March 27, 2004

Quotable Stein. "In October 2000, Clarke and Special Forces Colonel Mike Sheehan leave the White House after a meeting to discuss al-Qa'eda's attack on the USS Cole: "'What's it gonna take, Dick?' Sheehan demanded. 'Who the s*** do they think attacked the Cole, f****** Martians? The Pentagon brass won't let Delta go get bin Laden. Does al-Qa'eda have to attack the Pentagon to get their attention?'" Apparently so. The attack, on the Cole, which killed 17 US sailors, was deemed by Clinton's Defence Secretary Bill Cohen as "not sufficiently provocative" to warrant a response. You'll have to do better than that, Osama! So he did .. ". more MARK STEYN.

Footnote: I served on a ship identical to the USS Cole. I've never been able to accept the fact that the President and the Pentagon believed that the men of the Cole were not worth defending, were not worth bring justice for ..

Imagine letting an enemy attack your warship and you do nothing, again -- an enemy which has publicly declared war against you. What kind of military of officer would sit back and allow that? What kind of commander in chief would say "go ahead, kill my sailors, attack my forces, I'll just look the other way"? It's unbelievable that this actually happened, and that we are talking about Americans here. Not Frenchmen. Not Spaniards. Americans. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack