In his prepared testimony, all Clark said was that the Bush admin considered terrorism important, but not urgent, pre-9/11. In other words, they thought what everybody here in the US thought.
One snippet of his testimomy:
Quote:
I've learned over time that if you go for the perfect solution, the best solution, you don't get very far in actually achieving things. You can write nice reports if you're at the Brookings commission or something. But if you want to get something done in the real world, you do what is doable and you try to do a little bit more. But you don't shoot for the moon. And I think some of the systemic things that are obvious to you I know they are were more practical after 9/11 than they were after the millennium.
Remember, in the millennium [plot] we succeeded in stopping the attacks. That was good news. But it was not good news for those of us who also wanted to put pressure on the Congress and pressure on O.M.B. [Office of Management and Budget] and other places, because we were not able to point to and I hate to say this body bags. You know, unfortunately, this country takes body bags it requires body bags sometimes to make really tough decisions about money and about governmental arrangements.
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Commission Vice Chair Lee H. Hamilton noted: These hearings will be a historic opportunity to inform our final report, understand how September 11 happened, and help us formulate recommendations to make America safer and more secure.
The point if this inquiry is about preparing for the future. The press is SPIN SPIN SPINing it into a "bush at fault" thing. Well, I would too if my job was to sell newspapers, I guess. Time for everyone to hop on the book tour bus.