9 – 11 September 11, 2003January 22, 2017 A sad day. The only person we knew directly who perished two years ago was our friend Rob Deraney. But Rob was a particularly great guy, and actually the one who introduced Charles and me a decade ago, so it’s especially poignant to have lost him. No one can rightly blame President Bush for September 11. But I sure wish he hadn’t ignored the direct warning he got January 7, 2001, at Blair House, from the head of the CIA – that bin Laden represented a ‘tremendous’ and ‘immediate’ threat to the United States. In hindsight – always so much easier than real life – if he hadn’t ignored that warning, and hadn’t shelved what had been the ongoing Clinton/Gore efforts to thwart al-Qaeda . . . well, who knows? And what if we had concentrated our resources on Afghanistan and al-Qaeda a little longer, until we had made more headway, before alienating so much of the rest of the world by rushing into Iraq? Could waiting six months have increased our success against al-Qaeda while, at the same time, increasing world support for our effort in Iraq? THE WORLD’S LEADER You probably saw Tuesday’s New York Times editorial on the President, but if not, click here. (As an incentive to our Republican readers, we will be tracking the click-throughs and adding a free month to the subscription of any red-state reader who goes there.) Tomorrow: Your feedback on taxes. Still coming: John Adams, the other view, by Richard Rosenthal.