Chronicle of Doom: Prologue

Bad things sometimes happen to good Presidents. The bad things that have happened during George Bush's time in office aren't like that. They are distinguished by their large number and by the fact that none of them was remotely surprising. Bush's catastrophes seem to all have been predicted, sometimes in considerable detail and he walked into each with eyes and mind wide shut. Consider a few of the biggies:

9/11 - Bush was briefed on the threat of bin Laden, but chose to ignore him. The terror threat was so low on his priority list that Cheney's committee on same had its first meeting on Sept 10. It was known that the WTC was an al Qaeda target, and the Presidential daily briefings had explicitly mentioned attacks using hijacked planes.

bin Laden's escape - Predicted again, and allowed to happen.

Iraq - Advice of professionals was systematically ignored, concealed, and distorted. The only thing unpredicted was how the catastrophe would be magnified by Bush's implausible incompetence.

Katrina - This one was seen years away. There were clear portents a week before. Once again, Bush and his minions slept while catastrophe unwound.

Panic of '08 - This one has been seen coming for years. Once again, nothing was done.

When I go through the list, it seems impossible that incompetence could account for all. A malicious enemy could hardly have done the country more damage.

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