Friday, September 11, 2009

Thoughts on September 11th - Eight Years Later

I. This man saved hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand lives:

The 16 minutes between plane strikes gave large numbers of people from the south tower time to flee, an opportunity that many took, survivors said, after being frightened by the sight of people falling from the north tower. In addition, the south tower, though hit second, collapsed first, just 57 minutes after being struck, before deterioration had spread as widely.


He, and others who jumped or fell from the north tower shocked people in the upper levels of the south tower to leave the building, or to move downward, on their way out, to levels low enough to get out before the south tower fell. Along with the emergency workers who died in the tragedy, they gave their lives for others, even if they weren't aware of this as they fell.

II. This man caused their deaths:

[A]n unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush's Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, call[ed] the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You've covered your ass, now."

Bush did nothing. Neither he nor his high-level staff changed their work patterns, having learned this frightening information.

Less than two years earlier, when then-President Bill Clinton was apprised of information on the "Millenium Bombers," he mobilized task groups, got people reassigned to help them, and foiled what may have been a series of attacks as terrible as those launched eight years ago today.

Since then, right-wing attack groups have tried to paint Bill Clinton as the culprit responsible for the lapses that led to 9-11. The highly fictionalized account in the anti-Clinton screed, The Path to 9/11, not only attempted through brazen lies to misshape public opinion in that regard, it failed to mention any of the important lapses made during 2001 by the Bush administration, or Bush himself.

Today marks the exact number of days that Barack Obama has been president that had been the case for George W. Bush on this day in 2001. Back then the right, and much of America's traditional media, gave Bush a pass: He hadn't been in the White House for long; he inherited an intelligence mess from Clinton; "Nobody could have known....."

Yet today, not only is the same right-wing and traditional press blaming Obama for such things as last year's Wall Street meltdown, the sub-prime mess, the AIG bailout and the general malaise of our economy, they appear to be blaming Obama for our huge national debt, over 90% of which has been accumulated under past Republican presidents and/or congresses.

But now, Bill Clinton can relax. According to the far right, 9-11 wasn't Clinton's fault. It is Obama's. Here's right-wing columnist Ralph Peters:

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.
Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel. Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

So, somehow, Peters is claiming Obama is a special friend of the Saudi royalty? Uh, where were you when George W Bush was smooching and holding hands with them?

Progressive Alaska's post from September 11th, 2008.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I believe the ones that caused their deaths went down with the planes. Along with other "turds" that use these sort of tactics to murder civilians and then screech like banshees when it happens to them...get the point Gusty?

Just another excuse from you and your buddies to blame it on everyone but who should be taking the blame...

Philip Munger said...

anon @ 4:42:

Had Bush done his fucking job, those who crashed the planes would have been apprehended ahead of time. People who negligently allow others to create mayhem bear a major responsibility for that mayhem.

nswfm CA said...

PM, "Had Bush done his fucking job, those who crashed the planes would have been apprehended ahead of time." AGREED!

Thanks for this--my office was across from the NYSE on 9/11, and our views were of the NYSE, the WTC towers and the Federal Building. I was in WTC2 the day before.

Philip Munger said...

My sister was in the North tower on the 10th too.

Neva Reece said...

Phil - on a completely unrelated 'note' a friend of mine posted this on FaceBook and I thought you would appreciate it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHQ2ybTejU

Anonymous said...

Phil,

Here is an excellent project that provides a timeline for the events related to 9/11.

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline

Some of the most heinous involve interactions between the Bush and Bin Laden families. Others of note involve Rumsfeld and Cheney and various CIA actions that in hindsight could only have emboldened Bin Laden and Al Quaeda.

I believe some of this still needs fact checking but the majority has already been scrutinized.

There's an awful lot there....

Anonymous said...

Your pathetic partisan attempt to shift blame away from Bin Laden and the islamo-fascists (who you support ) onto Bush shows how facile your whole world view has become. If Clinton had nothing to hide why did Sandy Berger remove and destroy so many classified documents ? While expecting this from you I am amazed you controlled yourself enough to stop short of blaming the " Zionists"....But, I'm sure that when amongst friends the truth comes out, eh ?

Anonymous said...

Of course if Bush had rounded up all the Saudis and their US supporters who were planning 9/11 we all know that this blog and all the other Leftist sits, the ACLU , the liberal MSM and CAIR would have been screeching about "RACISM" and "CIVIL RIGHTS" and "ETHNIC PROFILING" and the suspects would have been released. So, really, in hindsight YOU and YOUR ILK were responsible for 9/11 .

Anonymous said...

"Yet today, not only is the same right-wing and traditional press blaming Obama"

Oh dear, if you think the MSM is right-wing you would really be happier living in North Korea. CNN, CBS, NYT, LAT, WaPo, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, SAn Fran Chron - "right-wing" !!

Philip Munger said...

anon @ 10:34 am:

I applauded the arrests of the Millenium Bombers back when they were busted. Good detective work by the Bush administration would have rolled up the 9/11 bombers, not "ethnic profiling."

Bush's incompetence in this regard was criminal, IMHO.

And - I was and am no big fan of Bill Clinton, creator of NAFTA and expander of the roles of private contractors in our military affairs. But at least Clinton, unlike Bush, caught his group of terrorists.

BTW, Obama has now kept us safe two days longer than did Bush. And, I'm no big fan of Obama, either.

Anonymous said...

"Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king. Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel. Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures."

Where, in the above statement, does Peters blame Obama for 9/11 ? Instead of a knee-jerk defense of Obama, a little reading comprehension might be a good thing. Never too late to learn.Also, if you ever read outside your sealed comfort zone of Huffpo and Daily Kos you's know that almost all conservative blogs slammed Bush for holding hands with the Saudi king and for his attempts to whitewash Saudi involvement in 9/11. Still, never let the truth stand in the way of a rant, eh ?

Anonymous said...

"Had Bush done his fucking job,"

If Clinton had done his job besides fucking this would have not happened. What? You believe this took only a couple weeks planning? OK!

Hell for that matter if any damned politician since the 60s when the jerks started hijacking planes and other assorted terrorist activities had done their jobs this wouldn't have happened!

So blaming it on one President just makes you look like an idiot.