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think I've got my blood pressure under control, finally. Maybe now
we will get some real leaders in key positions, people who understand
that you can only win or lose, but you cannot opt out of the struggle.
Here in Washington some dolt from the Pentagon reassured local radio
that his building had gone on the maximum-security alert, "Code
Alpha." A few minutes later he was under attack.
I love that
"Alpha" business, so highfalutin, so emblematic of everything
that's gone wrong for so many years.
I wonder if
Colin Powell will advise the president to show greater understanding
of the terrorists' legitimate complaints.
There are lots
of questions that need answers, and a few things that W. needs to
do right away. The obvious question is Who Did It? And it would
be nice to think that our misnamed intelligence services are capable
of figuring it out. I have my doubts. They should ask Laurie Mylroie
(author of The
Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America,
who for years has been collecting the evidence showing Saddam's
involvement in the first bombing of the World Trade Center, all
overlooked by the spooks.
The second
question is How In The World Did They Do It? And just asking that
question tells you that our airport security system isn't what it
should be. We're going to have to do a lot of guessing on this one.
Did the terrorists smuggle weapons on board? Did they take them
through the metal detectors, or did they have accomplices on the
ground who placed them on board? Or did they simply break into the
cabin and kill the crew (with their hands, with garrotes, or whatever)
and take control? Or what?
The third question
is Why Didn't the Pentagon Shoot it Down? The likely answer is,
because it happened so quickly, by the time they figured it out
it was too late. Which should be a monster wakeup call to the military
over things like protecting Taiwan.
And the fourth
and final question: Now What? W. must hold his people accountable
for this massive intelligence and security debacle. Tenet and the
head of the counterterrorism unit must go. The head of FAA security
must go. It's silly to fire the new head of FBI, he was only just
sworn in, but the head of their counterterrorism unit must go. In
truth, they should not wait for the axe, they should resign at once,
out of the utter shame of this humiliating catastrophe. But nobody
does that any more, so the president must act.
Second, the
president must, at long last, undo the idiotic Executive Order forbidding
assassinations, that pious piece of paper from smug Jimmy Carter
that has hamstrung our counterterrorist efforts lo these many years.
If we identify the commanders of this operation, they should be
killed. If we identify a regime that supported it, it must be destroyed,
removed from power, and held up as an example to anyone else who
dares think along similar lines.
Finally, someone
should remind the president that we are still living with the consequences
of Desert Shame, when his father and his father's advisers--most
notably Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft--advised against finishing
the job and liberating Iraq. And the president should show the world
that he is cut from different fabric, by immediately moving the
American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and removing the pettifogging
restrictions on the Iraqi Resistance, thereby taking the fight directly
to Saddam on his own territory.
If he does
that, he will show his antiterrorist people that the rules have
changed, and we are serious. If he doesn't, they will cover their
asses with legal opinions forbidding them to act effectively.
Machiavelli
famously said that it's impossible to get good leaders in peacetime.
We will now find out if we have leaders capable of waging war.
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