Now, it’s true, as Condi Rice is quick to remind us, that this memo does not specifically warn that terrorists are going to attack the United States on September 11, 2001, by hijacking airplanes and crashing them into the WTC and the Pentagon. As the President has said, if he’d known exactly what was going to happen, exactly when, then he sure would have tried to prevent it.
Then again, that level of specificity did not seem to be the standard when it came to invading Iraq.
I don’t think the debate over whether 9-11 could have been prevented is worth wasting time on. The point is, the administration has been running on its record as terror-fighters since 9/11 — when in reality, they were completely asleep at the wheel then and they’ve been bumbling their way through ever since.