Former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke today began his statements to the 9/11 commission with an apology to the loved ones of those killed in the attacks. “Your government failed you,” he said, “and I failed you.”
What we should be able to expect from an honorable public servant, even if it’s uncalled for . . . . .
It will be interesting to see how this gets spun: will the ideologues be brazen enough to say that Clarke is to blame? The guy they say was “out of the loop,” the one they claim was demoted and never had a plan to deal with Al Qaeda?
Contrast that with this: the exercise of simple good manners and professionalism in his resignation letter somehow undermines his criticism of the administration’s handling of the threat . . .
CNN.com – Clarke wrote warm letter to Bush in 2003 – Mar 24, 2004:
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that the warm tone of the letter “runs counter to what he is now asserting.”
“At this time period, when he was leaving, there was no mention of the grave concerns he claims to have had about the direction of the war on terrorism, or what we were doing to confront the threat posed by Iraq,” McClellan said.
I realize this is a spokesman talking — a professional prevaricator — but what planet are these people from?