Pre 9-11: All about missile defense
(via Daily Kos)
On Sept. 11, 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to outline a Bush administration policy that would address “the threats and problems of today and the day after, not the world of yesterday” — but the focus was largely on missile defense, not terrorism from Islamic radicals.
The speech provides telling insight into the administration’s thinking on the very day that the United States suffered the most devastating attack since the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The address was designed to promote missile defense as the cornerstone of a new national security strategy, and contained no mention of al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or Islamic extremist groups, according to former U.S. officials who have seen the text [...]
The text also implicitly challenged the Clinton administration’s policy, saying it did not do enough about the real threat — long-range missiles.
Or even after 9-11:
I remember Todd Akin on the radio a day or two after 9-11 saying the attacks clearly demonstrated the need
for missile defense.
