When reports of intelligence warnings pre-9/11 magically appeared last month, it was abundantly clear that our government failed us somewhere. But instead of focusing on where the intelligence broke down, the Bush administration’s spin doctors were on every news program labeling those who questioned the reports as being irresponsible and having a motive of political gamesmanship in a time of war.

Since when does questioning our government make us unpatriotic? Actually, it is every citizen’s responsibility. The government’s first duty is to protect it’s citizens, and the citizens have to keep their government vigilant.

The administration’s political pundits went so far as to blame President Clinton for 9/11. If we follow that logic, then Clinton should be blamed for not killing bin Laden in covert operations; Bush senior should be blamed for not ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein who helped finance al Qaeda; and Reagan should be blamed for not rebuilding Afghanistan after the Soviet retreat and therefore allowing the U.S. backed Taliban to become so militant. The logic shows the inadequacy in blaming any one president or administration, but it does point to a profoundly failed political policy on Arab nations.

The President says that he did not have any specific information to prevent 9/11. His advisors, Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and Robert Mueller said that they did not have anything specific information. The question is why didn’t they? The CIA, the State Department, and the National Security Council had many indications of an imminent attack since May. Then there was the infamous Aug 6 FBI report titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” connecting Arab terrorists with U.S. flight schools. And the FAA issued the Aug 18 circular on disguised weapons. All the dots were there, but for some reason, no one connected them.

Vice President Cheney said on Meet the Press, “what kind of a warning should we give?” Well, does our government need an announcement from terrorists about the exact date, time, place, and what they are planning? That is what the intelligence community is supposed to do. Cheney also said that there is a lot of electronic “chatter” picked up by the intelligence community, on the same scale as last summer. This “chatter” could be an indication of another terrorist attack. The Vice President said, “it is not a question of if but when the next attack would occur.”

Let’s hope this administration puts fixing the intelligence breakdown on high priority so that they can connect the dots next time. Hindsight is 20/20. Let’s learn from it - Fast.