All gut, no brains
The head of Homeland Security was quoted yesterday as saying that he had “a gut feeling” that we were about to be attacked by terrorists. And for all we know, he may wind up being right. But his comment in no way makes me feel better:
- If he’s the secretary for Homeland Security, shouldn’t he have more than “a gut feeling”? Shouldn’t he have, y’know, research intelligence?
- One of his co-workers is famous for having had “gut feelings” in the past — that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction hidden away in a country that hadn’t attacked us and that were now aimed at us and our allies; that we would be greeted as heroes in that country; that a certain hurricane was going to blow over and nothing needed to be done in preparation or response; and even that God had placed him in this special position to advance His will — and so far, none of that has panned out. (Unless God was trying to hasten the Apocalypse.)
So after all our expenditures on Homeland Security, and all the civil liberties we’ve lost, and the deep damage to habeas corpus and due process and our international reputation, this is what we’ve got? A gut feeling? My gut tells me this is not enough.
July 12th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
On Countdown with Kith Obermann on MSNBC there was a piece about how the Bush administration came out with a new failed terrorist plot each time they were getting called on the carpet.
This seems like another time it is happening. From the news reports I’ve read there is no substantiated information on a terrorist plot, just general rumblings. Yes the general rumblings need to be paid attention to, but with the administrations lies and deflection tactics it’s hard to know what is really going on and if we should believe them.
Paul
July 13th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Chertoff is the guy who said the day after Katrina he read a headline that said “NEW ORLEANS DODGES BULLET” and assumed nothing was wrong. This speaks to the issue of where he gets his “intelligence.”