[nfb-talk] blind and wanting to improve things, not get labeled

[John G. Heim]

Ryan said:
> Steve, your statements are rather vague here. You say that part of the 
> ineptness of government is a matter of perception. Which part is that? 
> Would that be the part of the government that allowed the terrorist 
> attacks on 9/11 to occur? Would that be the part of the government that 
> allowed the financial crisis to hit our country because of their neglect 
> and greed? How about the part of the government that goes to Washington 
> every two years and fails to keep the many promises they make on the 
> campaign trail?

Come on, Ryan! How in the world can you give 911 and the banking crisis as 
examples of government failures? The banking crisis was caused by *banks*. 
Government may have failed to stop it but it was still the *private* sector 
that caused that crisis.  Blaming the government because it failed to stop 
banks from going crazy is just ridiculous. That logic is about as backward 
as it gets.

And the 911 situation is the same.   President Bush proposed dissolving the 
Counter-terrorism Security Group, an organization President Clinton had 
created within the NSA to deal with counter-terrorism. Between the time when 
President Bush took office and September 11, 2001, President Bush refused to 
meet with Richard A. Clarke, the chairman of the CSG and President Bush's 
own self-appointed top counter-terrorism advisor.   You can't meet with a 
guy who's job you're trying to cut. But Clarke asked many times to meet with 
President Bush to warn him about the threat posed by Al-Qida and Osoma 
Benladen. The President refused.

Again, it was President Bush's desire to *cut* government that is the 
culprit here, not government itself. President Bush saw the CSG as an 
unnecessary expansion of government. He underestimated the  threat foreign 
terrorists posed to the United States. So to save a few bucks, he put the 
nation at risk.

All of this is very well documented. You can read Richard Clarke's book. Its 
on bookshare.org. His claims are well documented since even things like 
requests for meetings are documented in the White House.  There is no 
question that what Richard Clarke says is true.