This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE    (4-8-04)

            Well, Condeleeza rice is scheduled to testify today before the 911 commission, Why?

            First of all, she testified for four full hours previously before the commission. So what can she add to that?

            Well, it is been the media that has forced her to again come forward and testify about the situation in the Bush White House prior to the 911 attacks.   After Richard Clark came forth and criticized the Bush Administration for not doing enough early enough in the El Quida situation…..there has been facts that have discounted his testimony.

            So….now the Commission, at the insistence of its’ Democratic members have insisted that Rice return and respond to Clark’s criticisms.

            I still maintain that the entire procedure is a witch hunt….trying to find some blame on the part of the Bush administration that can embarrass the President and tip the scales in the upcoming election.

            After all that was the full intent of the Democratic side….if you recall a few months ago, the Republicans inadvertently came in possession of memos to members of that party explaining that the commissions findings should find the Bush administration guilty of neglect in the 911 fiasco.  

            At any rate, now we have Rice, the President’s National; Security adviser testifying under oath about what the Bush administration knew and what it might have done prior to the 911 attacks.

            I fully expect her to respond more than adequately.  I expect the Democrats on the commission to try to trip her up, lead by Bob Kerry, but I think their efforts will be in vain.

            Little is to be gained in playing the blame game.

            No one will doubt that mistakes apparently were made in both the Clinton as well as the early Bush administration as regards a possible attack here in America. 

            It’s very easy to go back in retrospect and say…..we should have known…and we should have avoided the attacks.    An easy way to lay the blame.

            The bigger question should be what has the Bush Administration done since the attacks.   First….we have defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan…have driven what is left of the Al Queda elements into hiding in the wild areas of the mountain country.  Our hunt for Al Queda is not yet over.

            Second the President has launched the full scale war against Iraq…the biggest troublemaker in the Middle East.  We have won the military phase…and are now engaged in a war against terrorists both from the Hussein loyalists, but also from terrorists dispatched by both Iran and Syria into the conflict.

            All of this current flare up comes at a time when the United States is prepared to turn over control of Iraq to a presiding Council.   We have a two pronged conflict going on now….one against the remaining Hussein loyalists in such places as Fallujah…and the terrorists who have infiltrated from neighboring Syria and Iran.   These elements must be defeated if the U.S. is to be able to turn over control at the end of June.

            The young men and women of our armed forces in Iraq have responded magnificently in  a challenging and menacing situation.  They need and deserve all the support we can give them….not carping criticism engendered by the political debate, but the support of all Americans.

            Success in Iraq depends totally on our ability to defeat these insurgents and put Iraq securely on the path of a democratic government.  

            In the meantime….trying to trip up Condoleeza Rice on what might have been done…or what should have been done about the 911 disaster, in my book, is still just witch hunting and a senseless blame game. 

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.