| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
13 Oct 2006 01:33:45 PM |
| Object: |
Imagine. Rest in peace, Mr. Lennon. |
http://www.examiner.com/a-341032~Thomas_Schaller__Imagining_a_post_Sept__11_world_with_Gore_as_president.html
Oct 13, 2006
Imagining a post-Sept. 11 world with Gore as president
Thomas Schaller, The Examiner
WASHINGTON -
John Lennon would have turned 66 this week.
So perhaps it’s worth pausing to "imagine" a world in which the Palm
Beach butterfly ballot didn’t exist and Al Gore and a cabinet of
Democrats were in office today, five years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Imagine that National Security Adviser Jamie Rubin, just a few months
before the attacks, had ignored "system blinking red" warnings and
dismissed as mere "historical analysis" a memo stating not merely the
intent but the method and possible targets by which al-Qaida might
attack.
Imagine that the day before the attacks, President Gore asked Congress
to cut $600 million from the counter-terrorism budget.
Imagine that within hours of the hijackings and before so much as a
cursory investigation into who masterminded them, Secretary of Defense
Wesley Clark suggested that the United States bomb targets in Iraq.
Imagine that Gore gave Osama bin Laden, the man we eventually
determined to be behind the attacks, several weeks of lead time before
sending too few troops into Afghanistan to find him.
Imagine that Gore used thundering speeches in 2002 to shift the
nation’s focus from Afghanistan to the supposed gathering danger of
Iraq without so much as reading -- nor even asking for -- a national
intelligence estimate of the state of Iraq’s weaponry.
Imagine that when Gore finally sat down, on Dec. 22, for a briefing
from CIA Director George Tenet, he grumbled that the war "couldn’t be
sold to Joe Public" based on the accumulated intelligence.
Imagine that, three weeks later, Gore gave Secretary Clark the green
light to start amassing troops in the Persian Gulf anyway.
Imagine that Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke regaled the United
Nations and the American public a month later with wild assertions
based on weak (and, in one case, forged) evidence about the progress
of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs.
Imagine that we then invaded Iraq, despite this manufactured case for
war.
Imagine Gore landing in a jet on an aircraft carrier that was a mere
helicopter’s ride from the San Diego coastline so he could give a
televised speech in front a "Mission Accomplished" banner.
Imagine that, when criticized for grandstanding in front of the White
House-approved banner, Gore’s team blamed Navy personnel for placing
it there.
Imagine that Clark and his team never bothered to draw up a post-war
Iraq policy that would enable our "coalition" -- comprised 90 percent
of American troops and treasury IOU’s -- to have the resources
sufficient to secure Iraq’s borders, protect its pipelines and other
infrastructure, establish civilian order, and plan for the country’s
political or economic transitions.
Imagine Clark later explaining that the lack of proper body and
vehicle armor for our troops, who were (and still are) being killed
daily by improvised explosive devices, is a problem of "physics."
Imagine Gore refusing to fire Clark, despite the secretary’s repeated
failures and blame-shifting.
Fast forward to 2006, and imagine that a re-elected Gore -- if you can
even imagine that -- decides to disband the unit charged with
capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, who still remains at-large five
long years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Imagine Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (rather than
Republican Bill Frist) saying we ought to give up the forgotten
Afghanistan war as unwinnable.
Imagine that today, more American troops and contractors had already
been killed in Iraq than were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001.
If all this seems beyond imagination, now try imagining this:
Folks like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh championing Gore as a bold
leader, while chastising anyone who might challenge the president’s
judgment as an unpatriotic cut-and-runner.
Rest in peace, Mr. Lennon.
_____________________________________________________
Imagine
Harry
.
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