Is nothing enough to do about a warning?

Logically, one of the following two propositions must be true:

1. A President, confronted with the warning in the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing that Bin Laden was “determined to strike in U.S.” coming on top of an earlier briefing from the CIA that predicted a terrorist strike by Osama bin Laden “in the coming weeks” which “will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests,” and further said that “Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning,” ought to do nothing about it except to spend the next month on vacation and address the nation about the threat posed by stem cell research.

2. President Bush, confronted with those warnings, did less than he should have done.

I can’t really think of a third alternative.

The Poorman has more. (And scroll up a couple for the absolutely generic blog entry.)

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com

One thought on “Is nothing enough to do about a warning?”

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