Looking at today's headlines on the New York Times' web site, I had to look for a while before I found even one article that mentioned the terror attacks that happened four years ago today - and even that article (about a psychiatrist who counseled people on 9/11, and is currently doing the same for hurricance victims in Mississippi) relegated the attacks to secondary status to this year's model, Hurricane Katrina.
After three years of memorial services that a cynic would say was crass capitalization on the tragedy of 9/11, George W. Bush will take part in a small memorial service and lead a moment of silence on the West Lawn of the White House - before heading back to the Gulf Coast, this time for a two-day stay.
Today we are four years removed from the worst attacks in our country's history, and it would appear that Bush and his administration has concluded that they have wrung every bit of political advantage out of the 9/11 attacks. And Bush is moving on from the first defining moment of his presidency to what may be the last defining moment - and one that may change the landscape of his presidency and re-define how the Bush II years are judged by history.
There was always something perverse about the effect that 9/11 had on the Bush presidency. By any possible standard, September 11 was the most colossal failure of American intelligence in our history. But somehow it became widely regarded as Bush's greatest triumph, despite the fact that Bush sat frozen in a Florida classroom while this country was under attack, and then flew further and further away from the scene of the attacks, taking shelter in a bunker in the Midwest while the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon burned. Bush stayed far from the destruction for days (remember, Bill Clinton was in Australia and made it to New York City before Bush did), and when he did show up he stopped rescue and recovery operations to arrive in his motorcade and shout platitudes to workers through a bullhorn. Then it was back into the motorcade and haul ass out of there. He was widely regarded by the American people to have been fully engaged and involved in the business of national security, despite the fact that he spent the month prior to the attacks on vacation in Texas and by all indications blew off the August 6 Presidential Briefing that was titled 'Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside U.S.'
Bush, in the days after 9/11, made a lot of assurances and promises to this country, and those promises helped cement his image with many Americans as a bold, decisive leader. He promised to hunt down and punish those responsible for the attacks. He assured the people of Lower Manhattan that their air was safe to breathe and that it was safe to go back to work. He promised billions of dollars in aid to the stricken area, and promised that he would take the necessary steps to make sure that a large-scale attack would never find us in the position we were in in 2001 - as a helpless giant that was lacking the capability for a quick and appropriate response.
Well, we're four years out from those days, those promises. And where the hell are we?
More at
http://www.blah3.com/article.php?story=20050911021112838-as
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