And there it is, the issue Bush doesn't want us to know about... his national defense strategy was missle defense, not terrorism defense. He was wrong in a big way, and he won't admit it.
You'll remember a few days ago I posted a few comments about the speech Condi Rice was scheduled to give on September 11th, 2001 -- a speech endorsing National Missile Defense as the cornerstone of a new national security policy as well as a response to a speech by then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden the day before.
Obviously, the speech is a sore matter for the White House since on the very day the country was hit with what was arguably the worst foreign attack on American soil in the country's history, Rice was scheduled to endorse a new defense strategy and technology which would have done nothing whatsoever to prevent it.
Not surprisingly, the Commission would like to see the speech, only parts of which the Washington Post was able to get access to in their article last week.
But the White House is saying 'no': the speech is 'confidential'.
But you have to ask, why?
Confidential work product?
Unless the argument is that we can't let our enemies know the depth of the poor judgment displayed by the president's national security team it is searchingly hard to fathom what possible national security issue could be implicated by handing over the speech since it was -- do we have to say it? -- a speech! A speech for public consumption. [Talking Points Memo]
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