Team Bush Swamped by Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 11—War has come to our shores, and where is the president? Scurrying around the country in a transparent attempt to keep from being killed by terrorists, when he should be taking charge. The first two times he addressed the country today, George W. Bush was quick to reassure the public he was in constant touch with Vice President Dick Cheney. At least now Cheney can take over and run the country. So long as he doesn't keel over with a heart attack.

Clinton and Bush and their spaniellike partisans in Congress have spent billions of dollars on airport security, which was taken out not once but at least four times this morning in the greatest terrorist act ever to hit this country, an attack that is being likened to Pearl Harbor. And what about the Pentagon? We spent one third of the budget on the military, and it can't even put in place a security system to protect its headquarters.

This attack ought to bring the immediate sacking of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the head of the FAA, which has nominal oversight—we stress the word "nominal"—of the nation's air security system, along with the top executives of the FBI. All were clueless when it came to preventing these attacks.

What are the protectors of our national security doing these days? Erecting a $2 million fence in Washington to protect the IMF and World Bank meetings from a bunch of kids, who the cops claim are terrorists in the making.

The president and his advisors have spent months talking about the need to invest in a whopper system for missile defense, only to stand helpless before the threat from a handful of hijacked commercial flights. They need to get real. This is not leadership.