THE GIANT HAS GONE BACK TO SLEEP
9/11 should have changed everything - it demanded a complete reevaluation of America's national security policy on every level - foreign affairs, military, immigration, transportation, intelligence - all of them. In the immediate aftermath, it appeared that the impact of the event was enough to drive the radical reforms necessary to prepare America against this new threat. Eight and a half months later, all signs point to this impetus for reform being spent, and slightly more secure America that has slipped back into complacency.
Frank Rich's op-ed in the New York Times did an excellent job of summing up the lack of progress on the domestic front: beaucratic reform and oversight, nuclear plant security, bioterror response, immigration reform, airport security - in every area we have made babysteps when we have needed to make wholesale leaps.
In foreign policy, the administration looks adrift - unwilling to commit to nation-building in Afghanistan, spending far too much time on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and far too little on South Asia. And, if latest reports are not merely smokescreens, backing down on its firm commitment to remove Hussein from power. In each of these areas, the clarity of 9/11 has been replaced with Foggy Bottom fog.
The lack of focus in the admnistration is matched by the Dems, who seem to be more focused on cleaning up politically from W.'s failures than cleaning up the failures themselves. The ridiculous Clinton rehabilitation project continues in full force - as if one comment made from Sandy Berger to Condi Rice during the transition erases seven years of ineffectual counter-terrorism policy. As part of this mythology, liberals have created a false dichotomy between the war on terror and regime-change in Iraq. As if the correct response to 9/11 would to be to leave a power-mad dictator alone with biological, chemical and nuclear toys.
Our grace period is expiring, and yet already we have grown complacent. Its time for an independent commission to look into 9/11 and to show us the obvious fact we have forgetten - we have much to do to make sure a similar horror does not occur. Alas, the giant has gone back to sleep, and I fear it will not awaken again until it is too late.
9/11 should have changed everything - it demanded a complete reevaluation of America's national security policy on every level - foreign affairs, military, immigration, transportation, intelligence - all of them. In the immediate aftermath, it appeared that the impact of the event was enough to drive the radical reforms necessary to prepare America against this new threat. Eight and a half months later, all signs point to this impetus for reform being spent, and slightly more secure America that has slipped back into complacency.
Frank Rich's op-ed in the New York Times did an excellent job of summing up the lack of progress on the domestic front: beaucratic reform and oversight, nuclear plant security, bioterror response, immigration reform, airport security - in every area we have made babysteps when we have needed to make wholesale leaps.
In foreign policy, the administration looks adrift - unwilling to commit to nation-building in Afghanistan, spending far too much time on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and far too little on South Asia. And, if latest reports are not merely smokescreens, backing down on its firm commitment to remove Hussein from power. In each of these areas, the clarity of 9/11 has been replaced with Foggy Bottom fog.
The lack of focus in the admnistration is matched by the Dems, who seem to be more focused on cleaning up politically from W.'s failures than cleaning up the failures themselves. The ridiculous Clinton rehabilitation project continues in full force - as if one comment made from Sandy Berger to Condi Rice during the transition erases seven years of ineffectual counter-terrorism policy. As part of this mythology, liberals have created a false dichotomy between the war on terror and regime-change in Iraq. As if the correct response to 9/11 would to be to leave a power-mad dictator alone with biological, chemical and nuclear toys.
Our grace period is expiring, and yet already we have grown complacent. Its time for an independent commission to look into 9/11 and to show us the obvious fact we have forgetten - we have much to do to make sure a similar horror does not occur. Alas, the giant has gone back to sleep, and I fear it will not awaken again until it is too late.
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