"Like what exactly? You can certainly run around with your hair on fire and demand someone do something, but if you have nothing to offer as a suggestion after all this time, I'd say you've answered your own demand. Now then, when you come up with some brilliant strategy that would have solved the problem without benefit of hindsight, let us know. Until then, STFU."

True.

I guess that Bush could have responded by having someone contact the FAA and issue a terrorist alert. He could have ordered that bag checkered be on the lookout for suspicious people who might be carrying weapons, any weapons including box cutters.

He could have asked the CIA and INS to compare notes to see if anyone connected to Al Quaida has tried to enter the country lately. (no there was no law against this, none at all)

He could have considered his prior briefing about terrorists from Al Quaida taking over planes and flying them into buildings in the Philippenes and asked if anyone was monitoring our own flying schools. Have could have instituted a color coded alert level and then raised it to orange thus discouraging some passengers from taking their ill fated flights into a pillar of glass and steel. He could have followed Ashcroft's wisdom and asked his family, friends and the American people that maybe they wouldn't want to take a commercial flight in the next couple of months. Instead of letting Ted Olsen's wife hop on board a doomed flight with nary a farewell.

He could have done a lot of of things. Maybe none them would have had any impact on the ultimate outcome. But at least, like Admiral Kimmel, he could have tried, no matter how incompetently.

Instead, he responded to the warnings with "Well now you've covered your ass."

That is about the worst anyone could have ever done.

Ever.

Shooter, I seriously doubt the WH and news sources would have trotted out O'Hanlon as a war critic if there weren't some evidence he criticized the war. It is one thing to run a video of a former Sunni insurgent now accepting support and weapons from the US to go after extremists in Iraq and trotting out a member of the Kuwaiti royal family pretending he is a Sunni insurgent pledging support to the US cause. O'Hanlon represents the "one percent solution" of those whose support has never waivered. He was lost now he is found, lets all learn from his lesson and get in line.

The quote you made is one of I believe a few where he took the administration to task for what was going on and his own personal doubts about this adventure's success. However, that was not Glenn's point. What he was arguing was that O'Hanlon supported this war (he did), gushed over the lightning blitzkried of success at taking Baghdad, and after the insurgency had begun gladly reported every glimmer of hope. He then broke and expressed his moments of doubt and pessimism, like a willing soldier suddenly unwilling to cross the crest of the trench to face the ongoing machine gun fire. Now that the fire has been silenced and General Haig has brought in bigger guns, he's back to say "Once more into the Somme boys! Once more into the Somme!"

That is the point I think Glenn was making. He is not a part of the ever oppositional left who sees the light, but a man for the war, discouraged by it's costs and suddenly revitalized by the sound and thunder of the newly arrived 88s. Thats ok if he is described that way. To be described as someone who was always against the war is the lie.

By the way, thanks for understanding. For all the things gushed over the wonders of the MacBook, the bastard is an overpriced poorly constructed web program (yes I'm talking about you Safari) smoke job with an oversized mousepad that causes my cursor to jump around (and suddenly delete text) more often than Robin Williams during his coke days.

BTW, how do you italicize the info you respond to. I tried that with word and then pasted it into the response but it didn't take. I also wonder why this site doesn't allow for links, but that is another story.)