Path to another 9/11?

Path To 9/11 gets four stars but probably not for the reason most who know me think. This is something everyone should watch (it still can be viewed free on ABC's Web site), not once but as often as needed to keep fresh in mind that there are fanatical people in this world who are committed to one thing and one thing only.

It's too bad so many remain mired in political agendas, finger-pointing and outright nutball conspiracy mindsets -- or worse, the uninformed state of denial in which none of this is real. That serves one purpose: to distract attention from what every American, every person on this earth who values his or her own life, needs to focus upon.

This movie/docudrama/whatever offered a stark reminder of one very sobering fact. In any life and death struggle (i.e. war), the side that is most committed to its cause wins. These fanatical freaks with their twisted version of Islam are more than willing to die for their purpose. Can more than a fraction in this country say the same?

Hell no, they can't. We're more concerned with doing what's "right" ... we can't listen to the enemy's phone calls, trace their bank records, look in laptops or address books or even use means far short of what common sense should tell anyone is actually extreme in questioning those who are captured. We've spent billions upon billions on intelligence-gathering methods, training that ensures we have the most capable people in place to do a job and the equipment to do that job, yet we tie their hands at every turn.

If Team A and Team B line up to play a football game, and Team A is given a strict set of rules while Team B is allowed to do whatever it pleases, who wins? Well, Team B isn't playing by any rules in this case while Team A does little more than bicker in the huddle.

That we have not endured another episode on the level of 9/11 is part testimony to the hard work that's going on behind the scenes (and I mean WAY behind the scenes, as virtually nothing positive is reported these days) and part fluke. I say fluke, because the circumstances by which America was hamstrung before 9/11 largely remain in place -- we are shrouded in an environment of CYA because there's just too damn much concern with rules that rightly (in most cases, anyway) govern a civilized society day by day but should not have a thing to do with fighting a war.

Path To 9/11 didn't make me despise Bill Clinton's administration any more than I already did. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

But it reminded me that we're at war with a global enemy whose intent is to kill as many of us as possible by using any means available. We're not going to talk them down. So we damn sure better get in the game.

(Imported from Sept. 12, 2006)