Reckless guesswork
You know, this just infuriates me.
The Washington Post reported this afternoon that Vice President Cheney, speaking today to the Heritage Foundation, presented "a staunch defense of a secret government eavesdropping program, saying it might have been able to thwart the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks if it had been in place at the time." Naturally, it will only be a matter of time before this statement is repeated throughout the MSM as simple fact (it's already running on FOX News), even though such a claim is nothing more than spurious guesswork by a man whose hypotheses haven't exactly proved reliable in the past.
In short, it's reckless, self-serving, and reprehensible.
Let's not forget that this is the same individual who claimed there was "no doubt" that Saddam possessed WMD's in 2002. Who echoed the lie that American troops would be greeted as "liberators" by the Iraqi people. Who told us a year ago that the Sunni insurgency was in "its last throes."
To make such an unsupportable statement is an egregious abuse of the emotional wound still borne by the American people over the shock of 9/11, manipulating our collective heartache for transparently political purposes in an attempt to shore up support for illegal Administration activity. It's a callous bait-and-switch based on nothing more than wishful thinking - and a desire to cover the Administration's exposed derriere. That the media will willingly disseminate such a ridiculous contention without editorial comment is, in a word, irresponsible.
As I wrote earlier today, there is no reason whatsoever to think that the existence of the President's illegal spying program would have enabled this bunch to prevent a damn thing. After all, the information at the Administration's disposal in August 2001 wasn't exactly cryptic in nature. It's just that, by all reports, the attention of the White House was elsewhere at the time.
For the Vice President of the United States to make such a misleading public claim is no real surprise. What is distressing, however, is the chatter one can already imagine around water coolers tomorrow, fueled by "fair and balanced" repetition of Mr. Cheney's prognostication, in support of something that he states with unjustifiable certainty might have prevented the horror of that terrible Tuesday more than four years ago.
What will be lost on a gullible public will be the plethora of equally plausible fantasies that could have stopped the 9/11 attacks. Maybe if Al Gore had been President they wouldn't have occurred. Or if it had been raining and foggy that day instead of crisp and clear. Or if the air traffic controllers who saw the planes veer off course had acted sooner. Or if the World Trade Center had never been constructed in 1973.
Maybe if the Bush Administration had paid closer attention to the warnings of the outgoing Clinton White House, specifically former National Security Adviser Richard Clarke, the surprise assaults of al Qaeda might have been averted. It's hard to say, given that these are merely guesses after the fact. None of these hypotheses are any more demonstrably false than the Vice President's wild supposition today.
But that sure as hell doesn't make them true either.
- - - - -
(UPDATE: Since its initial publication at 4:15 PM, the linked WaPo story has been revised to contain language more critical of the Vice President's claim, and details that more accurately reflect the concerns of my original post. --BP)
The Washington Post reported this afternoon that Vice President Cheney, speaking today to the Heritage Foundation, presented "a staunch defense of a secret government eavesdropping program, saying it might have been able to thwart the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks if it had been in place at the time." Naturally, it will only be a matter of time before this statement is repeated throughout the MSM as simple fact (it's already running on FOX News), even though such a claim is nothing more than spurious guesswork by a man whose hypotheses haven't exactly proved reliable in the past.
In short, it's reckless, self-serving, and reprehensible.
Let's not forget that this is the same individual who claimed there was "no doubt" that Saddam possessed WMD's in 2002. Who echoed the lie that American troops would be greeted as "liberators" by the Iraqi people. Who told us a year ago that the Sunni insurgency was in "its last throes."
To make such an unsupportable statement is an egregious abuse of the emotional wound still borne by the American people over the shock of 9/11, manipulating our collective heartache for transparently political purposes in an attempt to shore up support for illegal Administration activity. It's a callous bait-and-switch based on nothing more than wishful thinking - and a desire to cover the Administration's exposed derriere. That the media will willingly disseminate such a ridiculous contention without editorial comment is, in a word, irresponsible.
As I wrote earlier today, there is no reason whatsoever to think that the existence of the President's illegal spying program would have enabled this bunch to prevent a damn thing. After all, the information at the Administration's disposal in August 2001 wasn't exactly cryptic in nature. It's just that, by all reports, the attention of the White House was elsewhere at the time.
For the Vice President of the United States to make such a misleading public claim is no real surprise. What is distressing, however, is the chatter one can already imagine around water coolers tomorrow, fueled by "fair and balanced" repetition of Mr. Cheney's prognostication, in support of something that he states with unjustifiable certainty might have prevented the horror of that terrible Tuesday more than four years ago.
What will be lost on a gullible public will be the plethora of equally plausible fantasies that could have stopped the 9/11 attacks. Maybe if Al Gore had been President they wouldn't have occurred. Or if it had been raining and foggy that day instead of crisp and clear. Or if the air traffic controllers who saw the planes veer off course had acted sooner. Or if the World Trade Center had never been constructed in 1973.
Maybe if the Bush Administration had paid closer attention to the warnings of the outgoing Clinton White House, specifically former National Security Adviser Richard Clarke, the surprise assaults of al Qaeda might have been averted. It's hard to say, given that these are merely guesses after the fact. None of these hypotheses are any more demonstrably false than the Vice President's wild supposition today.
But that sure as hell doesn't make them true either.
- - - - -
(UPDATE: Since its initial publication at 4:15 PM, the linked WaPo story has been revised to contain language more critical of the Vice President's claim, and details that more accurately reflect the concerns of my original post. --BP)
posted by Bob P @ 6:05 PM
2 Comments:
That anyone actually listens to what Cheney says anymore AND gives it credulity is a laugh. The man is so obviously in a world of delusion that he should be listed next to nefarious in the dictionary.
I couldn't agree more.
Still, it's unsettling to know that legions of FOX-watching conservatives will soon be parroting his claim that the spy program could have prevented 9/11 - and will be willing to sacrifice their right to privacy to avoid a repeat of that attack.
As if the two are related in any way.
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