[pollyannaish]

No I'm not kidding. We didn't take terrorism seriously enough before 9/11. I don't fault anyone for that particularly, because we couldn't even conceive of what was going to happen.

You could argue that we could have changed things after Lebanon in the 80s, or during the Bush I administration that would have prevented 9/11.

But if anyone, including President Clinton had gone after Bin Laden...he would have been right, but I guarantee you we would have been screaming about him wagging the dog.

It's hard to admit, but its the truth.

The DIFFERENCE is that today, we (conservatives/GOP) have changed our entire attitude and understand the stakes involved, while the Democrats/Liberals are still running around suggesting that we talk, negotiate and worry about the "rights" of these people. We understand they are a deadly enemy, the Dems are still stuck on "law enforcement."

The amount of time, 8 years vs. 8 months is certainly an important distinction. But we are responsible for those 8 months and we should own up to it. If we don't, we are no better than the Clintonistas.

I hope that more clearly explains my position. (By the way, I don't think Condi is a naive witch. I do think she is tough.)

[A.Hun]

If Clinton had gone after OBL, I would have cheered. We knew he was a threat then.

Clinton was too busy stopping Serbians from defending their Christian lifestyle.

[rodguy911]

the problem is that the nation's security is no different to the rats than sochsa security or drilling in the Gulf. To them they are all issues that they want to take away from us. They literally don't care about the safety of the country one dam bit.
That's why the nation's security will go local from now on IMHO.

[guinnessman]

Much as I hate to admit it, you're right.

When Clinton launched Operation Desert Fox in 1998, a number of us complained about the suspect timing. (It was the day before the impeachment vote.)

I'm sure that the timing was an effort to delay impeachment. Nevertheless, Clinton was right to bomb Iraq.

That being said, I'm curious to know how far into 2001 was the Bush Administration able to finally have its own people in place to implement their own policies.