The Left continues their hypocritical attacks on the Bush administration, some of the American people continue to take them seriously, and rational people continue to have trouble understanding why. One one hand, President Bush is under attack for not "connecting the dots" quickly enough to prevent 9/11. On the other, he's being attacked for connecting the dots too quickly regarding Iraq. Which is it?

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, the Left has been trying to find a way to place all the blame for not preventing them on President Bush. The previous administration had nearly eight years after the first al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 to hunt down Osama bin Laden, but receives a permanent pass from the Left. It's the eight months immediately preceding 9/11 that draws cries of mock outrage from the Left. They deliberately ignore the fact that the 9/11 attack was planned for three years before it occurred, and may have been only the first attack of three that were planned. (Could the wish to avoid giving out confirmation of this knowledge be why Condoleeza Rice and President Bush can't testify in public before the 9/11 commission?) No, the Left is trying with all their resources to blame President Bush for "allowing" 9/11 to happen, holding him responsible for not connecting the dots quickly enough to prevent it.

From the outcry, we can clearly understand that he Left insists that the President must be able to make connections between seemingly disparate events among the sea of such events that are presented to him every day. They seem to be saying that the President must make decisions to protect Americans from disaster before it can strike, is that right? They insist on a proactive policy of defense... or do they?

At the same time the Left is vilifying President Bush for not acting quickly enough to prevent 9/11, the same people are also reviling him for acting too quickly when he prevented a possible worse attack from Iraq, which could have involved terrorists delivering biochemical weapons. They insist that he "should have waited to be sure." Well, exactly how sure should he have waited to be? Iraq had been on the State Supporter of Terrorism list for years. Al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Mud’ab al-Zarqawi fled to Iraq after the Taliban was overthrown in Afghanistan. He even wrote to al-Qaeda leadership, complaining that "There is no doubt that our field of movement is shrinking and the grip around the throat of the Mujahidin has begun to tighten. With the spread of the army and police, our future is becoming frightening." Every intelligence source in the world stated that Saddam had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, and was working to make more. The 1997 UNSCOM report on Saddam's weapons -- the last one before his stonewalling caused them to leave the country -- went into great detail about what they believed he still had hidden. The last UNMOVIC report from March of 2003 -- three months after the final deadline the UN set for Saddam's full disclosure -- was full of such items as "Based on all the available evidence, the strong presumption is that about 10,000 litres of anthrax was not destroyed and may still exist." Saddam had, by 1998, completely thrown off the yoke of UN inspections, and was slowly but surely working to get the UN sanctions lifted. He even had the willing help of several key members of the UN Security Council -- France, Germany, Russia and China had extremely lucrative oil and arms deals with Saddam, and all had been granted oil rights in the west Qurna and other unexploited oil fields in return for lobbying to lift the UN sanctions on Iraq. There was absolutely no chance that these members of the United Nations would have given the United States a "permission slip" to remove Saddam Hussein from power without another terrorist attack taking place. Preferably one in which the terrorist cell leader left a confession -- hand-signed by Saddam, with his fingerprints all over it -- at the scene of the crime.

How quickly should a President act to prevent an attack by an enemy who specialises in hiding and striking in the dark? Our enemies in the War on Terror won't be coming across a border with tanks and massed hordes. Because this is not a "conventional" war, John Kerry wants to return to a purely reactive style of fighting terrorism, which didn't do much to prevent 9/11. On Kerry's own campaign web site, his "Plan to Make America Stronger and Safer" can be found. Under the heading "Bringing 21st Century Information Technology To The War On Terror," we can find Kerry's plan for preventing terrorists, backed by rogue nations, from carrying out further attacks on American soil.  Its three basic steps are as follows:

• Assuring First-Responders Can Communicate in an Attack
• Sharing Information With Appropriate State and Local Officials
• Cutting Down on False Identification

Checking the identification of terrorists after they're already here? Spending more money on first responders so they can clean up the bodies faster after an attack? What kind of prevention is this? Under other parts of his "plan," Kerry lists such proactive ideas as "Calling on the Private Sector to Help Bring Technological Innovations to the War on Terrorism," "Protect Private Infrastructure," and "Creating a New Community Defense Service." Is a new version of the 1950's Civil Defense going to stop rogue nations from harboring, training and equipping terrorists to attack America, possibly with weapons of mass destruction? Would Moammar Ghaddafi be as frightened by the thought of firefighters with better radios in NYC as he was of soldiers with better guns in his backyard? President Bush wants to take the War on Terror to the enemy. John Kerry wants to take it to Radio Shack. Better equipment for first responders is necessary, but it's not where the forefront of the War on Terror ought to be. My favorite part of the Kerry plan for fighting the War on Terror in defensive mode is this:

• Enlisting the National Guard in Homeland Security
  Homeland security should be a central mission of the National Guard. Guard members should be trained to serve as personnel in the event of an attack, helping evacuate or quarantine people, assisting in medical units; and helping communities set up and execute plans.

Could there be any clearer indication that John Kerry would change the War on Terror into a barbed-wire-and-bunker defensive war, only reacting to attacks after it's too late? The horrific events of 9/11 have taught us -- most of us, anyway -- that there is no "degree" of being too late when it comes to preventing terrorism. An instant of time -- a single terrorist getting through the fences -- is all it would take to devastate an entire city. We cannot wait to connect those dots until they represent casualties. The hypocrisy of the Left is that they want to attack President Bush for not preventing 9/11 while simultaneously attacking him for preventing another potential attack from Iraq... or from any country that sponsors and supports terrorism.

Only those who can afford to lose choose to fight a defensive war.