Why weren’t ignored pre-9/11 warnings and Tora Bora bigger issues?
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  Why weren’t ignored pre-9/11 warnings and Tora Bora bigger issues?
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Author Topic: Why weren’t ignored pre-9/11 warnings and Tora Bora bigger issues?  (Read 705 times)
darklordoftech
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« on: December 25, 2019, 09:03:31 PM »

Why didn’t the fact that Rumsfeld brushed of Joe Biden’s warnings about terrorism about a week before 9/11 or the fact that Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks left Tora Bora to the local forces play bigger roles in the campaign? Shouldn’t Kerry, Howard Dean, and the DNC have done everything they could to remind people of these facts?
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SingingAnalyst
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« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2019, 08:12:45 AM »

Why didn’t the fact that Rumsfeld brushed of Joe Biden’s warnings about terrorism about a week before 9/11 or the fact that Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks left Tora Bora to the local forces play bigger roles in the campaign? Shouldn’t Kerry, Howard Dean, and the DNC have done everything they could to remind people of these facts?
An excellent question. I, like other Americans, was "caught up" in the wave of patriotism that followed the 9/11 attacks (I was 35, in my 7th year at a stable actuarial analyst job; at least one of my colleagues knew someone who was killed in the attacks); it was a time when Americans didn't ask too many questions (one poll showed 52%--higher in the South--of Americans felt it was unpatriotic to question the President) and were even willing to endure restrictions on their privileges (a 51% majority favored banning carry-ons on airlines entirely!). The Dixie Chicks were quickly scrubbed from country stations after one of their members said, in England, that they were ashamed that Bush was from their home state. Even Pope John Paul II was largely ignored, even by Catholics, when he pleaded with Bush not to attack Iraq.

IIRC, in 2003-4, the main voice crying in the wilderness concerning the things you mentioned was filmmaker/author Michael Moore, who was roundly disliked by conservatives and some moderates. It is doubtful many Bush supporters would have listened to a viewpoint whose chief spokesperson was Moore, and, even with Al Gore alleging (probably correctly) that the Iraq invasion was pre-ordained before 9/11, I doubt many people were willing to accept that Bush deliberately ignored warnings and let Americans die to get us into a war, as many allege FDR to have done at Pearl Harbor.

I hope that kind of answers your question, and I look forward to what others have to say. I personally wish more had been made of the things you mention, but as one of our fellow Forum members says, "Hindsight is 20/20".
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darklordoftech
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« Reply #2 on: December 26, 2019, 04:13:36 PM »

Why didn’t the fact that Rumsfeld brushed of Joe Biden’s warnings about terrorism about a week before 9/11 or the fact that Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks left Tora Bora to the local forces play bigger roles in the campaign? Shouldn’t Kerry, Howard Dean, and the DNC have done everything they could to remind people of these facts?
An excellent question. I, like other Americans, was "caught up" in the wave of patriotism that followed the 9/11 attacks (I was 35, in my 7th year at a stable actuarial analyst job; at least one of my colleagues knew someone who was killed in the attacks); it was a time when Americans didn't ask too many questions (one poll showed 52%--higher in the South--of Americans felt it was unpatriotic to question the President) and were even willing to endure restrictions on their privileges (a 51% majority favored banning carry-ons on airlines entirely!). The Dixie Chicks were quickly scrubbed from country stations after one of their members said, in England, that they were ashamed that Bush was from their home state. Even Pope John Paul II was largely ignored, even by Catholics, when he pleaded with Bush not to attack Iraq.

IIRC, in 2003-4, the main voice crying in the wilderness concerning the things you mentioned was filmmaker/author Michael Moore, who was roundly disliked by conservatives and some moderates. It is doubtful many Bush supporters would have listened to a viewpoint whose chief spokesperson was Moore, and, even with Al Gore alleging (probably correctly) that the Iraq invasion was pre-ordained before 9/11, I doubt many people were willing to accept that Bush deliberately ignored warnings and let Americans die to get us into a war, as many allege FDR to have done at Pearl Harbor.

I hope that kind of answers your question, and I look forward to what others have to say. I personally wish more had been made of the things you mention, but as one of our fellow Forum members says, "Hindsight is 20/20".
It seems like most of the rhetoric, both from Bush’s supporters and his critics was about what Bush did do (Gitmo, Iraq) and not about what Bush didn’t do (the things I mentioned in the OP).
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