Straw Men

Roger Ailes discusses the latest battle in the war on straw, courtesy of Easterbrook and Kitty Parker. In their world the only possible response to having awareness of a possible attack by al Qaeda was to carpet bomb Afghanistan. Therefore, all the people who are criticizing Bush should just shut their pie holes, because there's no way they would've supported such a thing in 2001.

At the risk of being called a Saddam-loving French Islamofacist, might I point out that more measured, and rational, responses to the information Bush possessed -- like heightened precautions at airports and more careful review of existing information -- might have solved the immediate problem, whereas the responses imagined by our fantasizing friends -- "the bombing of Afghanistan" and "an all-out attack on alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan" -- likely would not have.

The issue isn't, of course, that Bush failed to stop 9/11 - it's that he apparently failed to do anything to try and stop 9/11. I'm tired of how Bob Kerrey has framed the issue this way also - "attack Afghanistan or do nothing" are the only options he understands. Now, going after al Qaeda in Afghanistan earlier may have been the right thing to do, but either way it doesn't speak to the more immediate question:

After getting information about possible hijackings in the US, what additional measures did the Bushies implement or at least propose implementing?

Stop the war talk, let's just talk basic domestic security.