The Pet Goat

Personally, I don’t understand the frothing at the mouth about our President spending a few extra minutes reading the story “The Pet Goat” to students after being informed that the plane crashes into the World Trade Center were intentional.

The criticism is stupid.

Simply stupid.

The President of the United State, Republican or Democrat, adored or reviled, does not take five steps down a corridor without immediate supervision by the Secret Service. He does not enter a building until it has been examined with bomb-sniffing dogs and completely cordoned by federal agents. The teachers at the school President Bush was making an appearance at on September 11th were most likely subjected to background checks and possibly security interviews. The President IS NOT moved without the coordination of all the agents responsible for his security.

Air Force One occasionally lands at my husband’s place of work, and the President has recently made several speeches there. The civilian employees there must have their identification at all times, be where they’re supposed to be, and not go on rooftops without clearance. They will be shot if they act like your typical idiot and not see to it that they make themselves completely harmless and non-threatening.

My point is that for President Bush to get up and run out of the room would be disruptive to the schedule that the Secret Service has laid out to the fraction of the minute. When you’re the President you are no longer your own person, you belong to your security. I strongly suspect that the President is not at liberty to go to the restroom outside the White House without a Secret Service agent standing there right outside the stall and thirty others informed to the second about his position and actions. Take note, if you have public pissing privacy problems… don’t run for President.

The people straining their sphincters about “The Pet Goat” are demonstrating their abysmal understanding of what the life of the President is all about.

In my personal opinion, I think President Bush showed great restraint by calmly continuing with his schedule until his security could safely move him to a place where he could be briefed on what amounted to an extremely sensitive national security matter.

Two more points: Firstly, there were no decisions the President could have directly made at this time that would have changed the outcome of 911, by the time the pertinent information got to his handlers it was already too late. Unfortunately the President, like the rest of us, is not psychic, nor equipped to receive encrypted radio communications. Secondly, there is no information that could somehow have gotten to him faster. We all thought the first plane crash was a tragic accident, it took a few minutes and a second hit for reality to set in and us to realize we were truly under attack.

It is truly unfortunate that some loud people in the US are so terribly ill-reasoned about events, especially when there is plenty of documentation and evidence to work with.

I guess some trust Michael Moore more than they do their own powers of reasoning.

Edit to add:

Hmmm, on a sort of unrelated note, the Secret Service may have thwarted an assisination attempt on the morning of September 11th.

See this reference, provided on Wikipedia under the heading of "My Pet Goat" - http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/essay.jsp?article=essayaninterestingday

(couldn't get html tags to work right, sorry.)