--{ planes }------
So here's one thing that's been bothering me. Some people in
the news
are saying that there was no way that people could've imagined that
terrorists would use a plane as a bomb. What world are they living in?
Geez, this scenario was even discussed, as I recall, in the Issues
in Disarmament: Proliferation of Modern Weapons Seminar that I
took at
Georgetown in the spring of 2000.
Sadly, even though I looked for
documentary evidence of us discussing this in class (in, as I recognize,
obnoxious I-told-you-so fashion), my notes for the particular class in
which these issues were discussed consisted entirely of catty comments
about fellow students, rather than of anything substantive. Still,
several of us remember talking about this. Andy says he remembers
bringing up Bin Laden. I remember suggesting Hollywood/Superbowley stuff
as a target, erroneously focusing on cultural rather than financial
emblems of America.
Anyways, if even law students can come up with
it. . .
I am emphatically not, by the way, saying that the Bush administration should've addressed these concerns, how these concerns should've been addressed, or what. Many of the accusations flying about are simplistic, at best. I actually agree that it is difficult, in hindsight, to make determinations about judgment calls such as these--where people are working with limited knowledge, as well as various uncertainties in risk estimations and optimal resource commitments. I am just addressing the claim that these attacks were unanticipatable, which is an entirely different animal and wrong wrong wrong.
52002