So true Michael, in so many ways. But the power of internet and the massive search engines can keep everyone honest or at least aware. We all ignored the warnings from AQ and others for many, many years. We were in the middle of crazy bubble boom times, inflated as they were. We couldn't even say, let alone spell, the terrorists names then, just another reason to ignore the situation.
That was then. This is now. Now we can all ignore the situation as it evolves every day, or we won't.
We will know why the Homeland Security bill was held up for so long, or we won't. Fingers point at each other, and our lawmakers. But if we are smart, we will remember what was going on, and let our Congress folks know that we KNOW, and want them to just get on with the job. Mr. Daschle jabs at duct tape today, and yet, if he had provided the leadership necessary in the Senate as Majority Leader, it wouldn't have taken 13 MONTHS to get that bill finally passed. The money can't go to the communities until it passed. Finally passed in Nov 2002. Then they went home for elections, and the holidays. Have been back what....three or so weeks? We Americans can tell him what we really think of the histrionics.
And yes, you are right...no matter which way things happen, some people will blame Bush. No matter what. But remember, when someone points a finger at someone, there are 3 more pointing back at person who is pointing.
I notice most often with the "anti-war" folks, they criticize, BUT have no other solutions to offer. I use "anti-war" carefully....is here anyone that is "pro-war for war's sake?" I don't know of any that think that way.
If we don't protect ourselves, and our allies, from those who have sworn to kill us (Great Satan I believe is what they call us), then foreign affairs will not matter. Our lives will be totally different than today. It's late, and your post triggered me too....
BTW, here's a link for the above Homeland Security info...
November 20, 2002 ~~US lawmakers pass Homeland Security bill
By SHARON BEHN
globalsecurity.org
The US government is gearing up for its largest reorganization in 50 years now that Congress has approved the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security to coordinate defense against terrorism.
The Senate's approval Tuesday of the landmark measure by a 90-9 vote, gives President George W. Bush a hard-fought victory in his global war on terrorism.
"Setting up this new department will take time, but I know we will meet the challenge together," Bush said in a statement.
"I look forward to signing this important legislation," he added. The bill already has passed the House of Representatives. Proposed in the wake of the devastating September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the new Cabinet-level department is seen as the most significant reorganization of US government in the last 50 years.
"The President's plan will allow us to improve our efforts to work together to identify and assess threats to our homeland, match these threats to our vulnerabilities, and act to insure the safety and security of the American people," said Attorney General John Ashcroft after the vote.
"The creation of the Department of Homeland Security begins a new era of cooperation and coordination in the nation's homeland defense," Ashcroft added.
The bill had been held up for months as Republicans and Democrats argued over how the administration planned to roll all or part of 22 federal agencies into the cabinet-level department which will carry a 38-billion-dollar budget.
Approving the the 500-page compromise bill is the first step in what will likely be a complicated and lengthy process to get the 170,000-employee department up and running.
Analysts predict it will take years before the department is fully effective.
"It is an enormously large bureaucracy. I think they're going to spend the rest of the decade de-bugging it," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonprofit defense policy think-tank.
Originally crafted by a group of lawmakers led by Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Bush had opposed a homeland security agency proposal until lawmakers launched a probe into intelligence lapses that allowed al-Qaeda militants to strike with hijacked airliners, killing more that 3,000 people.
The president later took up the cause and made passage of his version of the legislation a key issue in the November 5 midterm congressional elections, and as Senator Don Nickles admitted, "kept our feet to the fire" to get the bill passed.
Senators spent seven weeks wrangling over the bill, with Democrats balking at what they said were a weakening of employee civil service job protections and late "special-interest" additions to the final compromise measure.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle criticized Republicans for holding the effort hostage to partisan politics.
"There are some who would like to rewrite the history of this effort. They want the American people to believe that Democratic opposition is the reason it has taken this long for Congress to pass a Homeland Security bill," Daschle said.
"That is simply not so. Creating a Homeland Security Department was a Democratic idea to begin with."
Although the new department absorbs such key agencies as the Coast Guard, the US Secret Service and parts of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it will not include the Central Intelligence Agency or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the two agencies that came under the heaviest fire for September 11 intelligence failures.
"This agency is more concerned with hardening the homeland against attacks than with going after the perpetrators," explained Pike, noting that the FBI is a law enforcement agency while the CIA is responsible for foreign intelligence.
Not every senator was convinced the undertaking was going to fully equip the country against terrorist strikes.
"It does not address the immediate need to protect our infrastructure, especially nuclear power plants. It does not increase our capabilities to detect biological and radiological weapons," criticized Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton, who nevertheless voted for the bill.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2002 Agence France Presse |
