THE SLEEP OF 9/10

ABC-TV is now re-editing portions of a new docu-drama called "The Path to 9/11". The changes come in the wake of vociferous complaints from the Democrats and former members of the Clinton Administration. Apparently, in its original version, the show takes a very unflattering look at the Clinton Administration's handling of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. That, of course, does not fit into the Democratic narrative about Republican incompetence as the sole cause of all our present ills, thus it cannot be allowed to stand. Likewise, it does not do much for the potential presidential campaign of one Hillary Rodham Clinton. Am I angry about this? No. The failures of Bill Clinton in this area are apparent to anyone who takes time to review the history. But he was not alone. George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter all failed to adequately understand or deal with the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism and its violent, terroristic manifestations. Most of America's political and foreign policy elite also failed to understand this phenomenon. The mistakes and misunderstandings that led to 9/11 go all the way back to our failure to declare war on Iran after their "students" stormed our embassy in 1979, our failure to declare war on Iran after their Hezbollah proxies killed over 200 of our Marines in Beirut in 1983, our failure to re-orient our military posture after the Cold War, our failure to re-allocate resources to defeating terrorists after the bombing of the USS Cole, our African embassies, and on and on. I am angry that all the smart people in our foreign policy elites (and most of the rest of us as well) missed the signs of the coming storm. I am even angrier that those same elites (and much of the rest of the population) has fallen back into its pre-9/11 slumber, with politics-as-usual running rampant, and our enemies biding their time and gathering their strength. Our next wake-up call will involve deaths in at least the tens of thousands, and may very well shatter our status as the world's lone superpower, leading to chaos and destruction that we have not seen since the Second World War.