Posted
4/09/2004 08:41:00 PM
by Douglas
I think Clarke's book has pretty much been talked out, but you gotta like a
review that starts out like this:
If you're reading these words, you could probably use a hobby.
Exactly. I have the same thoughts all the time. Anyhoo. . .
"Patriotism," said Dr. Johnson, "is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But the good doctor never met Paul Wolfowitz. Richard Clarke had to, once the Bushies took charge. Their first meeting-four months after Mr. Clarke told the newly installed Condi Rice that Osama bin Laden posed an imminent danger to the United States-made clear that it would not be a marriage made in heaven.
There's lots of Monday morning quarterbacking going on in this, but how can there not be? Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you're the head of the National Security Agency, your job is, oh, I don't know,
national security! I'm not implying the tin-foil hat crowd is correct in saying that the Bushies knew it was going to happen, but Condi & Co. have to accept their culpability in that it happened on their watch.
This last statement may be a bit over the top, but still, it's not an exageration to say that they
really dropped the ball.
There's one last reason, which is how you'll feel when you've finished Richard Clarke's brave, damning, gripping book: that a lot of people ought to burn in hell because of 9/11. And not all of them live in caves.