a War and Piece correspondent writes:
It strikes me that we are in an eerily similar situation to 1999 and 2000.
— The United States is fully aware of Al Qaeda training camps operating openly, with links to cells and operatives in Western Europe elsewhere;
— Our government is picking up increasing signs of communications, movements of money, and other signals indicative of planning for future attacks;
— An internal debate is occurring over whether to take action against those training camps, including military strikes; while those who are forward leaning are pushing for more aggressive risk-taking, others are cognizant of not wanting to violate sovereign territory and risking large civilian casualties;
In 1999 and 2000, we were talking about Afghanistan. Today, it is Pakistan. The Clinton Administration was savaged after 9/11 for “treating terrorism as law enforcement”, excessively taking into account the diplomatic sensitivities of other nations, and too much regard for civilian lives when we could have killed the bad guys with a missile strike. The Bushies said that would not happen on their watch.
So why is it happening again? At least the Clintonites did not have “the lessons of 9/11” as a backdrop.
Given that national Republicans have been quite open about how another terror attack would be to their benefit, is it any wonder why this threat is being allowed to grow unchecked?
- Chertoff’s gut feeling.
- I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001].
- Republican Senator Rick Santorum has suggested that a series of “unfortunate events,” namely terrorist attacks, will occur within the next year
It’s bad enough that Republicans are willing to let Americans die in Iraq for their cause, but now they want Americans killed at home as well.
What’s that all about?