George W. Bush, the very President who fought so hard against an independent inquiry into the 9/11 attacks until forced to do so by the estates of the 3000 who were murdered, has finally been forced to eat humble pie. Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid won a huge victory when Congress voted to adopt most of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations (by votes of 371-40 in the House and 85-8, more than enough to be veto-proof) fulfilling an election promise the Democratic leaders made on the way to getting Congress back last year; and Bush said he would sign the bill. (PDF of the report here.)
It's amazing that it's taken three years to get to this moment. It's going to be very expensive to implement Kean-Hamilton, but the fact is it could have been paid for with all the money blown on Iraq with plenty to spare. Rather than fortify the defences, the US unwisely decided to go on the offence overseas. By now, the states could have had several additional military units with members from all branches as well as stronger ports and airports.
And the lost opportunity of creating permanent jobs at home, good jobs for the long term, paying taxes to the three levels of government to protect against sudden market and interest shocks like we've seen in the last few days. Instead, who knows how much has been lost not just in terms of lives and wounded, but also corruption in Baghdad and kickbacks to terrorists based in Tehran and Riyadh?
Bush had nearly six years to do what the Democrats were telling him was necessary all along. A veto here would have been a total disaster, if for no other reason than it would have been overriden in a heartbeat. But for now, there is some balance back in DC. If the GOP was still running Congress, the 9/11 report would never have gotten into committee let alone on the floor for a final vote.
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