Who Was President on 9/11?

by Taylor Marsh

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As the rehabilitation tour of George W. Bush finally, at long last, not soon enough for me, ends (we can only hope), tonight we will yet be treated to one more moment of pure alternative universe when our current president says a final farewell. The constant theme from Bush and Cheney, but also their apologists, as well as their bloviating sycophants on wingnut radio, is that Bush will be remembered for keeping America safe. When evaluating President Bush's presidency, everything for Republicans begins on September 12, 2001.

Ignored is the PDB: Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S. Ignored is that Bush was on vacation when he got that warning, but stayed on vacation and did nothing. Ignored was the fact that Richard Clarke's position focusing on terrorism, which had been a cabinet level post during WJC's presidency, was neutered so that Clarke couldn't even get a substantive meeting on the threats we faced until it was way too late. Ignored is the fact that all summer there were hair on fire warnings about something big about to happen. Ignored is the fact that WJC and his national security team warned Bush about the threats and Al Qaeda, but because of Bush-Cheney's Anything But Clinton philosophy, they ignored the threats already known and went it alone. People paid with their lives.

Republicans even blame WJC for 9/11, ignoring who was actually in charge the day of the carnage. That said, there is enough blame to go around, it's just that Bush never accepts any at all. Funny how in 1993, when the very first World Trade Center bombing happened just months after WJC came into office, that was never blamed on Bush 41. ...or that the hits we took in Lebanon on Reagan's watch were never calculated, when so many years later the Republican in office remained clueless about terrorism. Considering it was C.I.A. Director Casey under Reagan that helped fund bin Laden in Afghanistan, this is no small point.

Campbell Brown (video here) quoted Bush from Larry King's interview this week, where the president said something truly stunning. When asked if we had ever come close to catching Osama bin Laden, the president didn't have a clue:

King: Did we ever come close?

Bush: I don't know. I can't answer that.

From "dead or alive" to who knows?

Never addressed by Republicans is how many more enemies the U.S. has today than we did before Bush and Cheney's foreign policy laid waste to our strategic alliances. To Republicans, led by the noise machine on wingnut radio, helped along by Fox news, everything for George W. Bush begins on 9/12. It's really the most glaring insult of Bush's rehabilitation tour. Republicans want people to forget that not only was Bush caught unprepared on 9/11, but that once he regained his composure he not only let the culprit get away, but to this day he has no idea of what progress, if any, we've made in catching the man behind the largest post WWII attack in our country's history.

Even if Bin Laden is simply a symbol at this late date, that the commander in chief of this country hasn't a clue of our progress to bring him to justice says everything about George W. Bush as he leaves office.

Seven years later, Bin Laden remains the man who got away.

Comments

[dagumpster]

I am glad to see others saying and realizing that Bush and his administration just bear some responsibility for 9/11. The media and public did not. Even the 9/11 Commission gave him a whitewash. No one talks about what Bush was doing or did on 9/11 except he was in a grade school at the time the news broke. Where was he the rest of the day & what was he doing? He certainly did not come forward as a leader of the country. We had no communication from him during the crisis. Questions were raised but never pursued. The country with the media gave him a blank check and then turned around and re-elected him.

[winnie47]

Exactly! Who WAS president on 9/11? Whose watch was the worst terrorist attack in history perpetrated on? Who ignored Richard Clark, the CIA and the PDBs so he could vacation and golf for the first eight months of his presidency? I am sick of this pinhead getting credit for "keeping us safe" when he has put this country in more danger than any other president in history. I don't want to hear any phony blather about how there have been no other U.S. attacks in the last eight years. How many other presidents saw 3,000 citizens blown away BEFORE September 11th? NONE. Could he have stopped 9/11 if he had actually tried? Who knows. The fact that he DIDN'T try speaks volumes. The only question I have is this: I have heard a lot of reporters laying the blame for 9/11 at Bush's feet, now that he has less than a week left in office. Why didn't you have the balls to say the same thing on 9/12?

[radlib1]

Dear Folks,

George W. Bush never heeded the warnings from Richard Clarke or any of the other Clinton holdovers. On August 6, 2001, he got a briefing during one of his many vacations at his Crawford, Texas ranch telling him that "Bin Laden is Determined to Attack Within U.S." He dismissed the CIA briefer with the words, "All right, you can go now. You've covered your ass."

On September 11, 2001, nine months into the Bush Administration, terrorist attacks took the lives of more than 3,000 Americans.

President George W. Bush was the American Commander-in-Chief. He failed all of us miserably. And now, at the end of his horribly destructive regime, he wants the American people to forget that he was President on 9/11. He bears the responsibility and yet, like the spoiled preppy assh*le that he is, he wants us to forget that 9/11 happened when he was President. It's on his head, no one else's. Don't forget that. George W. Bush paid no heed to al-Queda before 9/11 and he quite possibly cost 3 thousand people their lives.

He certainly cost more than 4 thousand Americans and possibly over a million Iraqis their lives when he whipped up fear and preemptively attacked a country, Iraq, that had absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

The International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague should definitely bring criminal cases against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

[winnie47]

....don't leave out Rummy, Condi, and Wolfowitz!

[islandsox]

I am so proud of President Bush and I am a Democrat. I'm sure this will offend many of you who have the utmost hate for this man. History will probably show that he was one of the best presidents we have ever had. I am worried about Obama; he is leaning far too toward socialism which will utterly kill what our forefathers wanted for this country. I would hope that none of you want a Chavez type of country. Your freedoms will be lost forever.

What if Iraq and Afghanistan become true democracies? Do none of you see the benefit of having alliances in the Middle East? OH, and by the way, I'm from San Francisco, not Texas. I'm alarmed at the hatred so many have for this man who has kept us safe for years, and had over 50 months of job growth. Why doesn't anyone at least give a little credit here? I also have my problems with this President, but have to give some credit.

[CL38]

I don't believe that you're a Democrat, or if you are, you've must have buried your head in the sand for the past 8 years. Otherwise, how could you have missed the devastation of our country, economy, laws, civil rights, jobs, people, Constitution and democracy.

[Jesster]

I agree with CL38, even my GOP friends are in a state of shock at the sheer magnitude of the destruction and devestation Bush/Cheney and Co. wreaked on this country and the rest of the world. Many of them now consider themselves Independents - and many also voted for Obama...

Even the Chicago Tribune broke with it's long 150+ year history of NEVER endorsing a Democrat for POTUS - and endorsed Obama.

Bush had ample warning that bin Laden was "determined" to strike us at home - yet he and his team all went on an extended summer break and ignored it all...

...And as for the 50 months of job growth... I guess one can spin anything. What kind of jobs are we talking about, and where in the world were they growing?

He came into office with a budget surplus - and left the country on the verge of a gobal depression. I'll give him credit for that.

[winnie47]

If you're a Democrat, I'm the queen of England. The ridiculous Repugnican catch-phrases you use give you away. The only books that will show President Bush as a great president will be the books that are written by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George W Bush (ghost written by someone else, of course!). Apparently, you don't keep up with current events. Nearly every Republican economist and analyst has said that Obama is surprisingly pragmatic and centrist in his policies. Try turning off Fox Noise and Limbaugh and watch some REAL news. You'll be surprised what you learn!

[jfor]

Tell us what you think of Palin?

[psfurlong356]

"I am so proud of President Bush and I am a Democrat."

My veracity alarm just rand off the hook.
_________

"Obama; he is leaning far too toward socialism"

you're about three months behind on your talking points. Here's the update: (write this down)

Obama has moved to the center alarming those on the left who put him in office.

[returnofthejedi]

I thought Joe Leiberman was from Connecticut? Seriously though I doubt that you are or ever have been a democrat..­..........­.......a couple of statemaents in your post gives you away.
..........­....Histor­y will probably show that he was one of the best presidents we have ever had??!!

[nana4g]

Also, add the dead from Hurricane Katrina. This is Pro Life??

[nana4g]

In the 911 congressional hearings and to the press, Condi Rice testified that they were not given the who, where, when, and how of an Al Queda terrorist attack, so, how could they have known or prepared? She and they needed an engraved invitation, apparently. Even the best intelligence in the world would not serve this band of lightweights well. They operated in their own small narrow world. Add the 3,000 killed at World Trade Center, those at Pentagon and in the field in Pennsylvania; the dead in Iraq and our military and this Administration has been a horror of magnitudous proportions.

There is no way anyone could live with this without engaging in some pretty serious denial and manipulation. It will take as much pathology to live with as it did to cause it.

[longislandlol]

Delusional- the whole presidency based on a noun, a verb and 9/11--

[PandJonB]

Dear Taylor:

I agree with you 110 percent. These guys need to be prosecuted and sent to jail. What a bunch of FUs!

[cafemocha]

There's plenty of evidence that W deliberately refused to defend us against all terrorist enemies before 9/11. The self-proclaimed wannabe-a-­war-presid­ent needed an excuse to go to war, and these statements as revealed by the 9/11 Commission point to his objective of how he planned to find a reason to invade (page 209 chapter 6):

"President Bush told us that before 9/11 there was an appetite in the government
for killing Bin Ladin, not for war. Looking back in 2004, he equated
the presidential directive with a readiness to invade Afghanistan.The problem,
he said,would have been how to do that if there had not been another attack
on America."

Think about the words, 'THE PROBLEM he had was how to build an appetite for war IF THERE HAD NOT BEEN ANOTHER ATTACK ON AMERICA.'

9-11 solved his admitted problem of creating the appetite for war.

So, what I believe we really need is to see and hear W alone, under oath, in front of the Jersey Women and this new congress, on TV answering their questions about his actions to "defend" America against the 9-11 plot.

[winnie47]

Don't forget- from the day they took office, they were determined to attack Iraq. The chicken hawks were convinced that Bush 41 got it wrong, and they were going to go in there and finish the job. They were slinging reasons around for months, searching for a reason to invade. Then 9/11 happened and they LIED, and falsified records, trying to tie Saddam Hussein to 9/11. They basically rammed the authorization for military action through Congress with the "you're either with us or against us" threat. This administration was hell bent on war, war, and more war. Too bad they didn't have a little experience in how to fight one, what with all the deferments and going AWOL to help with their daddy's campaign.

[Caymus77]

Read "Against all Enemies" by Richard Clarke and you will get a behind the scenes look at 9/11 and the determiniation of Bush to attack Iraq. Clarke outlines how the Clinton Administration took Al Qaeda so seriously,they had cabinet level meetings adressing the threat of Al Qaeda once every two weeks. Bush did not hold a cabinet level meeting addressing the threat of Al Qaeda until Sept.4th,2001;NINE MONTHS after Clinton's National Security Adviser Sandy Berger warned Condeleeza Rice,Bush's NSA,that Al Qaeda represented the biggest threat to US security.

Bush bungled the warnings of an impending attack and sat for nine minutes like an idiot in a classroom while the country was being attacked and then took an entire day before addressing the nation.
Bush is a disgrace,not a hero.

[drkazmd65]

Clarke's book was very enlightening,... even a couple of years old, it still rings true if you were to read it today.

Clinton's administration acting against terrorists was far from perfect,.... but Bush's was a disaster from day one.

[vegas9999]

Far from perfect??? What a joke.

[winnie47]

Bill Clinton said in an interview with Fox, "I may not have succeeded in stopping the terrorists, but at least I TRIED, which is more than I can say for some people!"

[UberReaganite]

For years the key difference in parties have been on SOCIAL ISSUES like abortion, separation or church and state, equal rights for ALL Americans - even the Gay ones. Those are really the main differences. BOTH parties have shown gross negligence and incredible incompetence in the financial management of this great nation. BOTH parties have neglected to take care of America's infrastructure and environment. Those Social issues I listed , like it or not, are the LEAST important issues in America, not Unimportant but the least important.

The only question you need to ask yourself about the American Presidency is this...

Do you want the SAME people that were in charge for TWENTY of the past 28 years and accomplished nothing of value for this nation in charge again? I think America finally woke up and by voting for President Obama they have said HELL NO! Does that mean we are SURE things will get better with Democrats in the Presidency? NOPE!. It simply means that we at least have HOPE by giving the other party a chance. Lets face it, what did America really get for TWENTY years of Republican leadership that we cant do without.....we can do better, I'm certain of that.

[ObjectiveRealist]

quote:
Those Social issues I listed , like it or not, are the LEAST important issues in America, not Unimportant but the least important.
/quote

I disagree. The government has no place protecting one group's rights differently than others'. Until I have the same rights as you do, I really don't want you to have better infrastructure than you have.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I appreciate the sentiment, but the FACTS are there is a performance difference between the parties, especially on the personal economics for the vast majority of Americans.

Americans do better under Democrats. I'm not rich enough to vote Republican. etc.

Social wedge politics is the only way the Repuke leadership can fleece the flock.

[returnofthejedi]

One thing for sure you, you don't speak for all Americans when you talk about the least important issues. I think all the issues affect the others in one kind of way or another. For instance when you limit the employment opportunities to a very large group of Americans for ideological reasons or other reasons, you also take away people that could have otherwise been paying income taxes. Or when you allow Corporations to hire illegal aliens because they work for less than an American worker you also contribute to Homeland Security problems.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Half a business day left to impeach.

[drkazmd65]

Too late now ReasonIs,... but expect the blanket pre-emptive pardons to start flowing out of the White House sometime after the 5:00pm Friday news cycle closes,...

Our Congress is almost as incompetent, complicit, and gonadless as the President.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Yupsters across the board. ;-(

[LeftRight]

Here it is Monday. Haven't heard about them yet, but that don't mean that they aren't there!

[MathIsTruth]

Bush, who acted as though his presidency were a dictatorship, is predictably trying to dictate to historians what his legacy will be.

He doesn't think he is asking the world to judge him, he is trying to tell the world what that judgment will be.

Won't work. Nice try, but it won't work.

The world will judge him for sure. Hopefully, the American legal system will get a chance to as well. Maybe even an international war crimes tribunal.

Ironically, his silly legacy project will itself become part of his legacy. It will prove that the same unqualified person who took office on 1/20/2001 was the same unqualified person who will leave office on 1/20/2009.

[greatlardini]

Very well put. Our mangled economy is even a greater danger to us than any terrorist.

[dmac]

True. And add to that the mess that is healthcare along with infrastructure issues that would multiply an attack's impact many times. Think Katrina had the complete budget been allowed to reinforce the levees and the first responders been staffed, equipped and prepared in NO....rather than in Iraq.

[SoCalGal2008]

For those who said "WHAT IF DEMS" were in charge when all these things happened... have you forgotten that president MAKE THE DECISIONS to how to respond to events !!! So if Dems were in charge we WON'T BE IN THIS MESS, because BUSH did not make good decisions (i.e. putting Mike Brown in charge). Remove those rose colored glasses face reality, because we all are suffering from EIGHT years of continuous bad decisions e.i. 9/11, Katrina, IRAQ, Economic meltdown. When Clinton left office we had low unemployment rates, economic growth so this is complete BS to say this could have happened to any one. No one can predict what can happened, but the way administration RESPOND post event makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

[winnie47]

Nearly every disaster we faced was brought about, directly or indirectly, due to Bush's policies. 9/11 happened because he was too arrogant to take his predecessors advice. Iraq war happened because he had to prove that Daddy was wrong. Katrina happened because giving his buddies a job was more important than actually having functioning government agencies. The enormous deficits happened because of the tax cuts to the uber wealthy who put him in office. The foreclosure crisis happened because by manipulating the housing market , he made it look as if the economy was growing when in fact it had been flat-lining for years. The Wall street meltdown happened because as a free market capitalist, he believed 'no rules are good rules' and stripped away all regulations. And on, and on, and on.......

[LARRYB28]

what a bunch of bs revisonist history.when exactly did the renowned clinton administration tell the bush administration that a bunch of terroists would hijack four plaines on september 11 2001 and fly them into buildings????who was manipulating the housing market bush or barney frank and chris(sweethart morgage)dodd.an on and on and on