Is the United States truly safe?

By: John Demling
Posted In: Opinion

In light of the 9/11 hearings I have started to question how safe are we as a nation? This seems like a silly question to the untrained eye, we are the strongest nation in the world, so if we are not safe every other nation must be in deep trouble. In truth, with all of the intelligence agencies looking after our best interests, we, as a nation, still are not safe.

As a politics major, I actually sat down and watched the testimony of Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the United States National Security Advisor for President Bush. She was one of the leading advisors on the Bush administration during the injustices that transpired on our nation and thus held accountable for any mistakes or errors that occurred prior to the attack on our country. What could have gone wrong when we were the victim of a sneak attack by a terrorist group that spent four years planning this action? There is considerable evidence that can allow someone to speculate that the upper echelon of the United States government may have chosen to ignore the warnings presented by the CIA and FBI. Could this be true? Yes, it is possible and it is not the first time this has happen in our nation’s history, how quickly does a nation forget Pearl Harbor?

Deep into World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been very outspoken about his idea to stay uninvolved and impartial. He did so by giving away anything of military use to Britain. The Germans and the Japanese were handling Britain with ease and were posed to massacre the rest of Eastern Europe. America did not want to go to war because our country was strongly against it. FDR knew that Britain was in trouble. He had to find a way to get involved, but wanted to look as if he had no other choice.

Days before Pearl Harbor, memos had hit the president’s desk saying that an attack on the naval base was suspected. This memo was confirmed the day before the attack and made official. Somehow this document never made it to the residing officers at Pearl Harbor and resulted in the U.S. entering World War II to save Eastern Europe from the Nazi’s regime. Not to mention the U.S. unveiling a weapon on Japan that killed innocent women and children. All of which could have been prevented had that note made it to the officers in Pear Harbor. How do these facts compare to the situation at hand? In my eyes, there are too many similarities that make me believe this was what Bush wanted.

Now I am not saying Bush wanted the blood of hundreds of innocent Americans to be spilt but Bush did want to dethrone Saddam Hussein. Upon entering the White House Bush started to probe the UN weapon inspectors to check and reject Iraq for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Bush was looking for any way he could jump into a war with Iraq and finish the job of removing Hussein that his father could not.

President Bush was presented in his first seven months in offices three separate reports from CIA and FBI that spoke of attacks they intimate. One report from the CIA even spoke of the need for the FBI to closely investigate the aviation schools across the United States. Somehow this was taken as speculation. Our country has one golden rule of intelligence: the CIA does not talk with the FBI and vice versa. This to me seems to be a serious concern since foreign terrorists are the people that the United States has to be concerned with. President Bush could have seen this attack on America as a great way to start a justified war against evil doers, most notably Hussein.

Upon the terrorist attacks the President went to Fort David with the advisors of his staff. They knew the attacks were caused by Osama Bin Laden’s Al Queda organization, whose strong hold was located in Afghanistan. However when the military agenda was set, Bush made it a point to make plans for an Operation against Iraq following the end of the war with Afghanistan. Our country was just struck by a terrorist group based in and supported by the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. Yet Bush makes sure to add Iraq to his war agenda with no evidence that this country had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, which seems to be convenient.

Was this planned? In my mind, I think it was. President Bush saw an opportunity to start a war against Saddam without looking like he picked a fight. Certainly Bush could not have known the hundreds of American soldiers that were going to be killed or that millions of dollars of revenue were going to be lost but what better reason to go to war then to defend the country against people who attacked it. In our war with Iraq, Bush did not stop until he captured Saddam. Meanwhile, once the Taliban fell, Bush did not see the same urgent need to grab hold of Bin Laden, who is still planning another attack on our country as we speak.