Condoleeza Rice testimony before 9-11 Commission provides full-hindsight rebuttal of half-hindsight partisan criticisms and explains Pre-Patriot-Act legal barriers against CIA-FBI intelligence-sharing to "connect the dots."

April 8, 2004: #01 Political Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary but commentary isn't always satire ™·2004.
(but we're confident you'll know the difference) Search PoliSat.Com Home Tell a friend about PoliSat.Com Subscribe
Permanent Link to this installment in PoliSat.Com's Archives Google-News list of recent updates About author, Jim Wrenn .

Condoleeza Rice testimony before 9-11 Commission provides full-hindsight rebuttal of half-hindsight partisan criticisms and explains Pre-Patriot-Act legal barriers against CIA-FBI intelligence-sharing to "connect the dots."·

Today we heard impressive testimony from who, if we are lucky, will become the President to succeed Bush in 2009. Condoleeza Rice's testimony laid bare to anyone willing to apply common sense that full hindsight (in contrast to Clarke's half-hindsight) ought to teach us we are indeed lucky the Bush Administration did not implement Clarke's recommendations for cruise-missile attacks on Afghanistan in early 2001 in response to the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Why?

First, it's a virtual certainty such strategy would not have (indeed could not have) "prevented" 9-11.

Second, it's a virtual certainty that such attacks could not possibly have been massive enough and accurate enough to have destroyed al Qaeda in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan.

Third, it's a virtual certainty that after such attacks, the Taliban and al Qaeda would have used (or falsely portrayed) civilian casualties in Afghanistan to intensify hatred of us among Muslims.

Fourth, since post-9-11 history has conclusively demonstrated that even after worldwide broadcast of the post-9-11 video tape of bin Laden claiming credit for 9-11, an overwhelming majority of Muslims (and even a large percentage of the book-buying "literati" in France) still clung to the belief such video tape was a forgery created by the Mossad and/or the CIA to blame Muslims for an attack staged by the Mossad and/or the CIA to create demands for war "against Islam," it is a virtual certainty that an even more overwhelming majority of Muslims (especially in Pakistan) would have even more strongly refused to accept our assertions that al Qaeda was responsible for the attack on the U.S.S. Cole; thus, missile attacks on Afghanistan at that time would have dramatically reduced the chances of our ultimately being able to procure assistance from Pakistan against its ally, the Taliban, and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Fifth, since the real post-9-11 history has taught us that a large majority of the Muslim world thought we "deserved" the 9-11 attack, it's a virtual certainty that if were were to have launched cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan several months earlier, such large majority in the Muslim would would have even more strongly believed we "deserved" the 9-11 attack; thus, it's a virtual certainty that it would have been vastly more difficult, if not impossible, to procure post-9-11 assistance from Pakistan for our full-scale military assault in Afghanistan on the Taliban and al Qaeda-- therefore, it's highly likely the Taliban would still be ruling Afghanistan and harboring al Qaeda and Pakistan would still be a non-ally, if not an overt adversary.

Sixth, since any post-9-11 attempt to attack the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan would have been vastly more difficult under such circumstances, the scope of such commitment would have seriously tempted Saddam Hussein to overtly, or covertly, take military and/or terrorist action against us in the Persian Gulf unless, and potentially even if, we were to have dramatically increased (as we did) the size of our deployment in the region from its token size before 9-11, and such increased deployment would have intensified (as it has done), rather than diminished, the motivations cited by bin Laden for the 9-11 attack-- i.e., to drive the U.S. from the Middle East.

Half-Hindsight Pontification.

We're partisan hacks in the limelight
exposing our version of hindsight
It's like single-entry
accounting invented
for partisan halving of hindsight.

As long as the media limelight
refracts through monocular hindsight,
the public will choose
my half-hindsight view
for lack of binocular hindsight.

The rewrite of hist'ry we're touting
is like single-entry accounting
according us credit
without any debits
for half-hindsight theories we're spouting.

As difficult as it may be for us to accept, 9-11 probably saved us from a far greater disaster. If we were to have somehow foiled the 9-11 plot, it's highly doubtful Pakistan would have elected to become an ally to enable us to effectively topple the Pakistan's own ally, the Taliban, or to even significantly-- much less severely-- limit al Qaeda's ability to use Afghanistan as its base. Full-hindsight from the vantage of the post-9-11 world conclusively demonstrates an overwhelming unwillingness of the Muslim world to blame bin Laden even after worldwide broadcasts of his post-9-11 video tape claiming credit for it. Thus, common sense makes it self-evident that virtually the entire Muslim world would have refused to believe our "proof" of a foiled 9-11 plot. The foiling of such plot would have strengthened the resolve of al Qaeda to make the next attack one involving chemical, biological, nuclear, or "dirty-bomb" weapons. It's highly unlikely proof of such foiled plot would have induced Pakistan to abandon its alliance with the Taliban. Given what we also now know about dissemination of nuclear technology from Pakistan, the risks are high that in the near future, we would have experienced an al Qaeda attack in the U.S. using at least a "dirty-bomb" if not a nuclear device. It's disturbing, but it's a reality that can't be retroactively altered by self-serving political posturing predicated upon half-hindsight assumptions.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com.

Daily Update immediately preceding the one above.

Recent Political Satire/Commentary Animations-- Click image to play. More: Text-Index/Images-Index.

Donate your frequent-flier miles to military personnel to return home from port of reentry on leave: www.HeroMiles.Org.

·support our troops, support Bush, support Cheney, support victory in Iraq, support victory in Afghanistan, Clinton Liebrary, http://PoliSat.Com , PoliSatDOTcom, Salute America's Heroes, Fallen Heroes Fund, oppose Gore's Global Warming theory, support milblogs, Michael Yon, Pat Dollard, BlackFive, MilBlogs, MilBlogging, Michael Yon, Mudville Gazette, HotAir.Com, JawaReport, PajamasMedia , VictoryCaucus , VetsForFreedom , FreedomsWatch , DayByDayCartoon , WrennCom.Com , Video , Political Satire, Politics, News, oppose MoveOn.Org, oppose Code Pink, oppose DailyKos, oppose ANSWER, support PoliSat.Com, support WrennCom.Com, ·

First Things First: Salute America's Heroes · Fallen Heroes Fund · Frequent-Flyer-Miles for Troops · Thanks to Troops · Military News ·· MilBlogs ·

Home · Posts: Current /Recent · Videos/Toons/Songs: Latest · Embed-Codes · Text Index · Images Index · Archives: Old · New · About · Contact · Syndication · Affiliates ·

News Sources/Papers/Magazines Pundits Blogs ThinkTanks What is "property"? Pantheopians Global Climate Asteroids/Comets Hitting Earth--Risks/Predictions Science GlobalWeb

Other sites that feature PoliSat.Com's Political Satire/Commentary-- Click here to view our Affiliates page.