Learn or Die

Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal has it right as always:

...This passage appears on the second page of the 9/11 Commission's 567-page report, On Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: "We learned that the institutions charged with protecting our borders, civil aviation and national security did not understand how grave this threat could be, and did not adjust their policies, plans and practices to deter or defeat it. . . . We learned of the pervasive problems of managing and sharing information across a large and unwieldy government [my emphasis] that had been built in a different era to confront different dangers."

And those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Having watched one passenger-filled airliner fly into a skyscraper on a peaceful morning in lower Manhattan more than four years ago, I'd just as soon not repeat the experience. If the question on the table is whether it is legal for the executive branch to listen without warrants to phone calls between people who repeatedly chant "Death to America," then I guess I'm for declaring it respectful of our laws and getting on with it.
...
Historically, the proper path for working out these national security disputes hasn't been Sen. Specter's preposterous appeal to let some judge design the nation's antiterror policy but rather through informal political negotiation between the executive branch and Congress. That only works, though, if the presidency has someone who will negotiate in good faith. Who's that? Hillary Clinton, already on the campaign trail in front of the UAW Wednesday, contributed: "You cannot explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan." Well for starters, he's probably not making phone calls.