Monday, April 12, 2004
An Alternative History
Greg Easterbrook imaginatively reminds us that hindsight is 20/20.
A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.
On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan...
Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had "brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about so-called terror networks." British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of "an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law." White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of "a disgusting exercise in over-kill."
The short version: Prior to 9/11, the United States simply did not have the political will to go after Al Qaeda (or Saddam Hussein) in any kind of decisive way. Not the President (Social Security reform was an easier sell, and he abandoned that idea, too.), and not Richard Clarke, and certainly not Bob Kerrey and the other grandstanders on the committee.
But read the whole thing.
(Via Andrew Sullivan)
Splash, out
Jason
A hush fell over the city as George W. Bush today became the first president of the United States ever to be removed from office by impeachment. Meeting late into the night, the Senate unanimously voted to convict Bush following a trial on his bill of impeachment from the House.
On August 7, 2001, Bush had ordered the United States military to stage an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan...
Reaction was swift and furious. Florida Senator Bob Graham said Bush had "brought shame to the United States with his paranoid delusions about so-called terror networks." British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused the United States of "an inexcusable act of conquest in plain violation of international law." White House chief counterterrorism advisor Richard Clarke immediately resigned in protest of "a disgusting exercise in over-kill."
The short version: Prior to 9/11, the United States simply did not have the political will to go after Al Qaeda (or Saddam Hussein) in any kind of decisive way. Not the President (Social Security reform was an easier sell, and he abandoned that idea, too.), and not Richard Clarke, and certainly not Bob Kerrey and the other grandstanders on the committee.
But read the whole thing.
(Via Andrew Sullivan)
Splash, out
Jason
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