Who is really responsible for America's lack of response to global terrorism before 911?

Question

Finger pointing rhetoric has been dialed up this week following the Clinton/Wallace interview on Fox concerning who did what about terrorism. We cannot deny that there has been an escalating pattern of violence by terrorists against US interests since 1979. The honest truth is that Mr. Carter, Mr. Reagan, Mr Bush Sr, and Mr. Clinton did very little to take the fight to the terrorists. It is also true that Mr. Bush Jr. did little prior to 911. My question is who is really responsible for our lack of action in general?

In my opinion: The American people are responsible. Most of us knew very little about terrorism before 911, and didn't consider the the real threat posed. The reason I believe this is because even following the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 there was no great outcry from the people for action.

I am curious about your opinion, but this is not an open invitation to bash anyone.

Answer 1

GOOD QUESTION!

Just to tell you where I'm coming from, I voted for Clinton each time, then Nader (?!), then Bush. I have become a lot more conservative.

I think NO ONE did enough. I may be accused of "giving Clinton (or Bush) a pass," but I don't think anyone took the threat seriously enough. We discounted a 9/11 style plot because the hijackers would have to kill themselves. Duh. Hindsight is 20/20. And the public was not ready to do what it takes to fight against this type of attack -THEY STILL MAY NOT BE!

I think Bush gets a lot of unfair criticism, and yes I do believe the Republicans do better fighting terror than Democrats do. But I see no reason to bash the hell out of Clinton for this. Yes, it has been politicized a million ways. If I start giving examples I'll be here all day. But all the finger pointing does is give al-Qaeda a good chuckle.

Find the problems and fix them. That's all. There will be plenty of time later to write the history, if we survive.

Answer 2

Dear Bryrose,

I agree with you. Under Clinton the CIA underwent a great deal of neutering and downsizing, for instance, so much so that by the time 9/11 came around the agency actually lacked Arabic-speaking staff, but that was merely in response to the times. The Cold War had just ended and if there ever was a time to reduce the defence budget (and that of ancillary organisations such as intelligence services), that was it.

But the blowback from the Cold War was not considered or properly addressed. The main problem was that the American public was not sufficiently aware of the simmering injustices caused around the world by much of US foreign policy during the Cold War, and the sheer amount of violent discontent that these injustices created. Radical Muslims are so numerous in great part because they come from countries whose governments were subverted out of pure self-interest by the US or the Soviet Union at the time.

Few Americans, for instance, would know that the reason why Iran is so hostile to the US is because their democratic government was overthrown by the CIA in 1953, and replaced by a US-sponsored brutal dictatorship which was widely believed to have the world's most dismal human rights record at the time. Saddam Hussein's Baath Party was also put in power during a similar CIA coup in 1963, and again this is something which was not widely publicised.

This lack of knowledge led to a certain complacency which allowed terrorists to penetrate American defences in 2001 - and continues to lead to complacency today still, when so many political figures in the US sadly choose to consider terrorism as a phenomenon that has just come out of the blue, with no rhyme or reason except a simple hatred of the US for its sole sake (an absurd proposition in itself).

Hope this helped,

Answer 3

I think that Clinton dropped the ball, but Bush failed to pick it up. there were signs that Al-Qaeda was getting dangerous during the Clinton administration, the Cole and the first bombing of the tower were two of them, had Clinton done something then 9/11 would have never happened. However had Bush done something when he got to the White House, 9/11 would have never happened. I have heard they both knew that Al-Qaeda was developing a plan to hijack airplane. Until 9/11 that would mean a hostage situation. We have to remember 9/11 changed the defination of hijacking an airplane. it really boils down to the CIA with their unintelligence and the FBI with their want to be the CIA and keep everything a secret that is to blame. On top of the CIA, and FBI, I also Blame Bush Sr and Reagan for supporting and creating a terror network to fight the Soviet Union. We created Al-Qaeda, and we created Sadame Hussein by thinking the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We supported Hussein during his war with Iran, and we created Al Quida to stop the Soviets in Afganistan.
Jimmy Carter did not do this country any favors when he allowed Iran to take Americans hostage without putting a boot in their @ss too.
If any of us think that a regime change will fix this we have to understand that instead of taking care of the tasks at hand by fighting this war on the two fronts that we have decided to fight it on all of our elected officials are doing is using this as a platform for their own agenda, and their own political growth. I have not heard one person in Washington say we need to work together as a nation to get this done, instead they are all pointing to the other guy saying it's his fault.
Roosevelt did not blame Hoover for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Republicans in congress and senate did not blame Roosevelt. They dealt with the tasks at hand and defended this nation from further attacks.

Answer 4

On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team at the CIA were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day. Information is the most powerful tool available in the homeland security effort. At the core of every initiative currently underway to protect our country and its citizens is the challenge of getting the right information to the right people at the right time.

Answer 5

I feel that had Clinton in his 8 years in office taken the initiative and actually gone after the terrorists that the threatened to go after, then maybe this may not have happened. He had the opportunity to get Bin laden before he went underground and could continue his plot for 9/11. Bush 43 just got the unlucky job of being on duty when they attacked. If you heard the Liberals moaning about why this had not happened while Clinton was in office, but plenty happened while Clinton was in office and no action was taken. Reports show that Clinton had been forewarned and he let them pass (one of his aides took documents out of a secure area hoping to hide Clinton's lack of work). Bush 41 did attempt to put down problems in Iraq originally but he was not allowed to continue with follow through.

Answer 6

George W. Bush was the president on 9-11-01,, blaming the past efforts of Clinton to eradicate the threat is just another form of not accepting responsibility,, the threat remains,, 5 years later,, who's fault is that,, those responsible for the plane crashes died,, but their mastermind,, Osama bin Laden,, still remains a fugitive,, is still hiding in Pakistan training the Taliban,, terrorists,,, who's fault is that

Answer 7

Definitely Carter

Answer 8

i think that is a very good point. we all owe ourselves introspective review, but you have those who say that we voted leaders in and they should not pay attention topoolls, opinions and outcry because they were elected to lead.

I don't agree with that, as we should always have a say in what our government does. But the fact that everything returned to normal promptly after the 993 bomb, the cole, the embassies and EVEN 9/11 gave us a free ticket to go about 'business as usual'.

We won't really get fully involved in researching what our government proposes and acting on our findings until we can find a way to end laziness - which means ending wage slavery, fast food and complacency

Answer 9

You might believe you are informed, but there is something you should realize. Clinton tried hard to catch Bin Laden. He had a very agressive anti-terror campaign which he left to pass onto the next president. Read all about it.
http://www.mikehersh.com/Clinton_vs_Terror_Republicans_vs_Clinton.shtml

Answer 10

I believe you are correct in many ways...for too long we have considered ourselves above it all and never really thought that anyone would cross our boarders to actually do damage. Much less to innocent people. There is a price to pay when you act as the world's police force. We are far to quick to inflict our lifestyles and beliefs on other cultures....I think we need to step back and take care of ourselves a bit more and the world a bit less.