not much new happening
There seems to be a bit of finger pointing and name calling going on between the former President, Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Condi Rice. Clinton is claiming that he did all that he could to reign in bin Laden and al-Quaida during his term and that the current administration did little until the cold realities of 9/11 struck. The Secretary of State disputes those charges, and notes that the Bush administration had done "as least as much" as the Clinton regime prior to 9/11.
Read it here.
That is all well and good, but it really sounds a bit like "we are all taking a break from campaigning today, so we will sling a little mud and engage in some light "did not - did so" stuff and then pick up later.
There is enough blame in this to go around. And the expectations that we have of the government are exceedingly high in this regard. There are some things that simply cannot be done within the bounds that we the people and the world establish as norms of governmental behavior. Read this from the Delco Times.
Stay focused.
Read it here.
That is all well and good, but it really sounds a bit like "we are all taking a break from campaigning today, so we will sling a little mud and engage in some light "did not - did so" stuff and then pick up later.
There is enough blame in this to go around. And the expectations that we have of the government are exceedingly high in this regard. There are some things that simply cannot be done within the bounds that we the people and the world establish as norms of governmental behavior. Read this from the Delco Times.
Stay focused.
posted by eccentric recluse at 7:14 AM
5 Comments:
"did not - did so"
Ah... brings back such not-so-fond memories of the fourth grade...
From the Delco article:
"But it is fair to ask a former president if his administration did all it could, when it had the chance, to kill the man who would become the architect of the deadliest attack ever against American civilians." (italics mine)
Perhaps, rather, it would be more fair first to ask the question as to whether or not either party (dems or repubs) would have even dreamed that such an attack could or would ever have occurred. It seems to me a bit presumptuous, and simply academic (not all bad - one can learn from past strategies), to ask the former president if he thought he did all he could - he must have - that is what he did. Only now do any of us know what Bin Laden had in mind - so it is so, so much easier to criticize the simple "fact" that "not enough was done"...
Yes, another pundit referred to the situation as a failure of imagination. In hindsight, that is correct, but we may well be living through a failure of overimagination on the part of the current president. There is just no way to know in real time, we need to have confidence in our leaders and go with what they come up with.
Unfortunately, the election of 2000 and the campaign of 2004 undermined our confidence, for better or worse, and replaced it with a level of suspicion that allowed an ambitious administration to do damn near anything that it wanted.
btw, didn't we meet in Freedonia?
...but we may well be living through a failure of overimagination on the part of the current president.
Time will tell, of course, but I fear you are very correct stating such a sentiment anyway - even without any help from our friend hindsight.
Oh dear, Rufus, is this you? All this time I thought you were that charming Hugo - I mean, ahem, Dr. Hackenbush!
I am he only every other weekend!
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