Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Am I Missing Something?

CNN is interviewing Rudy Giuliani asking how he would help prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States. Am I missing something here?

In 1993 the World Trade Center was almost brought down when a car bomb was detonated below the North Tower. It failed, just barely, to bring down the tower, but six people were killed and 1,042 people were injured. Yeah, that is right, over one thousand people were injured. But you probably forgot all about that. The North Tower was completely shut down for over a year.

The bomb instantly cut off the center's main electrical power line, knocking out the emergency lighting system. The bomb caused smoke to rise up to the 93rd floor of both towers, including through the stairwells which were not pressurized. With thick smoke filling the stairwells, evacuation was difficult for building occupants and led to many smoke inhalation injuries. Hundreds were trapped in elevators in the towers when the power was cut, including a group of 17 kindergartners, on their way down from the South Tower observation deck, who were trapped between the 35th and 36th floors for five hours

Also as a result of the loss of electricity most of New York City's radio and television stations lost their over-the-air broadcast signal for almost a week, with television stations only being able to broadcast via cable and satellite via a microwave hookup between the stations and three of the New York area's largest cable companies. Telephone service for much of Lower Manhattan was also disrupted.

Now, knowing how vulnerable the World Trade Center was to an attack, and knowing it was a prime target of Al-Qaeda, tell me again what, exactly, Rudy Giuliani did to prevent a second attack eight years later. Or what he did to minimize the impact of a second attack? And why is he now considered an expert on preventing the very type of attack that occured when he was Mayor?

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not sure if there is much, if anything, Giuliani could have done to prevent the attack, although I think there is much he could have done to minimize its impact. But I just don't know why being Mayor when the attack occured makes you an expert on preventing another one.

Again, Bar Man is confused.

But, I promise, tomorrow I will have more kvetching. This time with pictures. The Gowanas Canal is now the object of my wrath.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

With all due respect, ever since the end of the fantastic 1,000 bars saga, this blog has gone steadily downhill, with this posting being just the latest example of this.

Bar Man said...

Ah, I couldn't agree with you more.