Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Playing Catch-Up
At various times, different, disparate themes merge when we're least prepared for them.0 comments
And this, friends, leads us to the definition of Leadership—or lack of it, as the case may be.
It's one thing for the average Joe on the street to be caught off-guard, it's quite another for the professionals in government, law enforcement or the military in whom we place our trust. It's important that they be gaming the various possibilities and contingencies as part of their daily lives—in the hope of not just being able to respond to events as they arise, but in order to steer us clear of dangerous events or even to thwart danger before it reaches the status of "event."
Today's event:
Armed attackers seize 400 in southern Russia
Terrorists threaten to kill 50 kids for each dead militant
This is the on-going type of horror that makes September 11, 2001 so intolerably difficult to swallow.
And George W. Bush's empty boasts so dangerous for this nation.
That a U.S. administration had specific information that SOMETHING BIG was in the works months before and took no aggressive, protective action; that numbers of commercial airliners could go silent then meander across the radar screens of the Air Force—as well as the air controllers—and still no one jumps into action; that hotlines across this government don't start ringing off the hook to immediately engage the very forces and offices and personnel directly responsible and fully trained for this very contingency; and, that the president of the United States isn't grabbed by the Secret Service detail from his day's planned event and hustled off to a safe action site for upwards to fifteen minutes after it is clear the country is under attack, is fully incomprehensible. Agencies and forces have been gaming this exact type of scenario since the mid-Nineties, at least.
For naught, we see.
Then, after all the proverbial cows are out of the proverbial World Trade Center, the administration storms off in the wrong direction to "respond forcefully."
Big whup.
I mentioned in a recent post that there were other areas of the world that demanded the Bush administration's attention for at least 5 minutes as we plod on, destroying any and all hope for a civilized Iraq.
One of the areas I mentioned earlier, Ossetia—both North Ossetia, near Chechnya and within Russian territory, and South Ossetia, which split from Georgian territory fourteen years ago and is undergoing armed attempts from Georgia to reunite—are powder kegs which contain both modern religious-fervor kindling and ancient, centuries-old ethnic and tribal blood-feud fuels.
The region is about to blow sky-high for scores of secular and religious reasons.
And, as always, the innocents are caught in the middle.
And, as always, the Bush administration is dong nothing about any of it.
Remember this attack and think of how George W. Bush claims that he is keeping us safe from terrorist attack.
How is he doing that, exactly?
And who actually thinks that a gang of 40 heavily armed whackos with the element of surprise on their side couldn't do the EXACT SAME THING to some school or mall in Kansas, Florida or Utah anytime they wanted? Or in New York City or Washington, DC?
The answer should be, No One.
The "Element of Surprise" is your actual enemy. That is what the pros game for. Or should be gaming for. So that there is someone in our government who is not actually caught flat-footed.
By the actions of this administration, we are not in a position to avert "events"—as happened a number of times under President Bill Clinton.
Bush should stay wary of claiming credit for decisions that others both here and around the world, and whom we don't know exist, have made.
Especially since his people are set up only to respond after all the cows are gone out the windows.
Or the teachers or children are shot.
posted by Gotham 1:06 PM
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