Playing the Blame Game
Keith Olbermann, who is one of my favorite mainstream media people, has shifted his regular "Countdown" show to an investigation of the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11. I understand that people are angry and looking for accountability and blame, but honestly, mistakes like overlooking the perceived threat of al Qaeda pre-9/11 probably happen a lot. None of them actually come to fruition, though, like 9/11 did. No one could have literally foreseen what would have happened on 9/11--it's kind of like the Holocaust; no one could have conceived of it until it actually happened.
Knowing what we know about Hitler's plan for the Holocaust, would have have stopped him once he invaded Poland in the first place? Probably. Now that we know what bin Laden is capable of, would the Clinton administration have been more likely to kill him when they had the chance, in Sudan, as ex-CIA bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer claims? Of course. This is all very easy to say in retrospect (and Clinton is vehemently defending his position).
Hindsight is 20/20, and it is so easy to look back now, knowing what we know, and blame the errors and the people who made them along the way. There was no way, even given some of the compelling evidence we now have, to foresee and plan a defense for 9/11. People live in a normal state of denial and trust that everything will be OK. When it isn't, when the plane crashes or your dad gets cancer, you enter a state of trauma and shock. I don't walk around assuming that Kim Jong Il is going to launch missiles at us just because he's been saber-rattling. It's unlikely that anyone would have looked at the USS Cole bombing and said, "I'll bet there will be a catastrophic attack in NYC in a few years." The escalation was enormous. I don't think anyone could have put all the pieces together pre 9/11 and mobilized effective countermeasures.
Social psychology studies have documented how frequently bystanders will stand around and observe an act of violence taking place but not move to help. People like Richard Clarke and Michael Scheuer are coming forward with stories about how stridently they pushed for stronger security measures and how loudly they stated that bin Laden was much more of a threat than anyone thought. One or two voices, though, would never have been enough to mobilize the administration in the direction of increased security pre-9/11.
At the same time, I don't mean to excuse any acts of cowardice or negligence.
My dad is weakening a bit. He sleeps a lot and continues to lose weight. Very worrisome, and my mom has to pick up all the slack, which stresses her out.
The quiet, peaceful tranquility of my parents' home and my own bed, complete with clean sheets and firm mattress. A long day, filled with medical insurance paperwork that is all wrong and I'll have to go through at least one year's worth of claims because Medicare decided to stop billing my secondary as they are supposed to do, so i have to re-file all of them. Charming. And Stanford keeps getting it wrong, even though I clear it up almost every month. It's such a headache.
It's so quiet here; thick carpet, no doors slamming or voices in the hallway or sounds overhead, as at school. It was great to see Dr. Ketter again. He's a lot of fun to work with, especially now that I'm feeling better. I was planning to give the new resident a hard time, but he looked so exhausted and overwhelmed i decided not to. Poor guy. He's nice, at least, but he went to Berkeley, which is like enemy territory when you're at Stanford. Ketter says I'm doing well, but I'm on lots of meds, and he says that it took us so long to craft this program that it's not wise to begin to chip away at it right now. i agree. i want to stay where i am for awhile so i can feel confident when we try to lower any of them. That's pretty much been tried, though, with no success. I'm pretty sure we've already tried to lower each of them and my symptoms come back right away.
harrumph. None of my friends have to deal with this Medicare paperwork and headaches. i can't begin to tell you how many hours I've (and my mom) have put in over the years dealing with insurance paperwork. Mental illness is exhausting and expensive on so many levels. i know that i get tired more easily than the average person, for example. i take six medications, people, SIX. And very high levels of two of them, at that. i worked one-on-one with some of the best psychiatrists anywhere for years to come up with the current combo of drugs i have now. It took years of my life away. My friends were out traveling, working, dating, doing whatever you do when you're young and healthy, and i was shuttling back and forth between the Stanford bipolar clinic and my house. No life at all. No contact with friends or people my own age, very out of place in the excessively professional, white collar silicon valley rat race. i could care less about computers, and that's all anyone talks about around here.
Today's Winston Churchill insult [first in a series of erudite put-downs]: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
Knowing what we know about Hitler's plan for the Holocaust, would have have stopped him once he invaded Poland in the first place? Probably. Now that we know what bin Laden is capable of, would the Clinton administration have been more likely to kill him when they had the chance, in Sudan, as ex-CIA bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer claims? Of course. This is all very easy to say in retrospect (and Clinton is vehemently defending his position).
Hindsight is 20/20, and it is so easy to look back now, knowing what we know, and blame the errors and the people who made them along the way. There was no way, even given some of the compelling evidence we now have, to foresee and plan a defense for 9/11. People live in a normal state of denial and trust that everything will be OK. When it isn't, when the plane crashes or your dad gets cancer, you enter a state of trauma and shock. I don't walk around assuming that Kim Jong Il is going to launch missiles at us just because he's been saber-rattling. It's unlikely that anyone would have looked at the USS Cole bombing and said, "I'll bet there will be a catastrophic attack in NYC in a few years." The escalation was enormous. I don't think anyone could have put all the pieces together pre 9/11 and mobilized effective countermeasures.
Social psychology studies have documented how frequently bystanders will stand around and observe an act of violence taking place but not move to help. People like Richard Clarke and Michael Scheuer are coming forward with stories about how stridently they pushed for stronger security measures and how loudly they stated that bin Laden was much more of a threat than anyone thought. One or two voices, though, would never have been enough to mobilize the administration in the direction of increased security pre-9/11.
At the same time, I don't mean to excuse any acts of cowardice or negligence.
My dad is weakening a bit. He sleeps a lot and continues to lose weight. Very worrisome, and my mom has to pick up all the slack, which stresses her out.
The quiet, peaceful tranquility of my parents' home and my own bed, complete with clean sheets and firm mattress. A long day, filled with medical insurance paperwork that is all wrong and I'll have to go through at least one year's worth of claims because Medicare decided to stop billing my secondary as they are supposed to do, so i have to re-file all of them. Charming. And Stanford keeps getting it wrong, even though I clear it up almost every month. It's such a headache.
It's so quiet here; thick carpet, no doors slamming or voices in the hallway or sounds overhead, as at school. It was great to see Dr. Ketter again. He's a lot of fun to work with, especially now that I'm feeling better. I was planning to give the new resident a hard time, but he looked so exhausted and overwhelmed i decided not to. Poor guy. He's nice, at least, but he went to Berkeley, which is like enemy territory when you're at Stanford. Ketter says I'm doing well, but I'm on lots of meds, and he says that it took us so long to craft this program that it's not wise to begin to chip away at it right now. i agree. i want to stay where i am for awhile so i can feel confident when we try to lower any of them. That's pretty much been tried, though, with no success. I'm pretty sure we've already tried to lower each of them and my symptoms come back right away.
harrumph. None of my friends have to deal with this Medicare paperwork and headaches. i can't begin to tell you how many hours I've (and my mom) have put in over the years dealing with insurance paperwork. Mental illness is exhausting and expensive on so many levels. i know that i get tired more easily than the average person, for example. i take six medications, people, SIX. And very high levels of two of them, at that. i worked one-on-one with some of the best psychiatrists anywhere for years to come up with the current combo of drugs i have now. It took years of my life away. My friends were out traveling, working, dating, doing whatever you do when you're young and healthy, and i was shuttling back and forth between the Stanford bipolar clinic and my house. No life at all. No contact with friends or people my own age, very out of place in the excessively professional, white collar silicon valley rat race. i could care less about computers, and that's all anyone talks about around here.
Today's Winston Churchill insult [first in a series of erudite put-downs]: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."
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