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« Duty & Honor | Main | Lily-livered. »

Responsibility.

By Tom | September 11, 2007

Here in the DC area it’s raining today, and I’m happy about that. This anniversary is all the worse on a bright clear day like that one six years ago.

I’m writing this a few short blocks frmo the White House, where I suspect there are a few people who also don’t want to be reminded too vividly of that day.The Towers

Still, I think that for as long as I live, this day will turn my thoughts to the principle of responsibility — not after the fact, but before the fact responsibility.

We did not elect a president to protect us from physical harm, at least not directly, but we did elect him to review the recommendations of his staff and the intelligence community and take them seriously.

Six years ago, we were told that no one could have foreseen this, yet we now know they did, in fact, foresee it and were even working on how to deal with it. And even if we could not know the form of the attack, there were clear signs an attack was on the way.

When historians look back at this time, they will note that the Bush administration failed to take its responsibility seriously before the attacks and failed to live up to them afterward. But more damning, they will almost certainly conclude that the nation failed to hold the administration responsible for its failure and enabled all that has come since.

Truth is, we continue to refuse to hold this president and his administration responsible for all its transgressions, and for that history will rightly judge us harshly.

Topics: Politics |

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