictable and totally preventable. The Bush administration ignored all signs, and even fired American linguists at the Monterey Institute of Foreign Languages, fluent in Arabic, which left intercepted documents with clues to the pending disasters untranslated until too late. And why were they fired? Just because they were gay! But why was Osama bin Laden immediately suspected of being the master mind behind the attacks? Because outgoing president Clinton had warned incoming president Bush, together with an August 6, 2001, memo re. pending attacks on our soil, all ignored by Bush. AG Ashcroft didn’t even want to hear the name bin Laden, ever again, – before 9/11!
Under the incredibly incompetent Bush administration, we lost track of the Middle Eastern men taking commercial flight lessons in our country, with no interest in takeoff or landing. They were properly reported by concerned flight instructors, but these messages disappeared in the hierarchy, partly due to lack of cooperation between different competing sections of government, partly because a lack of understanding why someone could be interested only in flying between take-off and landing. If these Mid-Eastern young men had been flagged and kept track of, they would have been stopped before boarding the three US aircrafts that those religious fanatics took down, – with the hope of meeting virgins in heaven.
To further underscore how incompetent a Republican administration can be, let me quote Department of State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, who asked: “Who could imagine that someone would steal our airplanes and run them into our buildings?” Ever heard about WWII, Ms. Rice? The Japanese did just that, except they were able to make their own airplanes. Nothing new here, but it was your job to imagine that it could happen. Even here!
With a more capable and alert president like Al Gore, instead of the Electoral College, minority selected Bush, 9/11 would in all likelihood have been prevented. Neither would we have attacked Afghanistan and Iraq, two unnecessary, unwinnable wars we are still paying dearly for, while started because a divine voice inside Bush’s head told him to do so. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor later regretted that she cast the deciding vote when SCOTUS decided the outcome of the 2000 election. How arbitrary can a presidential election be?! Have we learned anything? Yet?
And what was Bush doing when the attacks happened? Reading a children’s book for a class of little students! Indeed, an important part of his job, of course!
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