". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Friday, September 12, 2008

How Dare They?

I am speechless. Then again, I guess I'm not, since I'm finding the words to write this. But after coming across this report from the U. S. House of Representatives I am, to say the least, stunned. So that you don't have to click over (unless you really want to), here are the basic facts:

The title of the report is "Wasted Lessons of 9/11: How the Bush Administration Has Ignored the Law and Squandered Its Opportunities to Make Our Country Safer."

It was prepared and published by the Majority (Democrat) Staffs of the House Committees on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs.

The report reviews the formation of the 9/11 Commission and the enacting of many of the Commission's recommendations in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and goes on to quote the Commission's lead authors a year later: " . . . are we safe? We are safer--no terrorist attacks have occurred inside the U.S. since 9/11--but we are not as safe as we need to be . . . .[T]here is so much more to be done . . . ."

The report then summarizes the "Implementing the 9/11 Recommendations Act of 2007" signed into law by President Bush in August 2007 and goes on to report on progress made to date on specific measures called for in the report. It is on this point that the writers of the report take President Bush to task--in their opinion, he has not made sufficient progress on the various measures to be implemented. Yet considering that it has been barely a year since the Act was passed and that the deadlines for implementation fall mostly after Bush will have left office, it seems a bit premature to pronounce him as "ignoring" the law and "squandering" his chance to make America safer. In fact, it seems more than premature; it strikes me as disrespectful, inflammatory, and downright dangerous.

I respectfully suggest that the authors of this obviously politically motivated and timed report review the history of the past 7 years and remind themselves that during that time we have had no more terrorist attacks on American soil and that also during that time close to two dozen terrorist plots have been thwarted. This is "squandered opportunity?" This is failure? They must have a different definition of "safe" than I do.

For a summary of the terrorist attacks on Americans that DIDN'T HAPPEN in the last seven years, click here. If you're like me, after reading you will give thanks to God that President Bush was the man in the White House on September 11, 2001.

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