Play By Play: Inside 9/11, LIVE

While I have family members rocking out right now to the Rolling Stones in Fenway Park, I sit and watch the National Geographic Channel's "Inside 9/11". It is a highly-publicized four-hour documentary examining the timeline leading up to September 11.

Here are a few thoughts during the 10:23 commercial break.

• The show fails to mention the Clinton administration's failure to declare the Feb 26, 1993 bombing attack on the World Trade Center as an act of war. Instead, the administration chose to view it, and subsequent attacks around the world, as criminal acts. This separated the F.B.I and C.I.A. in ways indeterminable.In fact, the show hardly mentions Clinton's leadership at all, until
• The impeachment scandal is highlighted, as well as Clinton's acquittal by the Senate. I am sorry, but the implication is that if Clinton had not been harassed by puritanical officials obsessed with his sex-life, Clinton would have been free to better track, capture and/or destroy Osama bin Laden. In other words, that Clinton could not do his job because of the harassment by such devils as Ken Starr. No sense is given that Clinton brought the Lewinsky scandal upon himself.
• Ah, there is, right now (the show is back on), mention that Clinton went into retreat during the waning months of his final term, thus harming morale throughout the military establishment.
• Oops. Now we're told that Bush was "on vacation" in August of 2001, when he received a brief warning of an attack. It's all designed to implicate. No mention that Clinton's sexual recklessness destroyed his effectiveness. But Bush showing off his chainsaw prowess; that's something else. Sure, there's Clinton hugging Monica in that hat, BUT that's Clinton's "Private Life." Of course, Bush's vacation is not his private life.

It is clear that Clinton dropped the ball. Eight years of neglect of bin Laden's threats. Yes, Bush was too domestically fixated during the first months of his term, largely due to wanting to win America's blessing after the 2000 election debacle. But he and his administration are on the scene for but a few months. Clinton had 8 years to do better than his successor...

More later...

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