Polyanna

The 9/11 report, where not redacted to protect the reputations of bad politicians or very bad nations, tells a story of pathetic failure piled on pathetic failure, and this ought to be a cause for great optimism about the likelihood of our preventing future major terror attacks in this country.

The 9/11 plot succeeded not because the hijack crew had a brilliant plan executed with ruthless efficiency, nor because we are systemically too stupid to stop terrorists. It succeeded because the FBI and CIA made stupid mistake after stupid mistake after stupid mistake. If a chain of error this long and this moronic is what it takes for Al-Qaeda plots to succeed, they should not be too confident of future success. The hijackers got lucky, very lucky, again and again. If they whiff only one time, or the FBI or CIA doesn’t make only one out of their many mistakes, the plot fails.

Yes, indeed. When it comes to stopping terror plots, we are good enough, and smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like us.

Filed under: politics/war