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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zeta1961 who wrote (29181)	9/26/2006 3:32:47 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 541299

It could have been prevented by government employees at a number of levels. But the fact that the prevention was theoretically possible, doesn't mean that you could have reasonably counted on them to prevent the attacks from happening.

To: zeta1961 who wrote (29181)	9/26/2006 3:40:01 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541299

"If so, how..If not, why?" If we apply the reasonable person rule, I conclude 'not'. Prior to 911 the consciousness of America would not have supported the kind of personal restrictions and interventions that it would have taken to uncover and stop such a plot. One reason it was such a shock to all of us was because it was so far beyond what any of us reasonably expected to happen. So we could not have expected our elected representatives to support the security systems necessary, nor could we have expected/allowed our appointed or salaried forces to engage in that sort of intervention. If people are performing their functions in a manner that can be reasonably expected of any person performing those functions, blame is not attributable for things that occur on their watch. Its like if you are a mom and some kid on the playground suddenly does a back flip off of the top step on the slide, while you are pushing your kid on the swing, we wouldn't blame you for his broken neck because no reasonable person would have been prepared for such a risk. Its not that the government was being lazy. They were doing what most people thought they should reasonably be doing.