9/11 report shows problems Bush can't fix

The 9/11 Commission has released its report on how the 9/11 hijackers were able work their evil. The executive summary begins this way:

Ten Commissioners—five Republicans and five Democrats chosen by elected leaders from our nation’s capital at a time of great partisan division—have come together to present this report without dissent.

We have come together with a unity of purpose because our nation demands it. September 11, 2001, was a day of unprecedented shock and suffering in the history of the United States. The nation was unprepared.

The commission identified a large array of intelligence failings of both the Clinton and Bush administrations. However, the one failure most responsible for the attack in the first place is the one least likely to be fixed. That failure is a transparency in government. According to Lee Hamilton, the commission's vice chair,

The U.S. government has access to vast amounts of information, but it has a weak process, a weak system of processing and using that information. The need to share must replace need to know.

It is most unfortunate for the country that Bush and his entire administration are ideologically opposed to such transparency. That is why we are unsafe with them in office. Given the choice between dropping a veil of secrecy over government and fostering open, clear communication between citizens, the government and the world, Bush will choose to keep the secret. That's a bad choice because the road to an end to terrorism leads through increased transparency.

Evidence of Bush's fetish for secrecy is seen in his utter and complete opposition to the 9/11 report, the emerging scandal of a system of secret prisons primarily established to use torture to interrogate terror suspects, his continued refusal to release documents related to Cheney's energy task force, and his habit of exacting immediate revenge on all who oppose him.

Under this administration, there is no chance that our disconnected and uncommunicative intelligence agencies will become less so. The ideological climate is risk averse. A potential whistle blower knows in advance that messengers get killed for bringing bad or ideologically contrary news. Under this administration, there is no chance that Al Qaeda will become smaller. Bush's successes in the war on terror are dwarfed by his failures. Yes, Iraq is Saddam-free, but it never had a material link to terrorist activity in the US. It does now, though, thanks to the unrelenting, festering chaos precipitated by Bush's ill-advised invasion. Yes, the US toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan but Bush quickly turned his attention to Iraq. Now the Taliban is resurging; the warlords are perhaps a greater threat than the Taliban; opium production is once again at record highs. To top it all off, imagery of American soldiers torturing Arabs is now ubiquitous in the Arab world. That's a direct result of the culture of secrecy practiced by Bush.

Oh sure, Bush is spinning now. Talk about a flip-flopper: back in May of 2002 Bush opposed the formation of the commission. Now, he's welcoming the "constructive recommendations" of the report. But his actions speak louder than words. Ours should also. Vote Kerry 2004. It's important.