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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-09-10

First Thoughts: The Path to 9/11, Night One

Several thoughts, somewhat disjointed, and coming out stream-of-consciousness:

:I note that, based on the onscreen TV guide and the actual length of tonight's show, "Path" will be about 4 hours and 17 minutes in length, not the 5 hours advertised. Does this mean that 43 minutes found their way to the editing room floor in the last five days? Only someone who has seen the press release version knows that; stay tuned for links . . .

:how funny that ABC News' Nightline found a way to sneak into the fifteen extra minutes after tonight's broadcast. I have to say, however, that the reporting was surprisingly balanced, reminding, with all the weight of ABC News, that there has not been a confirmed sighting of bin Laden or another opportunity to kill him since the failed missile attack depicted in "Path."

:it strikes me as remarkable that we did not suffer more attacks; "Path" reminds us that the vigilance of a border security agent prevented one attack, and Ramsi Yousef was unable to pull off the big pan-Pacific attack he was hoping for

:at its core, I think "Path" is little more than a reminder that for many years we had a lethal, creative, committed (somewhat incompetent, but improving) enemy which we were far too late to recognize and far too unwilling to kill

:CIA agent "Kirk" and Harvey Keitel's O'Neill put it best: "How can you win a law and orderly war?" "You can't."

I'll chime back in after seeing more reaction elsewhere.

UPDATE

:RedState has the missing footage. I'm not sure it really amounts to much--it certainly does not substantially change the central narrative

:unable to deal with the facts, the left has resorted to criticizing the acting, the folly of the critical press, and minor copy editing. Were they responsible--as they hope to be in November, the Left would simply acknowledge the mistakes of the past, say "we, along with EVERYBODY else, did not understand the magnitude of the threat. Of course, this is an illusion we no longer suffer with, and we will be very agressive in future pursuit of terrorist eradication." It seems to me that that would just about clear the slate. Instead they raise howls of protest over a TV movie and run to the lawyers. Sad, really. I'd bet if they'd just waited until tomorrow they'd see the Bush admin look just as bad in the run up, but, as usual, the Left is finding a way to make THEM the story.

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