Own up to 9/11 missteps

Wednesday, June 23, 2026

The bipartisan 9/11 commission spoke loudly and clearly last week when it judged the Bush Administration’s claim of links between al Qaida, Saddam Hussein and the 2001 attacks on America to be fleeting at best.

To their shame, the president and vice president went out on the media circuit afterward to spin anew their claims that the links do exist and we just don’t know all the details.

Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste responded quickly with a challenge: Produce the evidence. Make us understand.

Amen. Now how much do you want to bet the evidence won’t be forthcoming anytime soon?

To President Bush and Vice President Cheney, we say, it’s time the bluff ended.

The evolution of events over the past three years — from the destruction of the twin towers at the World Trade Center to chasing al Qaida out of Afghanistan to declaring war “pre-emptively” on Iraq — is breathtaking. So much has happened that changed America forever. We’re trying to cope with a heightened sense of vulnerability, calling on the highest court in the land to settle Patriot Act-inspired challenges to fundamental freedoms and struggling to decide right and wrong as some of the more unsavory aspects of our government’s occupation of Iraq come to light and challenge our conscience.

With so much at stake, the Bush-Cheney retorts to the 9/11 commission bear astonishing resemblance to children caught with their hand in the cookie jar. That’s not exactly a hallmark of confident or competent leadership.

For whatever reason we’re in Iraq — and we can safely say by now that solid links between al Qaida and Saddam are not it — we’re stuck there now, and for the long haul. We tossed a crackpot dictator out on his ear, something we need not apologize for. If we’re blessed, history will record our occupation as ultimately having served a decent purpose, despite the shakiness of our logic for getting into it.

In the here and now, though, as our loved ones are dying and being maimed in Iraq and our nation’s good name is being dragged through the mud worldwide, we deserve to know why.

Clearly, the president’s decision to war with Iraq was based on erroneous information. It’s past time the president and his men admitted it.

We can forgive mistakes made in the honest pursuit of good. Bush officials need only look to their hero, Ronald Reagan, for proof of that. The Iran-contra scandal stunk to high heaven and could have been the end of Reagan’s presidency. But Reagan recognized the wrong and, in a moment of high courage, did the politically unthinkable: He faced the American people and owned up to it.

President Bush, the self-proclaimed successor to Reagan’s mantle, should do the same.
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