i'm interested in knowing why you posted this shadowwar. is it because you're in agreement or because you find it impossible to accept?
if i could turn back the clock for just a few minutes and change something that happened at any point in the past 12 months (well change things that i wasn't involved in personally), i would go back to the first bush/kerry debate and have bush answer the last question of the evening before kerry, rather than after him. i truly believe if kerry hadn't mentioned the looming nuclear threat, bush woulda kept on telling us about hard work and flipflopping.
although i don't claim to know if there are nuclear devices in the us now--nor how many there may be--it would surpise the hell outta me to learn there weren't any.
i've previously mentioned reading--not three hours before the first plane hit the wtc--an article in which bush was quoted as being determined to revamp and revive the missle defense initiative. i reread it several times wondering if he could possibly be so abysmally out of touch with reality (after all, years of testing seem to prove only one thing: it don't work and it aint likely to work at any time in the forseeable future). could he not comprehend the obvious--that the most likely scenario for a nuclear attack on this continent would involve suitcases rather than missles? how could he neglect the strong possibility of an attack using unconventional weapons--those from which starwars distracted attention without providing any protection?
the thing that surprised me most about 9/11 wasn't what happened that day. i'd been expecting something like that for over 20 years while hoping against hope it wouldnt happen. i kept waiting for the nuclear weapon to go off...for the cloud of germs to appear. as terrifying as it was to see the 2nd plane slam into the building and then watch the buildings disintegrate...to see people leaping from their offices...i was actually very relieved when it became clear that was as bad as it was gonna get.
because it easily coulda been much, much worse.
the points made in the report you've posted are exactly the reason i hold bush and this administration in such contempt
snarling into the camera and tough talk about 'smoking em out'...making people remove their shoes at airports...establishing a color-coded terror level (which was then used to play voters rather than protect citizens...settling for a dubious victory in afghanistan in order to set off on an equally dubious campaign in iraq...creating a facade of 'security' that ignores the truly catastrophic threats to the citizens of the us...all the talk about freedom and evildoers...is just so much noise and smoke and mirrors.
i am increasingly fearful bush & team have squandered almost every minute of four years we could--and should--have been using to prevent nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of those who look forward to using them against us.
ultimately, it's not important what clinton did or didn't do the day the first one of these devices explodes in our cities. what is important that not much has been done--not much in proportion to the consequences--to prevent it from happening. it's a good damn thing bush built those bunkers. cuz i gotta feeling if he was accessible in the aftermath it wouldnt be radiation he'd need to fear so much as its victims.