I'd like to make several points about all this if I may:
1. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing!
2. The world is a big place, filled with nations and groups that hate us and are potential threats to our security.
3. The United States has business concerns operating in every country on the globe, even in those nations that do not have our best interests at heart.
4. Our security and intelligence agencies have been spread increasingly thin over the last decade to protect those interests.
5. While our military and intelligence agencies have had their missions expanded greatly during the last ten years, budgets to support their activities have not grown to keep pace with that expansion. Indeed, their budgets have been slashed by the previous administration.
6. U.S. intelligence agencies have their hands full keeping track of all the threats to our nation's securities. Before September 11, Osama Ben Laden was just one of many potential threats.
7. The number of intelligence reports that have to be analyzed to develop strategies to counter these threats must be staggering. The analysis of this information to determine which of these threats is the most significant poses problems that are often insuperable.
8. The report about the WTC attack currently under discussion pointed out a potential threat, but was not specific about the form that the threat might take. It only mentions that Arab immigrants of questionable character were taking flying lessons under suspicious circumstances. Nothing really new about this, after all, for Arab terrorists have been hi-jacking airliners for more than 30 years.
9. The President, when notified of the potential threat, and without any specifics to determine the actual nature of the threat, notified the appropriate security agencies and put them on alert.
10. When similar threats have arisen in the past, previous administrations have acted in exactly the same manner.
Now for the critics making snide remarks about the President's actions under these circumstances I would like to pose a question.
Had you been in the White House under similar circumstances, and without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight since 9/11, what would you have done differently to counter the threat? Remember now, you must forget everything you have learned about the terrorists and their activities since the WTC was attacked.
Regards, Shuckins
