In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
A must read post from a blog named Slacktivist
A top-secret public speech
Biden and Rice both appeared on Meet the Press on Sept. 9, 2001, where they disagreed -- sharply -- over America's national security priorities.
Rice argued that missile defense ought to be the No. 1 priority. Biden countered that this expensive and ineffective program would undermine and distract from what he said were more urgent priorities -- including modernizing and upgrading conventional weapons systems, defending the U.S. from domestic terrorist attacks and preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
The Delaware Democrat, who was then chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, continued this debate with Rice the following day in a speech at the National Press Club titled "Defining Our Interests in a Changing World."
Because that speech made reference to "terrorist attacks at home or abroad" as a likelier and more urgent threat, it has been hailed since then as prescient. Less noted, and more important for the work of the Sept. 11 commission, is that this entire speech was a response -- a rebuttal -- of the positions staked out by Rice and the Bush administration.
Rice's speech the following day was intended to argue that Biden got it wrong. She never delivered the speech, of course, because events intervened, confirming that Biden got it right.
Regarding their debate over security priorities on Meet the Press, Biden said of Rice:
I don't know what she's talking about. We're getting briefed by two different groups of CIA people, I guess ...
That's perhaps the most telling comment in the interrupted argument between Biden and Rice. Both had access to the same intelligence, both were briefed by the same CIA. Yet they drew very different conclusions from that intelligence about the relative urgency of missile defense and counterterrorism. (And, yes, this provides even more support for Richard Clarke's account of that intelligence and how it was received.)
- rob 6:49 PM - [PermaLink] -
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