9/11 terror caught Bush, U.S. govt by surprise

9/11 terror caught Bush, U.S. govt by surprise

Sayidiman Suryohadiprojo, Former Governor, National Resilience Institute,
(Lemhanas), Jakarta

The American people are busy investigating whether President
George W. Bush and his government did what they should have done
when the Sept. 11, 2001 attack took place.

An independent commission was formed to preside over the
investigation. Many people were interviewed, an important figure
among them was Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. National Security
Adviser. Rice emphasized that President Bush had put in the
maximum effort, considering the limited information about the
coming al-Qaeda attack. But many other people were of different
opinions. They stressed that security agencies, like the CIA and
the FBI, had warned the president of a possible al-Qaeda attack
inside the U.S. They demanded that the White House declassify a
report delivered to the president on Aug. 6, 2001, to reveal the
truth.

This situation reminded us of the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on Dec. 8, 1941. Like the Sept. 11 attack, the attack on
Pearl Harbor was a total surprise for America. The U.S. lost many
ships and people, although the Japanese could not achieve their
main objective, namely the annihilation of U.S. aircraft
carriers.

The attack on Pearl Harbor signaled the entry of the U.S. into
World War II. The total surprise achieved by the Japanese was a
terrible blow to the U.S., not only because of the heavy material
and human losses, but much more so because American national
pride was severely hurt. Almost nobody in America had ever
thought that an outside power could attack a U.S. naval base, let
alone Pearl Harbor as one of the strongest U.S. naval bases
located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

However, in reality it was the Japanese who made the worst
mistake. Because of the attack, the American people, who before
that were very strongly against entering the war, were now
suddenly aroused to fight and to revenge the treacherous misdeed
-- an attack not preceded by a proclamation of war. The U.S.
immediately entered the war with strong spirits and motivation,
and joined Britain and other nations to fight Germany, Italy and
Japan.

And that was exactly what President Franklin D. Roosevelt had
wanted for a long time. Since Germany defeated and occupied all
West European countries except Britain, Roosevelt persuaded his
people to enter the war on the side of the British against Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy. He made all efforts to convince his
people that Germany would not halt its expansion if it could
defeat Britain; and would definitely continue to attack America.

It was therefore much better for American security if it could
fight Germany together with Britain, rather than later facing the
enemy alone. But the American people, feeling safe and secure in
their isolated bastion in the Western Hemisphere, rejected every
move to bring them into the war. The maximum that Roosevelt could
achieve was to support Britain with war material.

The sudden change of American sentiment was definitely in
Roosevelt's favor. His government could now easily mobilize all
American resources to fight an all-out war against the Axis
Powers and Japan.

This sudden and dramatic change triggered speculations and
suspicions among people who had knowledge of intelligence, that
Roosevelt "engineered" the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. These
people knew that the U.S. intelligence, in particular its Code
Office, had achieved a very important success, namely its experts
had broken the secrecy of the Japanese communication code.
Because of this fact, which the Japanese did not realize, the
Americans were able to read every Japanese message transferred
through radio communication.

No surprises in diplomatic and military developments were
possible for the American leadership, which could read every
Japanese dispatch. They therefore thought that it was also
impossible for the Japanese to hide their intentions to attack
Pearl Harbor. And it was a fact that just before the attack took
place a report from the Code Office was delivered to the White
House.

But no warnings were sent by the American leadership to the
responsible commanders in the Pacific area. People were,
therefore, suspicious that President Roosevelt did not react to
the reports in order to enable Japan to make a surprise attack.
He could easily guess that a severe blow to American sentiment
would push the people to radically change their antiwar attitude
into a spirit of revenge and a readiness to join the war. And
that was exactly what happened.

The situation around the Sept. 11 attack shows many
similarities with that of Pearl Harbor. Rice said in her opening
statement before the Sept. 11 commission that the American people
were, before Sept. 11, not in a "mood of war".

That was similar to the situation before the Pearl Harbor
attack. And everybody knew that President George W. Bush and the
neo-conservative group around him were very eager and ambitious
to attack Iraq for several reasons. That again is similar to
President Roosevelt's strong intentions to join the fight
alongside Britain as soon as possible.

After Sept. 11, the mood of the American people became very
patriotic and nationalistic. Support of the Bush government to
fight terrorism all-out was very strong. That, again, looks very
similar to the situation after Dec. 8, 1941.

It is therefore reasonable for some people to suspect that
President Bush and his neo-conservative assistants had
intentionally not reacted proportionally to warning reports of a
terrorist attack, as such developments would provide them with a
situation favorable for achieving their political objectives.

But there the similarities seem to end. Because there is no
similarity between the American victory of the Second World War
and the negative developments of the war in Iraq and the failure
to capture al-Qaeda and its terrorist gang until today.

President Roosevelt's management of the situation resulted in
America's overall supremacy coupled with a strong pro-American
attitude in many parts of the world, not only among nations
allied by the U.S., but also among many people in the defeated
nations of Germany, Italy and Japan. And that in spite of the
inhuman atomic bombings.

Today it is far from clear that President Bush can pacify
Iraq, let alone change it into a democracy, which was one of
Bush's objectives for attacking Iraq. It is also still far from
sure when Osama bin Laden can be captured and the al-Qaeda
terrorist group can be totally annihilated. Much more humiliating
for America is the spread of anti-Americanism all over the world
because of President Bush's policies. Not only Palestinians,
Iraqis or Iranians are now strongly anti-America, but even people
in Spain, Japan and Germany who were traditionally pro-America.
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