A lot has been written in recent days about Richard Clarke’s book, his interview on 60 Minutes and elsewhere, and his testimony before the 9/11 Commission. His introductory statement in testifying before that commission is here.
I think the most telling and certainly the most moving part of his statement is when he says: “Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you.”
First, I think that all of us, regardless of political persuasion and position on whether or how we should be fighting the War on Terror, should acknowledge that this statement is objectively true. Our government failed in its most basic obligation to its citizens and it did so over a long period of time and under administrations of both political parties. There is so much room for the assignment of blame that the very act of attempting to assign blame is frivolous.
Second, I can’t even hope to conjecture what has motivated Mr. Clarke to write his book. It may be pique or concern or guilt or greed. But, more importantly, I simply can’t understand why he remained in government so long. By his own words and those of many others it certainly wasn’t to influence events. And, judging by what’s been said by and about him, it can’t have been power, or esteem, or the joy of doing it. Can he have remained in government for so many years simply for a paycheck?
De Maistre famously wrote: “A country has the government it deserves.” I certainly hope that this is not the government that we deserve.
Dave –
>Can he have remained in government for so many years simply for a paycheck?
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