oh one last thing - iraq wasn't connected to 9/11; richard clarke says so

Richard Clarke, who tried with "hair on fire" along with the CIA and NSC to convince de facto President Bush, King Dick Cheney, and Condi Rice the Unready in the early months of 2001 that Al Qaeda was going to try something big against the US, is having none of Dick Cheney's claims that in those scary post-911 days everybody agreed that everything was justified to defend the US.

Clarke notes that since they didn't take the threat seriously BEFORE 911 ("Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- but it was because they had not listened."), the unprepared trio were in a state of shock - not a good state to be in to make reasoned policy responses. Instead, they took on policies not to protect us, but to win re-election in 2004 - a clear recognition that they knew they'd screwed up at any Administration's top job, to protect Americans.

Indeed.