http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16753
'A culture of responsibility'
E.J. Dionne, Jr. - Washington Post Writers Group
04.13.04 - WASHINGTON -- "We stand for a culture of responsibility in
America. We're changing the culture of this country from one that has
said, if it feels good, do it, and if you got a problem, blame somebody
else, to a culture in which each of us are responsible for the decisions
we make in life."
Maybe President Bush should reread his own words, offered last week at a
fund-raiser in Charlotte, N.C. They explain why his response to the
disclosure of the now famous Aug. 6, 2001, presidential daily brief is
maddening to so many and why his refusal to say plainly that he now
wishes he had done some things differently before Sept. 11 is so
disturbing.
To take responsibility straightforwardly would be a sign of strength,
not weakness. Instead, the president is sticking to a strategy of
denial.
Bush told reporters on Sunday that "as the president, I wanted to know
whether there was anything, any actionable intelligence. And I looked at
the August 6 briefing, I was satisfied that some matters were being
looked into. But that PDB said nothing about an attack on America. It
talked about intentions, about somebody who hated America -- well, we
knew that."
But the PDB did talk about attacks on the United States. It talked about
al Qaeda members who "have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years,
and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid
attacks." It spoke of FBI information on "patterns of suspicious
activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or
other types of attacks." It referred to a call to the U.S. embassy in
the United Arab Emirates in May "saying that a group of bin Laden
supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives."
Surely we don't want to start arguing about how it depends on what the
meaning of the word "attack" is, do we?
Yet the president was not at all uneasy with others being assigned
responsibility. Asked if he was satisfied that "each agency was doing
everything it should have been doing," Bush replied: "Well, that's what
the 9/11 Commission should look into and I hope it does. ... I am
satisfied that I never saw any intelligence that indicated there was
going to be an attack on America -- at a time and a place, an attack."
Is the commission supposed to look at failures all across the federal
government, but apparently not at the White House?
Perhaps Bush fears that admitting fallibility would dent his standing as
a war president. Perhaps he doesn't want to admit that if law
enforcement had done a better job and received a stronger push from the
top, the attacks just might have been prevented. Acknowledging that the
battle against terrorism is as much about police and intelligence work
as it is a military matter would contradict the official White House
line, put succinctly last week by Condoleezza Rice: "The president
doesn't think of this as law enforcement. He thinks of this as war."
Yes, there are many Americans who want our discussions of 9/11 to focus
on prevention rather than past error. "I am so fed up with this looking
back rather than looking ahead," said Rep. Amo Houghton, a New York
Republican known for his moderation. "We all miss things. My God, it's
the nature of life."
But the very fact that the public is forgiving of mistakes that are
candidly acknowledged makes it all the more mysterious why the president
can't speak as plainly as Rep. Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican,
did on CNN's "Larry King Live" last month: "The families want our
government, the Congress, the White House and everyone else to recognize
that they lost their loved ones because their government failed them.
All of us failed them -- in the legislature, in the executive branch, we
all failed them."
Rep. Jim Leach, an Iowa Republican, insists that "blame for the crime
itself rests with the perpetrators," not the government, which is fair
enough. But he doesn't stop there. "As a member of Congress, I must
accept a shared responsibility for the methodology with which we
operated the FBI and the CIA and made coordination more difficult,"
Leach said in an interview on Monday. "My advice to the president is to
make clear that as the president of the United States, he must accept
responsibility for the executive branch, which is responsible for the
defense of the United States."
A culture of responsibility is a good idea. And it starts at the top.
(c) 2004, Washington Post Writers Group
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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