On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 05:30:45 GMT, Mike Marron
wrote:

Clark stillnospam@me wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

So, the USAF is exempt from any blame whatsoever for the 9/11 attacks?

Have you seen the Brett Farve commercial about telling people what they
should have done?

Uhh, no.

Do you see any similarity between your comments and "monday
morning quarterbacking"?

Again, my answer is "no." Answering a question with a question is a
transparent method of dodging the original question. Furthur, this has
nothing to do with any "monday morning quarterbacking." Even after
the event more than two years later, what happened on 9/11 is still to
this day almost impossible to comprehend. AFAIK, nobody knew
what was about to happen back on Sept. 11, 2001, but that's the
whole point! In my ever-so-humble opinion, ALL branches of the
military INCLUDING our beloved USAF and also our so-called
"intelligence" communities quite frankly dropped the ball BIG
time, just like I said. Granted, the stunning victories by our
military and intelligence communities in Afghanistan and also in the
more recent "Shock & Awe" campaign in Iraq is fantastic news,
but this good news will forever be tempered by the thousands
who died during the WTC and Pentagon attacks on 9/11.


I tend to ask these questions a lot of you sorts, and get stunning
silence in return, but we'll try again.

How did the Air force "Drop the ball?". Specifically, how did it
drop the ball.
Are you stating that there should have been armed CAP around New
York, with orders to shoot down airliners?
Do you have any idea of just how many THOUSAND leads involving
potential attacks on the U.S. move through the intelligence community?
Seperating the dross from teh chaff is a full time job and it is not
always successful.
Also, can you explain why the USAF should have gotten involved ina
federal crime? Pre-9/11 they had some peripheral involvement, but
nothing like the direct linkage you seem to imagine.
Yes, up until 9/11, hijackings went like this.
Arabic/Japanese/White fellow stands up and shouts, "This plane is
going to Havana, Senors!". The pilots smile and nod, and the
stewardesses work to keep everyone calm. If some lunatic wants to
charge the hijackers, they'll try to dissuade him.
Why?
Because before 9/11 you were a HELL of a lot more likely to survive
if you cooperated. The hijackers generally had requrests, and wanted
to make a political statement-- body count was not hte main objective.
The reason-- the ONLY reason for the revolt on the last airliner was
that the timeing was off just enough for the passengers to find out
that this was NOT a typical hijacking. You'll note, the plane
crashed-- if it had been a typical hijacking, we'd all be wondering
why they did such a suicidal thing.
Than there's the matter of timing-- the air force doesn't know
there's going to be a hijacking, because if they did, the hijackers
would have been seized at the airports.
When the first plane hits, they *still* don't know there's a
hijacking, because most everyone thought it was a crash. When the
SECOND plane hit, they knew something was up, and quickly ordered
every plane down. Now what? You're looking for potential enemy
planes, but you CANNOT simply give a blanket shootdown order until you
give the friendlies a chance to land.
In any case, the USAF wasn't even involved in this until the planes
were inthe air, so if any dropped the ball, it was the FBI/CIA...but
there's one final point.

Bad guys are smart. Bin Laden is a very Smart SOB, and he has
people who are not afraid to die for him. He's not an idiot like
Hussein, more's the pity.
There is a desire in any nation, but I think it's especially
prevalent in the U.S. to assume that any failure means "We screwed
up." because then once you figure out what YOU did wrong, the problems
solved.
In reality, Al Qaeda located a blind spot, and exploited it. They
were smart, and scored one on us. It's much more comforting to say
that they were idiots who only succeeded through dint of OUR blindness
than to admit that yes, we are fighting some fairly bright and scary
people.