phiwum said:
I don't know when confirmation of a bomb happened. You could replace "bomb" with "explosion" in that Cuomo quote I linked and it would be just as true. As soon as I heard "New York" and "explosion" I thought "terrorism", just like everyone else, and I probably would have given you 50-1 odds on a forum bet.
Let's try:
"An explosion in New York is obviously an act of terrorism," Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Sunday, vowing that authorities will catch whoever is responsible.
Nope. Doesn't work. Not every explosion in NY is an act of terrorism, so it cannot be that every explosion is "obviously" an act of terrorism.
In the context of an explosion happening in New Jersey just hours prior, and crude explosive devices being found, the explosion in New York was obviously terrorism, obviously another bomb. When's the last time a bomb went off, and then an explosion happened in a large city close to the original bombing and it wasn't terrorism?
An explosion that went off in a garbage can Saturday morning in a New Jersey beach town likely was timed to disrupt a Marine Corps charity run, authorities said.
Three pipe-bomb-type devices wired together were found near the boardwalk in Seaside Park. No injuries were reported and a four-block area was evacuated for most of the day, authorities said.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/17/us/nj-explosive-trash-can/
It was so obvious, Clinton also referred to it as a "bombing" and then hilariously called Trump out for jumping to conclusions:
"
CLINTON: I've been briefed about the bombings in New York and New Jersey and the attack in Minnesota. Obviously, we need to do everything we can to support our first responders. Also to pray for the victims. We have to let the investigation unfold. We've been in touch with various officials including in the mayor's office in New York to learn what they are discovering as they conduct this investigation and I'll have more to say about it when we actually have the facts.
REPORTER: Secretary, do you have any reaction to the fact that Donald Trump immediately took the stage tonight, calling the explosion a 'bomb'?
CLINTON: Well I think it's important to know all of the facts about an incident like this. That's why it's critical to support the first responders, the investigators who are looking into it, trying to figure out what did happen. I think it's always wiser to wait to until you have information for making conclusions, because we are just in the beginning stages of trying to determine what happened."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vi...e_to_say_when_we_actually_know_the_facts.html
And Trump isn't an authority figure. He's trying to get elected as one. Trump's speculation of terrorism was so obviously on the money it was about as irresponsible as driving 60 in a 55 zone. But there was a reason he said what he said.
The highlighted is enough to justify criticizing him.
Funny how Clinton escapes similar criticism.
There's an obvious message there:
Over-cautiousness can be just as bad as recklessness, and I'm not going to be overly cautious. I'm not going to read "The Pet Goat" to children after the planes hit the buildings. Presidents have to make snap decisions sometimes on very little information, and I'm going to err on the side of "if it's an explosion in New York, it's probably terrorism".
People eat that stuff up now, and not just in America.
I'm not saying anything about what other voters think. Trump is reckless and does not depend on facts. This is reason enough for my concern.
Sure he is, but not on this one. Both he and Clinton came to the same conclusion because the odds of a non-terrorist explosion happening hours after a pipe bomb almost kills/injures a bunch of cops in NJ is too ridiculous to consider.
Sure, that's the responsible thing to do. But even after confirmation of a bomb, there are scenarios where it's not terrorism. It could have been teenagers messing around, not meaning to hurt anyone. It could have been a schizophrenic acting out on some paranoid persecution fantasy. At some point, authority figures have to say what they think.
I'll agree that even Cuomo has gone a bit beyond the facts when he claims this is obviously terrorism, but the odds are quite good that this was an intentional act aimed at harming innocents.
The odds were good as soon as the explosion happened.
Oh, I'm sure he would have blamed Muslims. But that goes both ways. Would Trump have been better in a 9/11 situation than Bush, who froze up after it was obvious we were under attack? Would Trump (or any of his officials) have balked at beefing up embassy security before the 9/11 anniversary? I think Stevens would have gotten the extra security he asked for in June.
No, Trump would not have been better than Bush. Bush's reaction in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was surprisingly good.
Bush's reaction after the second plane hit was to read to children for seven more minutes. Liberals like Michael Moore pilloried Bush for it and rightly so. He obviously froze up.
Trump does a lot of stupid things, but freeze up isn't one of them. He would have been screaming terrorism when the first plane hit. Would it have made a difference? Who knows. Bin Laden thought so:
It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/w...o-message-bin-laden-issues-warning-to-us.html
Maybe he was just trying to tweak Bush, but the attacks were staggered and maybe if Bush had reacted after the first plane hit, something could have been done. We'll never know. But I don't think Bush should have hung out with children after the second plane hit, do you?
As far as invading Iraq, I'm not sure Trump would have made that call. He tepidly supported it in a Howard Stern interview when it was clear the American war machine was gearing up for an invasion, but would Trump have put a bullseye on Iraq? I'm not sure. There were personal reasons for Bush wanting to go into Iraq that wouldn't have existed with Trump. We don't know what a president Trump would have done about Iraq, but we know what Senator Clinton did. And she made the same mistake again, in Libya. She has zero credibility, when it comes to foreign policy.
And you didn't bring up Benghazi. Does that mean you agree that under a Trump administration, Stevens would have gotten the security he asked for months before the attack? I think he would have.
(Later, when he chose to invade Iraq, of course he was foolish, but in the immediate aftermath, Bush chose to point out the obvious: this is not a war against Islam. Trump would never say such a thing, and so he would invite violence against Muslims in the U.S.)
That's true. He would have pushed for a ban on Muslims, I'm sure. I'm not saying Trump would have been a better president than Bush. I'm saying at certain times, he wouldn't have made the same mistakes as Bush made. Trump's "it must be terrorism" attitude would have been better than Bush's deer-in-headlights response when the attacks were actually happening.
This whole episode of concluding a bombing had occurred after a bombing had just occurred in a neighboring state was so obvious that Clinton also referred to it as a bombing, but then stupidly called Trump out just moments afterward for jumping to conclusions. Another unforced error for Clinton. NBC is at least calling her out on it:
"
While Hillary Clinton appeared to criticize Trump for immediately calling the incident a bombing, she initially referred to it the same way."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-trump-clinton-reacted-new-york-city-bombs-n650116