Exactly what did you think was "self-evident?"
Was it self-evident that terrorists would make another attack on U.S. soil? I can agree that we should have known that someday they'd try something, but that hypothesis is not strong enough intelligence to counter their attack. Undoubtedly, we should never have had policies in the airlines saying that the way to deal with hijackings was for pilots to open the doors to the cockpit and try to establish a "rapport" with the hijackers. That policy was stupid in the 70's when it began.
Are you saying it was self-evident that the terrorists would hijack some planes and fly them into buildings? I've read Tom Clancy books too, but you are a long way from proving that we had real intelligence that they were implementing this kind of plan.
Are you saying it was self-evident that they would strike on that day? Again, you might have some tin-foil hat website making those claims, but the reality is that these claims are only valid in hindsight.
Anyway, if you can tear yourself away from trading insults with sinkspur, I'd like to know what you meant.
Thanks,
I thought it self-evident that they would fly planes into the World Trade Center. Mainly because (a) they said they wanted to destroy the World Trade Center; and (b) they said they wanted to fly planes into buildings.
1+1=2. It wasn't complicated.
I've read Tom Clancy books too, but you are a long way from proving that we had real intelligence that they were implementing this kind of plan.
We had precisely that. Here's a public example that I was aware of: Operation Bojinka.
Are you saying it was self-evident that they would strike on that day?
No, not at all. I was however suspecting that there might be a strike on September 18, 2001 (Rosh HaShanah) because it was rather clear from the State Department notices throughout that summer that there was an extremely high threat of terrorist attack and the Jewish holiday seemed like as good a conjecture as any.