Trust Clarke: He's Right about Bush: "Take the charge that the Mr. Bush did not make fighting al-Qaeda a priority before Sept. 11. In late 2001, Mr. Bush told the journalist Bob Woodward that 'there was a significant difference in my attitude after Sept. 11. I was not on point.' Mr. Bush knew Osama bin Laden was a menace. 'But I didn't feel the sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.'
Or take Mr. Clarke's charge that Mr. Bush immediately sought to link the attacks in New York and Washington to Iraq. According to the notes of national-security meetings that the White House gave Mr. Woodward so he could write his book, Bush at War, the President ended an early debate over how to respond to Sept. 11 by saying, 'I believe Iraq was involved, but I'm not going to strike them now.' At a later meeting, he linked Saddam Hussein to the attacks: 'He was probably behind this in the end.'
Those admissions highlight a broader, more troubling point that Mr. Clarke's accusations raise, which is that Mr. Bush does not understand the threat we confront."
- posted by geoff @ #