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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 10, 2004 The gift of hindsight reaps benefits Presidential nominee John Kerry claims President Bush rushed to war. Then mismanaged it. Had he been commander in chief, he says, his response would have been more measured. He also states that he would have done things differently. Maybe so, but isn't that a bit like saying, if I'd known the truck was going to hit me I'd have taken a different route? Unaware the intelligence was so critically flawed, Bush decided he couldn't risk another 9/11. Had he delayed, and the unimaginable happened - possibly on an even more apocalyptic scale - there would have been cries for his impeachment, if not charges of criminal negligence. "You had it in your grasp to stop it, and you failed," would have been the anguished screams of victims' relatives. Kerry and his running mate John Edwards voted for war. As did the Congress of the United States. And the decision they took was based on exactly the same intelligence Bush got. Common sense tells us that had it been known the intelligence was so defective, things would have been done differently. Bush would never have secured congressional approval to go to war on that basis. In fact, he would never have applied. Yet ironically, and increasingly, people are coming round to the fact that today's Afghanistan and Iraq administrations are much the preferred versions over the tyrannical ones that existed before. Why? Because we are safer on our streets as a result. Thousands killed, yes. But how many would have been killed had we not acted when we did, albeit on the wrong premise? Of course, we don't know. And we never will. We did know however, that before 9/11, acts of terrorism against the U.S. were on the increase, both in frequency and barbarity. Hatred of our country was rising at a fevered pitch. And so it was not considered unreasonable at the time to fear another strike was in the offing - a second 9/11, only much worse. Clearly, any commander-in-chief would have been derelict in his duty had he or she decided to allow time for that. And as every terrorist-analyst will tell you, they respect strength and resolve much more than the lack of it. So what's left? Mismanage-ment. Kerry claims he would have foreseen the intelligence flaws. Corrected them. Delayed action until he got French/ German support, presumably, until our intelligence organizations were fixed too, even if that took several years. He claims also that his war-plan would have avoided the aftermath. This is important, since remember, he voted for it. No matter that he also voted to reduce defense spending, cut the CIA and place a hold on military pay. Think about it. Would those votes have enabled better intelligence? Equipped more of our troops with armored Humvee's? Provided body armor quicker? Or made the war easier to manage? The electorate may think not. Stanley Jones Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams