Amen, Brother!

A few hundred miles south, the administration of George W. Bush was deciding
how to react to the murder of more than 3,000 Americans. Bob Woodward's book
"Bush at War," based on interviews with Bush and written with the cooperation of
his top officials, explains how the White House saw 9/11 as an opportunity--not to
pull us together, but to get its way on a long laundry list of partisan agenda items.

The Administration pinned the blame on Osama on the afternoon of 9/11,
Woodward writes: "Al Qaeda was the only terrorist organization capable of such
spectacular, well-coordinated attacks, [George] Tenet said." They didn't have hard
evidence, and no one had claimed responsibility, yet Bush had already decided to
attack Afghanistan (news - web sites).

At a 4 p.m. meeting of the National Security Council on September 12, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "raised the question of Iraq (news - web sites). Why
shouldn't we go against Iraq, not just Al Qaeda? he asked." No one mentioned
that secular Iraq and fundamentalist Al Qaeda were mortal enemies. On September
15, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz "estimated that there was a 10 to 50
percent chance Saddam was involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks." More
conjecture.

Despite an absence of evidence that Iraq had been involved with 9/11, Bush's men
had decided to take out Saddam years before taking office. After floating a variety
of excuses that all turned out to be lies, they got their way in March 2003. Neither
America's allies, nor its people marching the streets, nor facts that contradicted
Bush's baseless charges, could stop them.

Instead of abandoning standard party-line politics, Bush cheapened the 9/11
attacks by using them to promote Republican platform planks like free trade and
huge tax cuts for his rich contributors. Instead of uniting Americans, he smeared
Democrats as unpatriotic. Instead of going after the Saudi and Pakistani
government officials who contributed to 9/11, he called them allies in a "war on
terrorism" that killed and maimed ordinary, innocent Muslims. And he ruined a
feeling of post-9/11 national unity that had prevailed among all Americans.

9/11 sure as hell didn't change the politicians. When that became clear, I
swore--despite my sadness--that it wouldn't change me either. Tweet