Writing an article against Bush at Bowdoin is basically preaching to the converted. So for that reason, Zachary Linhart '07 should be appreciated for his opinion piece in last week's Orient. However, after reading "State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III," by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, it seems to me that the Bush administration's failure to act before 9/11 was downright negligent, given what it knew. Despite repeated warnings from credible intelligence officials, Rumsfeld and others preferred to believe it was all a "grand deception" to test the American counterterrorism response?even though all common sense pointed to a terrorist attack.
Woodward, whose first two books were very supportive of the Bush administration, says Condoleeza Rice ignored warnings given to her by then-CIA chief George Tenet at an emergency meeting about the al Qaeda threat. In the typical "look over there!" fashion of all government officials (not just Republicans) mired in scandal, she has tried to shift the blame. Rice said the Bush administration's actions were "at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years." At least as aggressive is not good enough?during the Clinton years, the threat was never big enough for a memo called "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the United States."
Linhart says that "the next time you think about bashing President Bush, his allies, or his policies, think about who is currently fighting back for the actions of Al Qaeda on 9/11." Whether or not Bush actually is fighting back for the actions of 9/11 is under question. The fact that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 has been discussed to death, but a more important fact remains unnoticed. Bush failed to catch Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, despite enjoying five years of unlimited political and financial support. Last month on Fox News Live, The Weekly Standard editor, Fred Barnes, said Bush told him it is not a top priority use of American resources. There have also been rumors that in February 2001 Bush may have refused an al Qaeda offer of bin Laden in exchange for dropping sanctions. Bush can say all he wants about bin Laden's lack of strategic value and dangle other al Qaeda officials in his place, but it does not matter. Americans from Cambridge and San Francisco to Wichita and Dallas are wearing "Wanted: Dead or Alive" shirts with bin Laden's face on them. The entire world sees bin Laden as the face of the ideological movement; the war on terror can never be won without his capture.
Alex Locke is a member of the Class of 2010.