Americans commemorated recently the 15th year since the 9/11 attacks.
It was a life-changer for many of us. It certainly changed the way we view our place in the world, and whether we are as “safe” as we thought we were.
There’s been plenty of blame tossed around in the decade-and-a-half since that terrible day.
Lots of reputations have been soiled and sullied.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, CIA director George Tenet all have taken their share of hits over what happened.
One person, though, skated through it. And for the life of me, I am baffled over how this happened.
We had a national security adviser on duty. Condoleezza Rice was that person. Rice’s task, as her job title declares, was to protect our nation. It was her duty to ensure that we remained alert and vigilant against any threat.
On Sept. 11, 2001, barely nine months into the Bush administration’s first term, it all fell apart.
Why didn’t Condi Rice take the hit? How did she escape the blame that was leveled at so many of her colleagues?
As near as I can discern, her national reputation remains largely intact.
The Afghan War that developed shortly after the attack is still under way. We’ve gotten out of Iraq, ending a war that President Bush started based on false information about Iraq’s non-existent role in the 9/11 attack.
Still, of all the finger-pointing — at Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Powell, Tenet and the rest — no one has laid a hand on the individual, Condi Rice, whose primary responsibility was to ensure that this kind of attack doesn’t occur.
She failed.
How is that she’s never been held accountable for that failure?
