After seeing the scaled down and released to TV version of The Path to 9/11, I must say the parties deserving blame were still exposed. Those parties are, the weak kneed Clinton Administration, Conspiracy Theorists and Civil Libertarians.

The Clinton Administration’s blame

No matter how many excuses are made, the bottom line is that the Clinton Administration had the most time to be fully aware of and deal with Osama bin Laden before 9/11. We faced the most attacks from Islamic-types on Clinton’s watch and he failed to do anything close to enough about it. Bomb after bomb after bomb went off and the Clinton Administration never launched an all out war against any of the state sponsors of these terrorists. We were supposed to think that the attacks were just the actions of a few whacked out Muslims. Not that they were acting with the full backing of various Islamic nations.

Especially after the USS Cole attack, there should have been swift and immediate war with at least Afghanistan. My word, if it took an open declaration of war, 2 bombed embassies, one bombed ship and two demolished towers, to enrage America enough to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, what will it take for us to decide to attack other state sponsors of terrorism? (That does not even include the 1993 WTC bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing or the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.) I dare not wonder how many Americans would have to be murdered before there was all out bi-partisan support for the war against Islamic radicals.

Conspiracy Theorists’ blame

During the moments Bill Clinton had enough guts to attack Islamic radicals, he had to deal with conspiracy theorists crying “wage the dog”. Because he was locked up in the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal. Those conspiracy theorists were some of the less hawkish Republicans and the media.

The Republicans.

The media.

If you’ve ever held a position of leadership over a group of 100 people of more, you know the looniest conspiracy theories can be born out of thin air. Terrorists can kill Americans under the Clinton or Bush Administrations and any response is immediately scorned by conspiracy nuts.

Civil Libertarians’ blame

Civil Libertarians have always worked to tie the hands of any law enforcement body. If they had their way, a police officer would have to read 20 pages of “rights” to someone they pull over for speeding. The over zealous supposed defenders of civil liberties and their anything goes, lock me up for nothing mentality helped encourage laws that prevented our government from taking the measures necessary to apprehend terrorists. Some of the issues have been addressed by the Bush Administration, but civil libertarians would rather have more dead bodies, than to dare think the government might review books they check out of a public library, or see the meter reader tip off the authorities to some suspicious activity, or have some people be subject to additional screening at the airport, or investigate phone calls with a terrorist operative outside of the USA.

For the civil libertarians, the bodies can pile up, so long as they can say they had “total freedom” at their funeral. Nevermind they wish to grant so much “freedom”, that it allows the enemy to cut their heads off! Sometimes ACLU attorney and former Republican Congressman Bob Barr is in this category. And hey, he was one of the chief hounds during the Lewinsky scandal. Investigate a President till the end of his term, but don’t dare investigate a potential terrorists without jumping through 100 flaming hoops.

Conclusion

So anyway, the first night of The Path to 9/11 was very watered down, but still able to make it’s point. Just as writer Cyrus Nowrasteh said. Having gone through the entire 9/11 Commission report and other material, I think Nowrasteh’s unedited work was a close depiction of the facts. A shame it all was not aired on TV.

Allahpundit at Hot Air has a copy of an edited versus unedited scene from the first night. He also found a post where ABC’s hired hand, Richard Clarke is called out for his role in missing opportunities to kill Osama bin Laden.

One small issue I had with the movie, it was not broadcast for HDTV viewing!!!