"I welcome these hearings because of the opportunity that they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a reoccurrence. I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11," he began. "To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask -- once all the facts are out -- for your understanding and for your forgiveness."
That was said by Richard Clarke, one of the most controversial witnessess for the 9/11 Commission. I'm both astounded and delighted to see that someone really does understand how to take responsibility.
Instead of, "Someone dropped the ball in the chain-of-command, there was a failure of communication" someone says, "I fucked up. Let's figure out how not to fuck this up again." And I think that the article I linked too points to what _really_ is the biggest flaw in the Bush Administration, and why people who disagree end up _hating_ Bush, and the people who do agree love him so vehmently.
Love means never having to say your sorry, and Bush also means never saying you're sorry, or that you were wrong, or that there was a mistake on your part- someone else screwed up, every single time. 9/11? Failure of the intelligence community. Evil, the Axis Of. No WMD in Iraq? Misleading intelligence. The ever increasing US body count? That's not a sign of a mistake, it's a price we have to pay, never mind that we were going to be greeted as liberators, right?
Hell man, if the Bush Administration could just _once_ admit that they had been wrong, it would help their public image. Shit, I shouldn't post this- they might take my advice. Then we could be stuck with them.
Wait... it's Bush or Kerry. Fuck that! As my friend