The 911 report

The final 911 report came out this week and overall it gave the efforts of the US government as abyssmal. While I may be overstating the grade I think it should give us all reason to pause and think. Since the horrible events of Sept 11, 2001 we have seen the US government invaded 2 sovereign nations and create great debate around the future of the Middle East as well as the global system. However, what has the government done with regards to ensure that the United States does not suffer another catastrophic attack? From the 911 report it would appear that not enough.

I find it interesting that the Bush administration was not on the White House lawn commentating on the report, rather they had a spokeswoman who had the gall of saying, (this is not a direct quote): "The Bush administration has been doing a good job with Terrorism, we have not suffered an attack since 9/11." Of course this statement is completely misguided and actually extremely reckless. Terrorists do not think in time frames of 2 or 4 years, they think long term, generations, etc. The fight against extremists will last much longer than this President's term. It is reckless to try an convince the American populus that all is fine, what happened on 9/11 will change the way we live for the rest of our lives as well as those of our children. I think the 911 report points that the Government has not taken this to heart. Shame on them, both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have misguided leadership focusing on overseas "problems" while avoiding the hard decisions and actions needed to make this nation safer. Why are we protecting bomb sniffing dogs as well as those picking up the garbage (air conditioned trash trucks) rather than our sea ports, containers, airports, etc? The Republicans are showing poor leadership in this area, the Democrats are showing no vision or ideas. They are too busy hounding the Republican party rather than leading the country with ideas for how to make this "war on terror" winnable.

Shame on both sides. Maybe this report will give both a kick in the pants to get things done...unfortunately being a year out from midterm elections I highly doubt it.