THE POINTLESSNESS OF THE PARTISAN 9/11 BLAME GAME

The major news event of last week was the revelation of the depth of the failure to respond to the information our intelligence services actually gathered about the 9/11 attack. It had two salutory effects - first, and most importantly, it reawoke the nation to the dangers we still face, and how insufficient our response has been so far. The second positive effect was to remove the aura of infallability that the Bush Administration had obtained on the issue of national security. It is clear that the change of admnistrations did not in any way radically improve anti-terrorism policy. The war against terror was clearly not a top priority for the Bush Administration on either the domestic or foreign fronts. That being said, the Dems are trying to use the revelations to imply that the failings of the Bush Admnistration during its first months in office supercede whatever mistakes were made by the Clinton Admnistration. This is utter nonsense, but it has been topped by the ridiculousness of the Bush Admnistration's counter-attacks on the matter. Yes, Ari Fleisher actually asked "What did the Democrats know, and why didn't they share their information?" with a straight face.

It's time to stop this partisan madness before it gets any worse. 9/11 was undoubtably a bipartisan disaster. The foolish subjugation of national security and democratic principles for economic interests was part and parcel of the foreign policies of Bush the Elder, Clinton and Bush the Younger. The insufficient coordination FBI, CIA and INS information to assess and address domestic security threats was a major failure of the Clinton Admnistration that was not addressed by the Bush Administration. Given its track record with dealing with al Qaeda's attacks in the 1990s, there is absolutely no reason to believe that 9/11 would have been prevented by a continuation of Clinton policies. It is also doubtful that a Republican administration in the 1990s would have enacted the radical reforms necessary to have developed an intelligence system prepared to meet the al Qaeda threat.

There is a time and place for bipartisanship and the review of the 9/11 intelligence mishap cries out for one - its time to set up a bipartisan committee that will assess the structural flaws in our counter-terrorism policy, and then to vigorously enact the committee's recommendations.

There is also a place for partisanship here - the Bush Admnistration's post 9/11 policies can no longer be given a free ride. It is not a joke that Tom Ridge has no real power to punish beauracrats that hoard information and radically remake outdated agencies - its a disgrace. It is not nitpicking that we've merely tweaked our airport security and immigration policies - its a fundamental indictment agains the administration. Its time for the Dems to stop carping about the Bush Admnistration's pre 9/11 failures, and play their critical role of a democratic opposition by exposing and offering remedies for its post 9/11 failures.