I don’t know about these 9/11 hearings. I’m too suspicious of it becoming a partisan way to assign blame, and I don’t know what good is supposed to come of it. I mean, after the hearings are over, are we all going to slap our heads and go, “So that’s what we should have done!”? I say let’s focus on killing terrorists in the here in now.
Still, I thought I’d sift through the news and find some points of interest from the hearings.
THE TOP TEN POINTS OF INTEREST FROM THE 9/11 HEARINGS
10. Every time Richard Clarke was asked a question, he’d give a short answer and then face the camera and say, “But you’ll have to buy my book to get the full story.”
9. It was determined that the only way to stop terrorism is to do something about it.
8. While terrorism is now a big focus of the government, they are still ignoring the looming ninja threat.
7. There a lot of blame for 9/11 to go around, but the Clinton administration is hogging it all.
6. Senator Bob Kerrey got angry at Fox News for publishing statements by Richard Clarke. Think of that: a news organization publishing stuff that people said.
5. Condoleezza Rice wants a closed door session to respond, possibly so she can extract violent revenge in secret.
4. Heh heh. The former National Security Advisor’s name is “Sam Berger”. Does he have brother named “Cheese”?
3. Richard Clarke is adamant that, if we only were able to find out about the 9/11 plot and arrest everyone involved, we might have been able to prevent it.
2. Clinton’s search for Osama was far behind his search for poontang.
And the number one point of interest from the 9/11 Hearings…
The threat of terrorists trying their hardest to kill us all can actually be a boring topic when discussed in a committee.
2- Actually, it seems that Osama was working for America before he turned gainst her.
In my local paper (The Cedar Rapids Gazette) they ran a headline the other day “9/11 Panel Condemns Handling of Terror”.
I assume this is because they don’t know where the terror has been.
With all the concern over terror, on the day to day level I feel that I’m still in more danger due to bad drivers and other morons. If shooting terrorists is ok because they cause a threat, shouldn’t we be allowed to shoot morons who pose a greater threat? I blame the moron contingent in congress.
Hey Frank:
Did you see the special on Rummy last night on ABC? They did an hour special on him, I think called “Rules of War.” He’s a very active guy, never stands up, and likes to play with his chainsaw out on his get-away property.
LibertyBob, I think that the most danger comes from the loose of confidence of the people for their nation and the way how they feel secured with their leaders.
Jessica Lynch, after the war has become a symbol because she was among the first to fall. The was injured and she has lost 9 of her friends shot dead. She joined the army age 19 and six month later she was on the field of the war in Iraq. She joined the army because of September 11, because it woke up something in her that we call patriotism, but her life has changed for ever and her patriotism may too.
What is important sure is to hunt the terrorists, but a nation cannot sacrify her integrity at war, or the strongness becomes weaken, which lastly is never good. It is important that the people know that their laws protect them and that the leaders are not above the laws. They are the servants of the nation, they are not its directors. There is a moral case into the security approach, and this does not only concern the families of the World Trade Center.
You must realize that to a liberal mind, the 911 Commisssion IS doing something about terrorism! In their universe, if you talk about something you are doing something. Appearance over substance. The only exception is when interns are involved (I would have said female interns but then I remembered Barney “I love you, you love me” Franks). In those situations you do the intern and then DON’T talk about it.
Amphi,
I have to disagree with what you said about Jessica.
At the seige of Khe Sahn an unknown Marine scrawled a saying on a piece of cardboard and posted it. The saying has become the unofficial Marine Corps motto: “Those who have faced death and survived relish freedom with an intensity the protected will never know.”
I knew when I joined the Marines in 1976 what I was doing and what I might be called upon to do. If there were any doubt in my fellow recruits, my Drill Instructors soon removed it. This was not so true of the Army….until after 9/11. Anyone joining after that knows exactly what the score is. They joined because they want to protect this country, protect their family, protect their friends, protect their neighbors, protect their community…OK…and also to get some hard core payback on those cowardly (insert adjective John sKerry uses to describe Secret Service Agents)!
By definition, this is true patriotism, not the faux kind the dems peddle (I support the troops but not the war…bullsht!). These kids are willing to sacrifice themselves for others, dems are willing to sacrifice others for themselves (e.g. their careers and positions of power).
*In the past 10 years or so, every service except the Marines has been having trouble filling recruiting quotas. Since 9/11 the Army and Navy have been meeting goals and the Marines have a backlog of future warriors waiting for bootcamp slots. Go figure!
P.S. Before anyone comes back with the idea that once in combat a soldier doesn’t fight for God and Country but for the Joe in the hole next to him. I’ll grant you that. However, my point is that BEFORE they get into combat, these kids are joining to protect their country.
The 9/11 commission emphasised the need for pro-active, pre-emptive response to looming threats- thereby legitimzing the premptive invoasion of Iraq.
Hey Frank – This has got ‘In my World’ plot line written all over it. : )
Scott
SES
March, I don’t mean that Jessica is loosing patriotism after the war in Iraq. I mean that security inquiries are weird because those young people have only trust in their country. They joined for patriotism, not for the politic of anyone accordingly to any kind of security procedures.
And 19 is too young to be injured and see the friends dieing. Even being an hero do not solve the question she may have since the day she has fallen her and her buddies.
Frank, that’s DICK Clarke, not David.
LibertyBob:
Does that mean we can shoot smokers in “self-defense”? Woohoo!
Googlebomb them to the top!
cowards
Has anyone seen the picture of Condi Rice on Fox and/or MSNBC? The photo is credited to Charles Dharpak od AP. Damn she looks pissed, like she could just reach out and rip off someone’s arm and beat them to death with it. I want a poster of that, with some catchy phrase or something. That would rock.
It’s “Sandy” Berger, no Sam. His brother is named Dusty.
“The threat of terrorists trying their hardest to kill us all can actually be a boring topic when discussed in a committee.”
Truer words have never been spoken, er… written. If anyone breaks out a PowerPoint presentation during the committee there will be a 34% fatality rate among viewers as they all die from boredom.
sleeper,
Whoopsie-doodle
Bob,
My original joke was, “Sandy Berger makes neither a good menu item name nor National Security Advisor.”, but, when I found out his actual first name is Samuel, I just found that someone being named “Sam Berger” is too funny (no wonder he goes by Sandy and not Sam).
In the U.K. we get rid of terrorists by giving them jobs governing Northern Ireland. (I suppose somebody has to do it.)
Didn’t even bother paying attention. It was what, 7 hours long? Doesn’t sound like we found out anything that we didn’t already know…. No, that’s giving people too much credit; I’m sure we didn’t know, but we should’ve known WITHOUT a 7-hour long committee discussion.
QUICK!! Go look at msnbc.com, it has a picture of Condi……. and she’s PISSED!! Seriously ticked off. She’s going to “respond” to that jackass’s accusations. I quiver in anticipation.
beo:
When it comes down to it, you can shoot anybody and claim self-defense. The problem comes when they defend themselves.
dude i would not want to be on the business end of that stare from condi….
holy shit! it looks like condi’s gonna be pulling out some whoopass any minute now…
!Clinton’s search for Osama was far behind his search for poontang.!
ROFL!
*In the past 10 years or so, every service except the Marines has been having trouble filling recruiting quotas. Since 9/11 the Army and Navy have been meeting goals and the Marines have a backlog of future warriors waiting for bootcamp slots. Go figure!
Maybe true, but the Marine Corp is 1/3 the size of all the other forces….
‘nothin’ against the Corp, just don’t rip on your Navy brethren, someone has to cart you guys around the world!
If it weren’t for all the military branches working together, hardly any killing would get done at all.
Haagus,
yes we are the smallest but we have a lower officer to enlisted ratio of all the services and a lower support to fighter ratio than all the other services. We also emphasize combat skills…every Marine is a rifleman first. Every year Marines have to requalify on their T/O weapon no matter if they are a grunt, an office pogue, or a cook. We have the longest boot camp (13 weeks) and the longest officer training (12 weeks OCS – 8 if you’re prior enlisted plus 14 weeks of “The Basic School” where we learn combined arms). We are also the first in when the fecal matter hits the oscillating cooling device.
I’m not ripping on the Navy, its just hard to be humble when you’re the best. However, I will concede that the Marine Corps is a department of the Navy….the MEN’s Department!
I wish the panel would find out that we should have started killing terrorists sooner, but since we didn’t, lets kill them faster now.
Bill Clinton had a ninja plan according to a blurb in “Best of the Web Today” at opinionjournal.com. My World material?
“[Clinton] approached Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said, according to the book [The Age of Sacred Terror], ‘It would scare the (expletive) out of al Qaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters in to the middle of their camp. It would get us an enormous deterrence and show those guys we’re not afraid.'”
Former Hostage,
Maybe, but would you want a Marine running the tomahawk missiles on a submarine?
We’re both on the same team here. We drop off Marines, let them do killin’, and just drop some nice ordanance when requested….not the most glamorous job, but hey, someone’s got to push the buttons.
LOL, thought just hit me:
What if Buck the Marine ran a boomer submarine loaded with nuclear missiles?
Oh, just for reference: my dad was a Marine Corp officer, so I do know what you are talking about. I have all the respect in the world for the Marines, believe me….but I’m an engineer (electrical at that), and they don’t have much use for people like me (I can see Buck now: “So, what do we do with the lasers kid?”), so I joined the Navy.
Although I do plan to build laser weapons so the Marines can fry people with them later in life 🙂 Thank god my degree is good for something!
Frank strikes again with another brilliant top ten! Each and every point as true as they come.
I especially liked #6. Since when do people blame the NEWS for reporting what somebody said? Isn’t that a little like shooting the messenger? Sounds like another FOX hunt to me…
Miller’s Twelve Pack…
It’s Friday, so that means it must be time for the Twelve Pack. There were so many good posts to choose from it was tough to narrow it down to just 12 (plus the Shot) so with out further delay, here we go.
Let’s see. Before 9/11 Bush didn’t do enough. Since 9/11, with the Patriot Act etc., he’s gone too far.
/confused
All Clinton wanted to do is play stink finger.
The List you won’t see on Letterman
Thanks to IMAO we have THE TOP TEN POINTS OF INTEREST FROM THE 9/11 HEARINGS:
Number Two is my favorite:
“Clinton’s search for Osama was far behind his search for poontang.”
There was never a truer list. I know it’s supposed to be funny…but in this case it’s pretty much all true.
Frank J: This post RULES because it’s so right on! Talk about a freaking three-ring political circus, the “9/11 Committee” aught to have P. T. Barnum presiding.
Two questions that’ll never be asked / answered if they are:
What does all this finger-pointing do to end the threat?
If they do it before they grow old, what do these idiots want to be when they grow up?