To the editor:

I would like to comment on Rick Baker’s Sept. 29 letter regarding Bush failures. He is correct that there have been no airline hijackings or any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11. A credit to the Bush “pre-emptive” strategy?

He is wrong, however, in laying blame on the Bush administration for the 9/11 event itself. Bush was only in office nine months before that disaster, and any blame or failure rests squarely on the shoulders of Bill Clinton and company who failed in any meaningful way to expand or monitor our intelligence assets as well as to forcefully and aggressively respond to terrorist attacks upon U.S. assets and personnel abroad (Khobar Towers, U.S. embassies, and our naval ship in Aden Harbor).

Clinton’s verbal bravado to “pursue all attackers” was neither implemented nor carried out. (He had other events to address, like fighting impeachment for lying under oath!) Even when Osama bin Laden himself was offered up to the United States by the Sudanese government, Clinton rejected the offer. Could it be that the terrorists were emboldened by Clinton’s failures to respond and believed a greater attack on U.S. soil would also go unanswered?

Jim McMurray,
Lawrence