I am so not a political expert. But I'm interested. I want to exercise my privilege and vote for Presidents and Senators and Congressman. In today's world filled with dozens of news channels, mind you 24/7 along with your 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm and morning news there are newspapers. Political magazines, Facebook, Google and so many resources, so many more than we used to have. We can find out how our candidates voted. What their beliefs are. History in business and politics. Watch debates and interviews. This is great stuff.
But I am so overwhelmed watching the news tonight. Jeb Bush and Donald Trump feuding. Well OK, that's not so news. But listening to the news anchors, listening to the "experts", retired political analysts, media billionaires and a slew of others repeating what Jeb Bush said. This one line that keeps playing in my head is Jeb Bush referring to Donald Trump talking about 9/11/01 and his brother George W. Bush "I don't know why he keeps bringing that up."
Wait. What? You don't know why Donald Trump keeps bringing up 9/11/01. Hey I'm no politician but I watched the Republican Debates I heard this exchange:
"Your brother and your brother's administration gave us Barack Obama because it was such a disaster those last three months that Abraham Lincoln couldn't have been elected," Trump said.
Bush then defended his brother regarding Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a day during President George W. Bush's administration on which more than 2,700 people lost their lives.
"As it relates to my brother, there's one thing I know for sure: He kept us safe," Bush said. "I don't know if you remember, Donald -- you remember the rubble? You remember the firefighter with his arms around him? He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and fight Islamic terrorism, and he did keep us safe."
I remember sitting there and saying out loud to my husband, how really can he say that when George W Bush was President when the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and who knows what was next if the terrorists weren't forced down in PA on September 11, 2001. I mean that's not really saying he kept us safe, almost 3,000 people died that day. I was waiting to see who was going to remind him of that at the debate, but, no one did. And no one did after that either. Until Donald Trump got tired of him saying that. Because, it's not true.
How does the media now let this go? Jed Bush is mad about this. Let's see. It's just Donald Trump getting more attention. It's just Donald Trump pushing Jed's buttons. Jed's just protecting his brother so we can understand that. What? How come media people you are not saying, well that is true. That did happen under his watch and by the way, come on. I know you have done your homework guys - you read the reports too. The 9/11 investigation follow up pretty clearly spells out that President Bush was critically warned repeatedly by his CIA and informants were really worried, very sure there was an imminent attack being planned on our soil. Something about airplanes. Something about big, federal or important buildings. FBI arrested one of the 9/11 attackers in Michigan and begged for the rights to seize and search everything. Computers, papers, everything. But they weren't granted that right. Someone said hey, two of these guys on our list are taking flying lessons, this is a red flag. But no President Bush didn't listen. Maybe because the guy saying it was a "Clinton" day staffer. Maybe he just didn't believe it. Finally, he said OK make a plan. Months go by. His advisers, his top spies, they are telling him something is going to go down, but you know he's got a lot going on. He only took over a couple of months ago and I guess terrorism attacks maybe on our soil wasn't #1 priority. These guys testified at the hearings. So I don't think President Bush ever would want to hurt us or turn a blind eye. But he didn't really keep us safer either. I think if he would have been more on it, more upset about it, listened closer, granted safeguards, you know at least try......
So maybe, just maybe Donald Trump is saying it because, wait for it, because it's true. And nothing in the world could make me angrier than anyone, but especially a Presidential candidate saying, I don't know why he keeps bringing it up....... You have to. We all have to. Why -
1. Because we promised we all did, we swear we will never forget 9/11. We promised them, all of them we would not forget them and let their lives go in vein.
2. Because anyone in this world who is smart knows that the worse the error, the terror or the missed step in life, the more you can learn from it and do better so that it, or something worse might not ever happen again.
3. Anyone, and I heard plenty of you Donald Trump/Republican Party haters say many times tonight, oh yeah why does Trump keep bringing it up, it's 13 years ago, it doesn't matter any more then you, you who say that, are America's problem. If we cannot learn from, discuss and make anything better come from the worst disaster that happened on our soil, then you are not serious about making America safer, stronger or better. You are just playing political games.
If you disagree with the way to go about it, that's OK, this is America, but never say it's just a political ploy, game or irrelevant when it comes to learning from our history.
And understand I'm not blaming President Bush either. No one I think no one could have put this catastrophic plot completely together. But. Had he specified after that horrific day, my brother kept us safer. I could say that's more true. Had he said look how fast he got the nation back united and we had a plan in place quickly for better security, etc and he did, because after the terrible attack he probably ended up using the plan his top spies, CIA and advisers told him they had before it all happened and that was a good start.
But maybe better, tougher immigration laws and policies could have stopped one or two or six of the immigrants that were here even legally. Maybe having a tough enforced stance in place would have deported the 6 who were here illegally. That could have made a real impact on that day. Maybe it wouldn't have stopped all of the horror, but every little bit could have made a big difference. Maybe letting the FBI search and seize would have turned up the whole plot, lets say he was not on a secure e-mail server and we busted up the whole thing.
No, we will never know. But to say that having smarter, tougher laws and implementing what we did not have then could never change anything means that we just give up. I don't want to give up to terrorists. I don't want them to kill more innocent people. I don't know who they are either, but I would like to feel safe enough knowing my government will know and take care of it.
Would the families who lost loved ones fighting for us in Iraq which well, we know what that has done and led to now in the Middle East compliments of President Bush, would they agree their loved ones were safer.
Devastating Hurricane Katrina that tore apart more than homes and property, it ripped lives a part for ever. While President Bush was on vacation at his ranch. For 27 days. Then a few days after that so more than a month later, he flew by overhead to look down at the utter disaster, chaos and confusion of horrendous living conditions, men women children. Lack of aid. Lack of response. Not enough food. Not enough shelter. Diseases. Mold. Mud. Homes wrecked. Businesses wrecked. Those people so terribly affected, many I'm sure that never really recovered everything they had and worked so hard for, I'm sure they didn't feel safer under President Bush.
But you know, I see the smug grin the last couple of days on Jeb Bush's face, kind of like I'm just going to say anything because well, I know something. And Romney back on TV all of a sudden and he definitely has that smug grin too, you know when he said well I'm sure it won't be Trump who is the candidate. Didn't Jed Bush say almost the exact same thing. Maybe there's a memo out and I haven't gotten it.
And Charles Krauthammer this wasn't just an issue in 04 and 08, it's still an issue because we haven't learned every thing we possibly can from that 9/11/01. It's not a reality show, this is very real for too many of us too. You know others might be bringing up something real and you might be missing it because you don't happen to like him personally. Here's where I was 9/11/01, I don't want to be there ever again. I don't want anyone else to ever be there again because of some good old boys gang or old fashioned politics. Pass it on, all the experts and politicians who haven't solved anything yet and especially those who have made it worse, keep your eyes and ears and mind open, you never know you might be able to learn something new.
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