Name Some Names

With the wisdom of hindsight, it's easy to jump into the blame game and start pointing fingers about who should have done what when to prevent 9/11. When it comes to judging the pre-9/11 fight against terrorism, I don't find much value in trying to pin responsibility for the multitude of failures on specific individuals or even specific administrations. The truth is that beginning with Jimmy Carter and continuing right through George W. Bush on September 10th, 2001, the government's dereliction of duty in the area was thoroughly a bi-partisan affair.

Having said that, I must take exception with attempts to re-write pre-9/11 history when I believe I see them occurring. And Sunday morning, on "Fox News Sunday," former President Bill Clinton was attempting to do just that:

And I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans, who now say I didn't do enough, claimed that I was too obsessed with bin Laden. All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with bin Laden. They had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough said I did too much--same people.

And:

They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in "Black Hawk down," and I refused to do it and stayed six months and had an orderly transfer to the United Nations.

And:

There was not a living soul. All the people who now criticize me wanted to leave the next day.

And:

The people on my political right who say I didn't do enough spent the whole time I was president saying, "Why is he so obsessed with bin Laden? That was "wag the dog" when he tried to kill him."

And all this business about Somalia--the same people who criticized me about Somalia were demanding I leave the next day. The same exact crowd.

Notice anything missing from Mr. Clinton's well-publicized little outburst? How about a SINGLE name? Instead of the intentionally vague "the people", "they", "all the conservative Republicans", "all the right-wingers", "the people on my political right", "same exact crowd", it might have been nice if Mr. Clinton could have provided at least one name to back up his argument.

For you see, I happen to fall into a number of those categories that Mr. Clinton rattled off and his recollections and mine don't quite jive. Let's start with this supposed "obsession with Bin Laden" that "we" criticized then-President Clinton for. During the final years of his administration, Bin Laden's wasn't the head that I recall most of us were accusing Bill Clinton of being obsessed with.

As for Somalia in 1993, I probably hadn't filled out my app to join the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy yet, but I don't remember conservatives leading the charge to cut and run. In fact, rather than calling for getting out, my circle of politically like-minded friends was calling for getting some payback for the deaths of eighteen soldiers and the disgusting desecration of some of their bodies. The only reason that I would have wanted us to leave the next day would have been to avoid any friendly fire casualties from the devastating air strikes that I would have liked to have seen launched against Mogadishu. I believe the term is "making the rubble bounce."

I don't hold Mr. Clinton responsible for what happened on 9/11. However, I do hold him responsible for an honest accounting of what he and his political opponents did and didn't do and say in the years leading up to it.