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Greg Easterbrook has a common-sense, non-partisan analysis of the Clarke fiasco and September 11 finger-pointing in general:

No Democrat, no Republican, no top-secret adviser, no pundit knew September 11 would occur. It is not necessary to analyze classified intelligence or intercepted cryptic Arabic messages to be sure of this--just to remember how lax airline security was up until that day. Warning after warning after warning about airline security had been issued, yet nothing was done; not by any Democrat, not by any Republican, not by the airlines themselves, which have lost vast amounts of money owing to that terrible morning. With the Richard Clarke flap and the 9/11 Commission, recriminations have been reduced to the two parties mutually complaining that their opponents failed to know the future. For the top levels of the U.S. government and media to be obsessing over pointless accusations regarding who failed to know the future makes the leaders of the nation, including its media leaders, appear deeply silly.

While I do fault previous administrations for weak half-measures in response to clear provocations, I'd say that's about right. Even Clinton did not have the political capital necessary to engage in a full-scale war against Al Quaeda prior to 9-11. Read the whole thing.

Posted by Bill at March 29, 2004 04:28 PM | TrackBack (1)