Proving an Absence

No, this isn't about Mr. Bush's military records.

Nor is it about Mr. D. Doofus Drudge's claims about John Kerry and an "intern" (who wasn't) that were disclaimed by the woman herself today.

Instead, it's listening to GOPers tow the line, like David Dreiser on one of the talking head shows tonight saying basically, "No, what this WH will focus on is how we have not had a terrorist attack here since 9-11-01 and that proves how many times we've foiled them." [Ed. note: I'm paraphrasing.]

I almost wish this were not a flagrant lie. No, he's not lying about what the WH will tell us; they already have on this score. But you can't say we've stopped tens or dozens or hundreds of terrorist attacks because there haven't been any.

In some respect, there has been one long government-sponsored terrorist attack since 9-11: an attack on our intelligence, our financial stability and economy, our individual religious or non-religious values, our sense of decency, our system of law, and certainly, our civil rights. This is in addition to ALL the lives lost - ours and others - since 9/11 in "terror" related activities like the Iraq War, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

But considering how many ways we know the system is still broken, and considering how many ways we know a full investigation into what went wrong with safeguards on 9-11 has been strangled, you simply cannot state that we have stopped dozens or hundreds of terror attacks since 9-11.

We weren't invaded by aliens from the Planet Dzendron either. Does this also prove we successfully thwarted an attack from Dzendron? No. It only proves we didn't have an attack.

Let's get real.