Posted on 04/09/2004 9:37:14 AM PDT by Pikamax
Comment
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/11 hearings won't help Kerry
Democrats should focus on Bush's post-September 11 failings, argues Philip James
Friday April 9, 2004
She was poised, composed and did what she set out to accomplish: defend the Bush White House from the charge that they should have seen September 11 coming. If Democrats were hoping that Condoleezza Rice would crack under pressure they were disappointed. Under fierce questioning from some of the best interrogators inside the beltway, such as Richard Ben-Veniste, who cut his teeth on the Watergate hearings, the national security adviser gave no ground.
She did not squirm when Ben-Veniste challenged her to reveal the title of the presidential daily briefing from August 6 2001.
"I believe the title was Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States," Rice said without flinching.
The revelation of the headline from this classified document elicited audible gasps from the victims' family members bearing witness inside the Senate hearing room. But Rice coolly explained that the intelligence within was none specific as to time, place or method.
And much as the victims' families may suspect the White House is hiding something, Rice's rebuttal rings true.
Before September 11, no one could have conceived that terrorists could or would convert civilian aircraft into the most devastating cruise missiles. The inability to prevent September 11 was more a failure of imagination than a failure of intelligence.
In that narrow regard, blame does not deserve to fall on this administration any more than it does on any previous one. The fact that the White House is now poised to declassify the August 6 presidential daily briefing only confirms there is nothing in it that will change that.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, the very scope of the September 11 commission does not help them in their effort to unseat President Bush.
It is focused on finding out what this administration could have done to thwart the attacks, what they should have done in the preceding months and what they would have done had they had better intelligence.
This exercise in "coulda shoulda woulda" may stem the understandably intense frustration of the victims' families, who will always wonder what might have prevented the murder of their loved ones. It may provide a useful "lessons learned" for future administrations, but as an election issue it is a non- starter.
Even Richard Clarke admitted that there were no major inconsistencies between Rice's testimony and his. His contention that had he had the attention of the president, and senior cabinet members, intelligence agencies may have been more alert to the threat cannot be proven. It is what Donald Rumsfeld might call an unknown unknown.
John Kerry's advisers would do better to focus on the inconsistencies between what Rice said inside the hearings and the present realities in the world outside. The key statement came at the end of Rice's prepared remarks: "Today, along with many allies, we are helping the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to build free societies. And we are working with the people of the Middle East to spread the blessings of liberty and democracy as the alternatives to instability, hatred, and terror," concluded Rice.
As she spoke these reassuring words, US forces were in pitched battles with Iraqis so radicalised by their presence that Shia and Sunnis are now allied in their efforts to expel them.
While she referred to support in the Middle East, the moderate Arab world held united in its hostility to an occupying power that bombs mosques to try to quell the rebellion.
And what about Afghanistan, this administration's most notable military success? Two years after sweeping the Taliban from power, a lack of follow-through has allowed them to grow back like untended weeds. The United Nations development programme warns that, in the absence of significant reconstruction funding, Afghanistan is once again becoming a "terrorist breeding ground". Heroin production - previously used to fund terrorist networks there- is soaring again. According to the UN office on drugs and crime it netted more than $2bn last year, roughly half the value of the country's legitimate GDP.
Rice told the commission that thanks to the administration's efforts "the world of the terrorists is getting smaller". Tell that to the families of the Japanese civilians now held hostage in Iraq and threatened with being burned alive if Japanese forces do not leave.
While Richard Clarke may be over-reaching in blaming September 11 on a lack of focus by this administration, his argument that the "war on terrorism" has suffered because of the inexorable march toward Iraq is extremely compelling. The fact that both the Iraq campaign and Afghanistan's reconstruction are now unravelling strengthens the charge.
John Kerry should resist the temptation to dwell on this administration's pre-September 11 failings, and concentrate instead on the far more serious ones thereafter.
· Philip James is a former senior Democratic party strategist
Rove and W. realize that the Liberal-biased media will do anything to generate a controversy, especially concerning the President. The 9-11 Commission is providing that circus for now--and Bush is taking some hits. But no serious damage that I can see. As usual the Democrats are badly overplaying their hand and will feel some significant backlash.
Meanwhile, Kerry is off the radar screen and the T.V. news screen for the last four weeks, and for several more weeks at this Commission plays itself out. His momentum is gone and his negatives are going up.
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Surely the black community must be catching on that the Dems have no interest in letting them off their urban reservations and treating them as equals.
Where is the tape of Kerry saying that he would be happy to be the second black president?
I'm very glad to hear this Bobo.
I think the Dems made a huge mistake calling on Dr. Rice to testify. They misunderestimated who they are dealing with. Condi is a GREAT American.
Correction to my earlier statement - "treating them as equals" - in Dr. Rice's case, she would be their SUPERIOR!
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