Cross-posted at Penndit.
WAC is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization. There are branches all over the US. Your city may have one. They hold events like this all the time, and I got to go to one on Thursday night in Philly.
Topic: 9/11: Are We More Secure Five Years Later?
Primary Speaker:
Former Sec. of Defense William Cohen
Panel:
* 9/11 Widow Kristen Breitweiser
* Center for American Progress' Joseph Cirincione
* AEI's Reuel Marc Gerecht
Recap of Cohen comments
* Cohen spoke first.
* Says we are "marginally safer" now than we were before 9/11
* Talked a little about data mining and the line between security and civil liberties
* doesn't like the term "war on terror," because it implies that there's a finite beginning and end... even though in reality there's never really an end to protecting our country. Cohen prefers JFK's term about the Cold War... "long twilight struggle" (or something close to that)
* Says warfare has been democratized.
* We will 'win' this struggle through good police work, intel gathering and sharing (said we needed something like UK's MI-5), and special forces. Organized military force is a last resort.
* Iraq is a training ground for terrorists (Said there was lots of secterarian violence, influence of Iran and nationalists elements). Iraq was not an imminent
military threat.
* Reasonable assumption that Hussein had WMDs but said he was contained. (And therefore, not an imminent threat.)
* Said we needed to use soft power. He mentioned how anti-American sentiment in Indonesia disappeared after we sent aid after that devestating tsunami.
* We should project power, but use it wisely.
* Said we needed to ratify nuclear agreement with India, as a way of signaling to China that we were engaging with other countries in the region.
* Middle East peace process is important. Said it'll never happen unless we engage Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
* Was asked about leaks and whether they hurt national intelligence and security. As a rule, Cohen disapproves of any leaks, but said leak of the NIE that everyone's been discussing this week, didn't hurt national security because most of the information was already in the public domain.
Recap of Breitweiser comments
* Talked a lot about the frustrations in getting the 9/11 Commission implemented. Said Bush admin. blocked her and the other Jersey Girls' efforts.
* Took a year of lobbying to get 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission concluded that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. She wonders if we'd be in Iraq if the 9/11 Commission had been established immediately after 9/11, because the findings about there be no link between 9/11 and Iraq would've been reported before the start of the Iraq war.
* Said 9/11 Commission didn't get to everything. One reason she supported Kerry in 04 was that Kerry promised to establish another commission to finish the work of the 9/11 Commission.
* Said 9/11 Commission initially was given just $3M. 9/11 families got that bumped up to $13M after some lobbying and pointing out that the space shuttle disaster investigation got $50M.
* Watching Katrina aftermath unfold was "heartbreaking" because it was clear we hadn't learned the lessons of 9/11.
Recap of Gerecht comments
* Says that Rumsfeld and Abizaid needed to go months ago.
* Bush admin. underestimated Shia revival
* Said in 12 months, Afghanistan will be terrible. The type of IEDs used in Iraq will be as commonplace in Afghanistan.
* All about promoting democracy in the Middle East. Said that even if extremists are elected, the promotion of democracy is worth it.
* Said he was glad that Bush administration took an aggressive approach. Bin Laden threw down a challenge, and Bush admin. wasn't afraid to take it "head on." I never got the chance to ask him this, but I wanted to ask him the following: If the Bush administration had really taken bin Laden "head on," then why did they move resources from Afghanistan to Iraq? Why the insufficient troop numbers in Iraq?
* Said he's never met a policymaker who was influenced by oil in the Middle East.
Recap of Cirincione comments
* "Stay the course is a position, not a plan."
* Media presents foreign policy experts as being split 50-50 about Iraq. The split is not 50-50. A majority of liberal experts, moderate experts and even conservative experts give a thumbs down to Bush's foreign policy. We are not safer.
* Cirincione was for Afghanistan war; against Iraq war.
* He spoke very passionately about how bad the decision to go to war in Iraq. It'll be seen as the biggest US foreign policy blunder in decades.
* He mainly summarized the material from the 2006 Terrorism Index that was put together by Foreign Policy magazine and CAP. Check it out here.
Notes on style:
* Cohen rambled a bit during his presentation. He also left early.
* Gerecht needs to keep that ego in check. His ego is bigger than O'Reilly's.
* Breitweiser's opening speech was brilliant. She's just so eloquent. She was dressed in a black suit and lavendar scarf. She looked kind of nervous at the beginning, but once she got going, everything just flowed.
* Cirincione is very charismatic. Not bad looking either. I kept thinking that he needed to run for public office and that progressive bloggers would have no trouble donating to a Cirincione campaign.
* At one point, things got a little heated between Cirincione and Gerecht.
Spotted: Philly Inq's Dick Polman and Trudy Rubin. Polman's recap of the event here.
The audience consisted of some high school and college students, but mostly retired wealthy people. A clear majority was against the war in Iraq and loved Cirincione. There were some loud Gerecht supporters, though.
If you have any questions, ask them, and I'll try to answer 'em.