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I think your comment is great, but I have to disagree with one part in particular. I don't agree that it was a "some minor warning" when President Clinton told
by VikingCoder 11y ago
I think your comment is great, but I have to disagree with one part in particular. I don't agree that it was a "some minor warning" when President Clinton told President Bush explicitly; "In his campaign, Bush had said he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and a national missile defense. I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden."
- njloof 11y agoClearly Clinton was wrong; Iraq was the biggest security issue in America by the end of the Bush administration.
- snowwrestler 11y agoReminds of this great quote from Alan Kay: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
- yellowstuff 11y ago"Osama Bin Laden is dangerous" is pretty far from actionable intelligence, though. I think it's an example of hindsight bias to think that if President Bush had been more prudent in dealing with Bin Laden then the 9/11 attacks would have been prevented.
- VikingCoder 11y agoYour paraphrase is one thing. When the current Commander in Chief of the United States of America, the most powerful military in the world, says "the biggest security problem [is] Osama bin Laden," that's something entirely different. And frankly, I trust the opinion of Richard Clarke more than I trust yours OR MINE.
- Houshalter 11y agoExcept after 9/11 he did say that, and sent the entire military after him. And it took 10 years to find him.
- VikingCoder 11y agoBush: "I truly am not that concerned about him." Yes, it took 10 years to find someone the Commander in Chief was not that concerned about.
- Houshalter 11y agoWell they were right not be concerned, he didn't launch any more terror attacks. But they still did put out a huge effort to find him and failed.
- VikingCoder 11y agoPersonally, I'd be concerned about capturing someone who was responsible for ordering the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of people, but I guess everyone's different.
- euyyn 11y agoThat's not really relevant; after all, Bin Laden himself didn't pilot the planes into the towers.
- Johnny555 11y agoTo be fair, we spent most of the effort fighting in the wrong country (Iraq) chasing the wrong person (Saddam Hussein) who had nothing to do with orchestrating the attacks, nor had any viable "weapons of mass destruction" that were the purported reason for going after him in the first place.
- Houshalter 11y agoThat was 2 years later and had nothing to do with the search for bin Laden. Who they put out a huge search effort for, and continued doing so for the next 10 years.
- snowwrestler 11y agoIt's not black and white. If President Bush had been more prudent dealing with Bin Laden, then the 9/11 attacks would certainly have been more unlikely to succeed. To believe otherwise is to believe, essentially, in predetermination. Hindsight bias does not imply that things would have turned out the same today, no matter what people did in the past.
- yellowstuff 11y agoRight, what I should have written was "I think it's an example of hindsight bias to think that if President Bush had been more prudent in dealing with Bin Laden then the 9/11 attacks would certainly have been prevented.
- SixSigma 11y agoIt's OK Bill, the Bin Laden's and Bush's go back a long way.