culann.com

Pardon the soapbox

Excuse me, but if I’m hired as a security guard for a warehouse and somebody breaks in and steals stuff while I’m watching the security cameras - I’m partly responsible. Certainly the brunt of the responsibility falls upon the thief; she initiated the crime, after all. It was, however, my job to stop the theft, regardless of what I knew, when I knew it, or whatever else was going on. Regardless of whether success in that job was possible or not (due to a lack of intelligence, for instance), I’ve still failed and it would be perfectly reasonable for me to start looking for a new career.

The Bush administration’s explicit avoidance of even the hint of responsibility for 9/11 is based on a structure of poor logic and misdirection. The attacks on Richard Clarke and his apology to the families of victims of 9/11 is purely political and morally repugnant. NSA Rice’s testimony today only made that more clear, in my opinion.