Did you catch the remarks made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last week? There were two quotes that were notable. One quote was widely reported by the MSM (that's Media Spin Machine, for those of you not sure), and one was not.
Here's the one that was reported. It occurred at a DoD Operational Update Briefing with the press at the Pentagon on December 22:
"I am truly saddened by the thought that anyone could have the impression that I or others here are doing anything other than working urgently to see that the lives of the fighting men and women are protected and are cared for in every way humanly possible. And I hope and pray that every family member of those who have died so bravely knows how deeply I feel their loss.When I meet with the wounded, with their families, or with the families of those who have been lost, their grief is something I feel to my core. And I should add -- and the American people need to know -- that the strength of our military and of their families is amazing. It is truly extraordinary to see it and to feel it. It never fails to give me strength, to give me encouragement, and to give me inspiration for the tasks ahead.
I, and I know others, stay awake at night with concern for those at risk, with hope for their lives and for their success. And I want those who matter most -- the men and women in uniform and their families -- to know that. And I want them to know that we consider them -- the soldiers, the sailors, the airmen, the Marines -- to be America's true treasure, and I thank them and I thank their families."
That statement by Rumsfeld came in the light of criticism that letters to the families of troops are signed with an auto-pen.
The second quote came during Secretary Rumsfeld's surprise visit to Iraq on Christmas Eve. This quote wasn't really reported up by the MSM. It was picked up by WorldNetDaily, but no other news organizations had big stories on it:
"I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."
Did you catch it? In the above quote, Secretary Rumsfeld says that United Airlines Flight 93 was shot down. Now most people believe that Flight 93, hijacked on September 11, 2001, was brought down by captive passengers rising up against their hijackers. Rumsfeld statement seems to say that the plane most believe was crashed by heroic passengers was actually shot down by military fighters.
Yes, it's a short quote. Yes, it's entirely possible that Rumsfeld could have said the wrong thing and put his foot in his mouth. It's possible that the MSM didn't report on it because that's how they viewed it: as a slip of the tongue. It's just as possible that Rumsfeld could have also let the cat out of the bag and been the first member of the Bush Administration to do so.
OK, for the record, I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. I do not believe there was a vast cover-up of the events surrounding 9/11 by President Bush and his Administration. I do believe, however, that we may not have the whole story regarding the fate of Flight 93.
There have been multiple eyewitness accounts that saw a second plane near Flight 93 in the skies over Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There have been accounts all over the web from military personnel and air traffic personnel stating the same thing.
On September 16, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and the following exchange occurred with moderator Tim Russert:
Vice President Cheney: "Well, the--I suppose the toughest decision was this question of whether or not we would intercept incoming commercial aircraft.Tim Russert: "And you decided?
Cheney: "We decided to do it. We'd, in effect, put a flying combat air patrol up over the city; F-16s with an AWACS, which is an airborne radar system, and tanker support so they could stay up a long time...
"It doesn't do any good to put up a combat air patrol if you don't give them instructions to act, if, in fact, they feel it's appropriate.
Russert: "So if the United States government became aware that a hijacked commercial airline[r] was destined for the White House or the Capitol, we would take the plane down?
Cheney: "Yes. The President made the decision...that if the plane would not divert...as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out. Now, people say, you know, that's a horrendous decision to make. Well, it is. You've got an airplane full of American citizens, civilians, captured by...terrorists, headed and are you going to, in fact, shoot it down, obviously, and kill all those Americans on board?
"...It's a presidential-level decision, and the president made, I think, exactly the right call in this case, to say, "I wished we'd had combat air patrol up over New York."
--NBC's "Meet the Press," September 16, 2001
In researching for this particular blog, I've found that a good number of people refer to the notion of the military shooting down a passenger jet as "unthinkable." I've also seen sites where President Bush and his Administration are called "terrorists" for their part in the conspiracy theory surrounding Flight 93. If you consider the events of September 11, 2001, is it truly that unconscionable that something like this would occur? I really don't think it is.
The national airspace had been closed and this plane was still in the air, presumably on its way to crash into yet another target on the ground--the US Capitol or the White House. Regardless of whether the plane was brought down by its passengers or shot down by the Air Force, many lives were likely saved. Although it is a sobering and alarming thought, the primary function of the Government (and the Military) is the protection of the United States.
This would include shooting down a hijacked plane with forty Americans on board that was headed for Washington, DC.
So, let's stipulate for the purpose of this discussion that Flight 93 was shot down by the Air Force. The crime is not that the plane was shot down by an American pilot. The crime is not that the order was given by the President of the United States. The crime was not that forty Americans were killed by their Government. The crime would be that they didn't tell us the truth about it and chose to martyr the passengers of Flight 93.
In the meantime, we are left with three sides to this story: the Government's, the eyewitnesses and the truth that probably lies somewhere in the middle. Rumsfeld's quick statement can hardly be a true indicator and will likely be written off as a misstatement. Unless a report is declassified with empirical evidence, we will never truly know what happened to that plane. All we will have is conjecture and speculation.
Despite all of the conspiracy theories on all sides, only one thing is certain: the passengers of Flight 93 are heroes in the truest sense of the word. Whether they took the plane down or not, they clearly organized and were getting ready to take it to the hijackers. "Let's roll," indeed.
Nothing and no one can ever take that away from them.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com
