Everyone’s playing Monday morning quarterback about the failure to pick up on the Osama hijacking threat prior to September 11. For me, there are two points here.

First, I don’t blame Bush for the failure to prevent it, for reasons that I’ll go into in a minute. I do blame Bush for failure to really address the incompetence afterward, and in fact to augment it, with Tom Ridge, and Norm Mineta. I continue to be frustrated with the lack of willingness to confront the issue that there was then, and continues to be now, massive incompetence and bureaucratic turf tending that is going to make it less likely that we will prevent future attacks. I am furious that George Tenet still has his job, that Mineta still has his, that no one has yet been held to account, and there’s no seeming willingness to see that anyone is.

My blood boils when I continue to hear nonsense about how this simply proves that we need bigger government, and bigger budgets, instead of the reality, which is that we instead need smaller government, more focused on our security, and less so on transferring wealth from the top down, and indulging the American people in their desire to make someone else responsible for their own lives, and protecting them from their own behavior.

Was this even avoidable? In theory, yes. I wasn’t really surprised when it happened. When the first plane hit, I was wondering if it was deliberate, and if so, how it could be pulled off. I ran through the possibilities in my mind, and the only one that made sense was a hijacking. When the second plane hit, the thought jelled–clearly that was what happened. Was it unthinkable? Not to me. The WTC had already been targeted by these nutballs. We had already seen a plane taken down by a suicidal pilot (in the Egypt Air case). So why not?

But in practice, it probably couldn’t have been prevented, even had the dots been properly connected. We were simply culturally unable to deal with it until we had the bucket of ice water splashed in our collective face last September.

I agree with “E. Nough”s comments over at Charles Johnson’s site:

…assume that the FBI had information on the exact date, time, flight number, and descriptions of suspects. So they raid all the planes, and arrest the 19 dirtbags.

…And then what? Not much, I imagine. Oh, CAIR and its ilk would be having a fit, of course, complaining to everyone, including George W., about profiling and unfair targeting of Arab-Americans. After all, just what did the FBI find? Some box cutters? Those aren’t illegal on airplanes. Flight manuals? These men were all attending accredited flight schools, trying to achieve the American dream, etc. etc. So they had one-way tickets: is that a crime? Funeral shrouds? Are you honestly arresting these men for bringing white sheets onto a plane? Korans? So because these men are pious Muslims, you dare to assume…! And really, folks, come on: flying a Boeing into a skyscraper? You’ve been watching too many movies! Who would come up with something this complicated, when a truck bomb in a garage would do just as well?

And so on and so on. I’m sure at least half these men would have been released within a couple of days. Profiling would be discussed at length on CNN and PBS. Several specials would be made, with weeping, hijab-wearing photogenic young women, describing in perfect Midwestern English the ordeal of being singled out by airport security. American Airlines would issue an apology, and make a contribution to the Arab-American Anti-Defamation Society, with a promise of more “outreach efforts.” Norman Mineta would be outraged! and put in all sorts of new restrictions designed specifically to avoid giving extra scrutiny to “people of Middle Eastern appearance.” (hey! wait a second!) George W. would go on the record saying that “pro-filling” is “discriminatational” and against everything he holds dear. Clinton would tell a story of his Lebanese-American great-uncle who was once denied entry into the White House. Al Gore would talk about his years of service under Lawrence of Arabia. Pretty soon, the whole thing would be forgotten as another embarrasing example of the Latent Racism in American Society.

Until one day, another group of men board an airliner…

So, given the national mindset in place at the time, and (unfortunately, based on the continuing idiocies coming from the FAA and Ridge about guns in the cockpit and the random searches, and elimination of first-class security lines) perhaps to some degree today, it would have been tough. One thing that might have been effective, though, was the one thing that was effective that day–to change our attitude and policy toward hijacking. Flight 93 was operating under the new paradigm–the three flights before it under the old. And if Flight 93 had known even sooner, they might have been able to save the plane, and prevent the hijackers from getting into the cockpit in the first place.

I agree with Kathy Kinsley.

If there had been a public education campaign in place last summer, warning that, despite the best efforts of airport security, it wasn’t perfect, and that there might be hijackings, and that cooperation with the hijackers would result in the deaths of not only the passengers, but countless more on the ground, what happened on September 11 might have been prevented.