Protection racket

Terror, and Truth

By Rick Horowitz

We'll have to leave the whys to the historians -- and the psychologists. Was he trying to avenge his father? Outshine him? Or were the cakewalk fantasies of a remade Middle East just too enticing for a foreign-policy amateur to resist?

Whatever the reason, we know the result:

We took our eye off the ball, and we let bin Laden get away.

There it is -- the undeniable core of it -- in one easy-to-understand sentence.

Now, when I say "we" took our eye off the ball, I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about our president. I'm talking about George Bush, and the people who "advise" him. The ones who've been shouting lately about what a dangerous world we live in, with al Qaeda still on the loose, and how they're the only ones who can protect us.

Well, excuse me, but they're the ones who didn't finish off al Qaeda when they had the chance, almost five years ago! Who were so obsessed with Saddam Hussein and Iraq that they didn't stay focused on the people who had actually attacked us! Who had vowed to keep attacking us!

It was bin Laden who brought the towers down, who set the Pentagon aflame. But within days of 9/11 -- and the insiders' accounts all confirm this -- the president and his people were looking for a way to connect the attacks to Saddam. It didn't matter what the evidence showed -- they wanted Saddam!

So even when we went into Afghanistan to search for bin Laden and his murderous gang, the president and his people were already planning for Iraq. We were already diverting time and energy and manpower and equipment to another war. A war we didn't need to fight. And a huge distraction from the real threat.

We took our eye off the ball, and bin Laden got away -- and we've been paying for it ever since. Instead of showing the world that if you mess with us, you suffer the consequences, we gave the man an escape route, and the chance to live on as the big shot who evaded us. He's had five more years to plot and to plan. To release more videos. To set more attacks in motion, and inspire still others. To recruit more followers all around the world.

Speaking of which: Do you think our little misadventure in Iraq isn't helping bin Laden attract even more angry young Muslims to do his awful bidding? Of course it is! He couldn't have asked for more help than the sight of us occupying Iraq -- except, perhaps, for our tacking on a prisoner-abuse scandal like Abu Ghraib.

The president might as well have posed in one of those big red-white-and-blue-striped top hats: "Uncle George Wants You!"

But Iraq is a "central front" in the war on terror, the president and his people keep insisting -- bin Laden even said so! Of course he did -- once we put the place in our crosshairs! We're the ones who turned it into a "central front." Bin Laden is evil, but he's not stupid; he saw an opportunity to add to the chaos, and he took it. But it was the president and his gang who handed him that opportunity.

So now these are the people -- George Bush and his "advisers" -- who have the gall to claim that they're our great protectors? That no one else can keep us safe the way they can? You'd laugh, if you weren't too busy crying. Crying, and looking nervously to the future.

They had their chance, five years ago. They blew it.

And the next 9/11 -- whenever it happens, wherever it happens -- is on their shoulders.

Posted 8/15/06. Get award-winning commentary right here from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

Search the Web Search Rick's!

©2006 Rick Horowitz. All rights reserved.