The Sorry Mr. Clarke
EDITORIAL The Sorry Mr. Clarke "I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11. To them who are here in the room, to those...
...government actions directly caused unnecessary deaths...
...Clarke, who worked tirelessly against al Qaeda during the 1990s, is not responsible for the deaths on 9/11...
...William Kristol...
...Indeed, the families of those who died surely appreciate Clarke's great efforts, first to thwart al Qaeda, and then to bring the killers of their loved ones to justice...
...In those cases, apparently reckless U.S...
...on September 11, 2001, al Qaeda killed 3,000 Americans...
...But neither Clarke nor the New York Times has even attempted to make the case that the Bush administration bears any true moral responsibility for failing to avert al Qaeda's attack on 9/11...
...John Kennedy took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs in 1961...
...The vast majority no doubt would have thought such an apology utterly unnecessary and inappropriate...
...We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed...
...Surely the only apology that is owed—though it would presumably be rejected by the families—would be an apology from Osama bin Laden, just prior to his execution...
...He could have done so sooner...
...And for that failure, I would ask—once all the facts are out—for your understanding and for your forgiveness...
...Shouldn't the New York Times trouble itself to make this case before it presumes to call for yet more inappropriate apologies...
...Surely they know of Clarke's sympathy for their loss...
...Was no one at the Times aware of the following exchange between Clarke and commission member Slade Gorton...
...The names of those killed on 9/11— and, for that matter, of those killed by al Qaeda in our African embassies, on the USS Cole, and on other occasions—have presumably been available to Clarke...
...CLARKE: No...
...Clarke and the New York Times are certainly free to argue that the Bush administration has not done a good job in fighting the war on terror...
...GORTON: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11...
...In fact, what government officials owed the memory of those who died on 9/11—to ensure that they did not die in vain—was a greater determination to prosecute the war on terror than had been shown in the preceding eight months, and in the preceding eight years...
...Would the families of those who died have appreciated a personal letter from Clarke asking for their understanding and forgiveness...
...There have been occasions in the past when government officials properly took responsibility for actions under their direction that went terribly awry...
...And he could have done so privately...
...Clarke had found the ones that still needed saying...
...But Clarke's grandstanding did please its true intended audience...
...Janet Reno accepted responsibility for the deaths in Waco in 1993...
...After all, when Clarke apologized, they wrote, "it suddenly seemed that after the billions of words uttered about that terrible day, Mr...
...To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you, and I failed you...
...They are free to argue that the war in Iraq was a mistake...
...So presumably, according to the New York Times, everyone else in government who "failed" should also apologize...
...It would be no more appropriate for President Bush to apologize today than it would have been for President Roosevelt to apologize for Pearl Harbor...
...Richard Clarke's pseudo-apology has cheapened the public discourse...
...The writers at the New York Times loved it...
...Richard Clarke, testifying before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, March 24, 2004 Richard Clarke can apologize to anyone he likes...
...Perhaps a few would...
...Indeed, "the only problem with his apology was that so few of those failures really seemed to be his...
Vol. 9 • April 2004 • No. 29
