Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
August 6, 2001
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the day President Bush received a PDB (President’s Daily Brief) entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” Yup, 8/6/01, a full month before the 9/11 attacks. Fat lot of good it did the victims of 9/11.
Ripley of Zen Cabin is hosting a blogswarm to commemorate this day in American (and Presidential) history. The theme? Here, see for yourself:
I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating. As a Jewish kid growing up in the 60s and 70s, I was raised on Geprge Santayana’s wisdom, that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We were force-fed the horrors of the past, such knowledge being proof against another demagogue rising to power to murder us yet again.
I’m beginning to wonder if Santayana was right. Maybe human nature is too deeply flawed to be protected by something as abstract as history. Maybe too few Americans ever considered the possibility that it could happen here.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting George W. Bush intentionally allowed the events of 9/11 to take place so that he could control our populace with fear, meanwhile making an historically unprecedented grab for Executive Branch authority, as well as a truly awe-inspiring theft of the public coffers. This Administration’s kakistocracy‘s subsequent actions come close to proving an altogether different hypothesis — that incompetence allowed 9/11 to transpire. Incompetence, craven indifference, or calculated maneuver, take your pick.
I’ll tell you one thing, though. “Calculated maneuver” makes for the best punchline . . .
D.
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