This past week there’s been a lot of yelling about memos and briefings and what W and/or Clinton knew or should have known about terrorism. Once again the politicians and the talking-heads channels are spending huge amounts of time on their favorite sport: rehashing the past. I know it’s important to understand the mistakes that were made allowing the attacks of September 11, 2001. But we waste so much time and energy on reliving the past that we have little or none left for making sure it doesn’t happen again – for creating a secure future.

I’ve ranted about this before but it’s worth a rerun. If we had taken just half the amount of money the US has spent and will spend on the war in Iraq and invested it in this country – homeland security, improving our infrastructure, better intelligence – we would be much more secure than we are now (not to mention the thousands who would still be alive). We also wouldn’t be as universally despised around the world. I know all that’s 20/20 hindsight – the same thing that politicians and their shills in the new media are working overtime on this week. But the mess in Iraq was much easier to predict than the 9/11 attacks.