For those who wish to review the 9/11 Commission's work without immediately tackling the 500+ pages of the full report, I would recommend reading the Executive Summary. Most of the gist of their work, and all of their recommendations, can be found in there. I spent my lunch break reading through it but do not have time to break it down at the moment. I will say that the summary seems to be an evenhanded and sober product, and its recommendations appear sound.

Just before it launches into recommendations for "unity of effort", it makes this statement which should resonate with Americans everywhere:

Because of offensive actions against al Qaeda since 9/11, and defensive actions to improve homeland security,we believe we are safer today. But we are not safe.

Both parties and all branches of the government intend, and have worked, to make this country safer, but anyone in their right mind should already know that we are not safe, nor can we expect to be 100% safe as long as we have our freedoms intact. We need to balance what can be done with what we refuse to give up, and make ourselves as safe as can be given those limitations, and then we should suck it up and quit whining about it.

I'll post more tonight on the commission's specific recommendations.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is