Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=325810783682092
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Homeland Security: A White House jet buzzes lower Manhattan, bringing back memories of 9/11 and drawing an apology from President Obama. Firings are now urged, but what needs changing is attitude.
Read More: Global War On Terror
The White House and Federal Aviation Administration seemed to think it would be business as usual to fly a 747 government jetliner and an F-16 escort along the flight path of 9/11 near New York skyscrapers to update publicity file photos.
Wrong. The entire move created an unexpected panic among New Yorkers, who weren't in on the plan until the planes whooshed by. The FAA had insisted the mission be "classified" — as if it were possible to conceal a jetliner going past skyscraper windows. So New Yorkers were left with just one conclusion when the jets roared overhead at low altitude, and they fled for their lives.
New Yorkers fled by the thousands at the sight of a low-flying presidential jet buzzing around Manhattan Monday in an image reminiscent of the 9/11 terror attack. Some citizens took cell phone photos, such as this one by Jason McLane, to record the event.
They responded the way they did because they'd been changed after the September morning that left thousands dead and their World Trade Center in ruins. The Obama administration, unfortunately, hadn't. The prospect of triggering panic by flying jets at low altitude above skyscrapers simply didn't exist on their radar.
Nothing showed it better than in the initial response of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. He first dismissed a reporter's question about the incident with no answer, but then promptly switched course once the news rolled in and the YouTubes went up about the panic the White House inflicted on victims of history's worst terror strike.
Maybe the internal poll numbers came in, or maybe the White House switchboard was flooded. Sounding like a customer service rep, President Obama then apologized, "for any distress that flight caused."
But it wasn't as good as it could have been. The names of low-level officials involved got out, followed by recriminations from pundits calling for the head of Louis Caldera, the military director who'd been involved in the planning. Somehow, we doubt the criticism would have reached as low as aides if the "mistake" had been made by, say, President Bush.
Firing underlings won't do any good, though. This is happening not because of Caldera, but because of a certain indifference at the top. Obama and his party have wrapped the war on terror around the persona of George W. Bush instead of the security of the U.S.
To them, fighting terror is fighting Bush's war, not stopping the terrorists still trying to kill us. This wasn't the only event that shows it.
On his first full day in office, Obama outraged 9/11 victims' families by drafting an order to suspend war crimes trials of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.
After that, he issued an order to close the Cuban prison, raising the prospects of 9/11-linked terrorists possibly walking free to do more harm.
He also ordered the release of CIA memos demonstrating tough interrogation tactics, showing that unlike the public with the airline flyover in Manhattan, terrorists had a right to know.
Now he's opened the door to prosecutions of Bush administration officials who fought the 9/11 terrorists, as if this were a matter of law and order, and not a real war that could still hit Manhattan.
One can argue that these decisions have a political merit, but in all cases they diminish the importance of ensuring another 9/11 never happens again.
The worst act of war on American soil becomes secondary to what lawyers and special interests want, or what Europe thinks. The quest for imagery over public terror is merely icing on the cake of how many things take precedence over the tough presidential decisions needed to ensure there isn't another attack.
Instead of Obama apologizing, firing Caldera or saying the airline photo op will never happen again, it would be more encouraging to learn that Obama is thinking about the implications of this PR fiasco and taking the war on terror as seriously as New Yorkers do.
This war requires tough decisions, like those Bush made, to dismantle terror organizations from top to bottom. Obama has criticized his predecessor for using "terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid."
Well, as the Manhattan fiasco showed, Americans are afraid, but not because of Bush. Our new president should re-examine his attitude about 9/11 and realize that now, it's his war as much as it was Bush's.
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