Shock and Yawn

James Carafano / January 07, 2010

Earlier today the White House promised a “shocking” report on the intelligence failures leading up to the aborted Christmas Day bombing and an address by the President directly from the White House. Neither the report nor the President’s remarks told us much new nor anything particularly shocking. It was pretty clear from the outset that government screwed up big time.

It is hard to be in awe of an administration that seems to behind the rest of us.

Likewise, the President’s laundry list of remedies seem like cold comfort. Trying to turn airports into Fort Knox won’t work. Changing the rules about how intelligence is collected, distributed, and evaluated will certainly come up short sooner or later as well. That’s because we are not fighting idiots.

The only way to end this once and for all is to fight and win the war that the administration up to this point has treated as just another public policy problem. (more…)