At least that's what E.J. Dionne seems to think is preventing us from learning the hard lessons of that day:
All of which makes you want to ask Giuliani why he felt it necessary to rebuke the commission investigating Sept. 11 for pointing out important truths about what went wrong that day. In the matter-of-fact way of its valuable staff reports, the commission pointed to the turf battles and communication problems among New York City's uniformed services that may have cost lives. Rudy, no one is asking you to be perfect. No one, and I mean no one, is taking anything away from the bravery of those who selflessly gave their all that day. But the Sept. 11 commission has the responsibility for making us more ready if a dreadful event of this sort happens again. They can't overlook what went wrong. Alas, most things are personal for Rudy. "Our enemy is not each other," he told the commission on Wednesday, "but terrorists who attacked us, murdered our loved ones and continue to offer a threat to our security." Of course that's right. But no one says you're the enemy, Rudy. Yet none of us, certainly not you, would want systems kept in place that threaten the very men and women whose bravery protects us. Most of the commission members seemed thoroughly intimidated by Giuliani and expressed their devotion. It fell to Bob Kerrey, the Vietnam veteran who does not intimidate easily, to state an important truth: "I don't believe it's an either/or choice of being angry at those who perpetrated this crime and feeling anger towards those with responsibility." Kerrey went on to praise Giuliani too, but his point goes to the heart of the commission's challenge and manDATE: 05/01/2004 to overcome the mythologizing of Sept. 11 and face what happened.Note that the fire and police chiefs of NYC had testified before the 9/11 Commission the day before and had been raked over the coals. Note that Condoleeza Rice was bullied into giving public testimony even when she'd already met with the commission for four hours in private. Note that Richard Clarke, idiot extraordinaire, was lauded by the 9/11 Commission for essentially plugging a book and airing grudges he apparently still held because he'd been cut out of the loop. Given these examples of how non-partisan and how dedicated these commissioners are to finding the truth of what happened on 9/11, who on earth would expect Rudy Guiliani to go into that hearing room and expect underhanded softballs to be thrown at him? Rudy was ready, and now he's being berated for assuming a defensive posture. E.J. apparently is nuts because he tells Rudy that "no one is asking you to be perfect." Yes, they are. That's precisely what they're asking. Everyone associated with these hearings, whether it be the Jersey Girl widows the press is so fond of to the commissioners themselves, expected everyone to be perfect that day---because then no one would have died, would they? If the 9/11 Commission wasn't playing partisan games with who they decide to be harsh with and who they're not, it would be easy and right to say that they're just trying to get to the bottom of things. The truth, however, is that the 9/11 Commission is not trying to get to the bottom of things. I'm sure a few of them have deluded themselves into believing that mission statement, but in actuality you have a bunch of has-beens up on a stage, with national media coverage and they're surely enjoying the attention they're receiving. So they puff themselves up; they make themselves to be more important than they are; they lob softballs at the people they like and then they throw Roger Clemens-style fastballs at the ones they don't. I would make the argument that it's not the public, the White House or Rudy Guiliani who is mythologizing 9/11. I believe it's people like E.J. who seem to think that this commission will solve problems and will help us to suss out how we could have been better prepared and how our response could have been better. They're not going to solve a damn thing. We won't learn anything we didn't already know about 9/11. We just won't. Why? Because we don't live in a world where you can prepare and be ready for the worst case scenario every day of our lives, which is what they expect. It's just not feasible. We live in a world where commissions are formed and don't do a damn thing in actuality. But most importantly, we live in a world where shit happens. It does. While I am more sorry than you can ever imagine for this next statement, the truth is that shit happened on 9/11. There was nothing we could do to prevent this; there was nothing we could to do to stave it off. Horrible things happened on that day. But we simply cannot form a commission everytime something bad and completely unexpected happens to prevent it from happening again. People did their best on 9/11. Firemen, police officers, the mayor---everyone did their best. Yet, because, in the eyes of some, their best wasn't good enough, despite hurdles being placed in their path that they had no way of clearing, there is apparently room for improvement; there's truth to be sought; there's grandstanding to be done. My question is, though, how can the truth be found if the people asking the questions clearly aren't interested in the answers? Posted by Kathy at May 1, 2004 01:27 AM | TrackBack