Core Incompetancies

Two immediate reasons, from today's headlines, why - as much as the general public is tired and distrustful of the current administration, which they see as incompetent - they are even more skeptical of the Left when it comes to national security.

First is an editorial by former director Louis Freeh in today's Wall Street Journal which chronicles the events after the Khobar towers bombing, the 10-year anniversary of which is Sunday. During this attack 19 servicemen were killed and 372 others were wounded, and despite public promises by the Clinton administration no one was ever brought to justice. The history of events leading to 9/11 runs deep and wide, through the flawed policies of many administrations - but this single spectacular failure to respond seems like a pivotal chapter in our history.

Freeh's article - which might be a self-serving attempt to rewrite history - suggests that he petitioned the White House repeatedly over the course of three years, seeking their help in gaining Saudi approval to interview the jailed suspects behind the bombings. By all accounts the suspects were Hezbollah, and extensively trained by Iran. Finally George Bush Senior made a simple request and the interviews took place. The Iranian connection was confirmed. But according to Freeh, the Clinton administration - notably Sandy Berger - reacted by doing nothing, covering their political asses, and hoping the public would forget - which of course it did - no thanks to the Republicans, who had the White House under siege with Monicagate during these years. And Berger - he of the stuffed socks - surely public office has never seen a man with such a gelatinous spine and a political instinct for conflict avoidance and panicky ass-covering.

Item number two is the NY Times article about an entirely legal program to monitor bank transfers overseas. Congressional approval, oversight, and controls are in place, and the article makes no allegations of wrongdoing. But now, in media from Kansas City to Khandhar, everybody and their sister knows the secrets behind one of the behind-the-scenes methods for catching terrorists. People on the Right side of the blogosphere are beside themselves with disgust over the publication of this news article. Freedom of the press, in this case, means freedom to act without conscience or judgment in such a way that puts American lives in danger. If this type of thing continues there is a serious possibility that once the United States is attacked again, which is inevitable, the forensics that occur afterwards will reveal that the a trail of evidence that would have otherwise led to arrests went cold after methods were revealed by a leak to the media. This already happened once with cell phone communications, which were previously a great way to track Al-Qaeda in the outback of Afghanistan.

I know many of you hate Bush. I know many of you would almost be pleased to see another domestic terrorist attack - to prove that we have been made unsafe by our policies in the past few years. Come to your senses. We can't trade the security of our nation and American lives to vindicate even our most deeply-felt political grievances.