Allen773
Graduate Poster
This is a common trope of conspiracy theorists. It is especially apparent to me in the cases of the JFK assassination (which was carried out by one man) and the 9/11 attacks (which were carried out by 19 men + probably a couple dozen or so handlers in Al-Qaeda - including Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - at most, quite possibly with some additional funding and assistance from certain "rogue" agents of the Saudi government and Pakistani ISI).
Basically, the theory is that such catastrophic events - whether it be the assassination of a US President or the massacre of a total of 3000 people in NYC, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA via the hijacking and deliberate crashing of four domestically-operated commercial airliners - cannot be committed without the knowledge and even active assistance of the US government (and by that, they usually mean the CIA, the FBI, the so-called "Shadow Government" and/or the highest levels of certain presidential administrations e.g. the second Bush administration re: 9/11).
What these people apparently don't understand is that the US government - particularly the executive branch - is not some monolithic entity; there are many, many different departments, agencies, and other institutions (along with all of the smaller sub-departments, offices, etc. that are embedded within larger parts of the federal bureaucracy) that are all part of the US government, yet that all have their own distinct roles, regulations (from both internal and external sources), responsibilities, and objectives. Sometimes, there are many overlapping aspects to these different parts of the US government. Sometimes, there is a lot less overlap. And sometimes, you have different agencies, departments, bureaus, local offices, etc. that have vaguely defined (and thus, differentiated) rules and regulations but clearly defined objectives. Or, you may have the opposite. It really all depends, honestly. And this isn't even taking into account the fact that all of this (well, most of it - the computers are becoming more and more important in a lot of stuff
) is done by human beings. You know, the same species as the assassins, terrorists, criminals, and other bad guys. Fancy that!
The main point of this thread, however, is that even if we assumed - for the sake of argument - that there was some hypothetical world where the US government was uniformally competent, efficient, and united in both its mission and its methods of carrying said mission out (and furthermore, had the ability to coordinate all of its operations), it still wouldn't have a perfect record in preventing the assassinations of high-profile government officials or deadly terrorist attacks on the homeland (let alone, overseas). And there's a very simple reason why, so simple and "common-sense" to the point of being a worn-out cliche that I am honestly surprised that CT'ers - who, of course, pride themselves on dissenting from expert opinion or mainstream explanations of seminal events in general via their "common sense" and their layman's incredulity - have yet to acknowledge it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/needle_in_a_haystack
It's hard enough to find the one needle, or two, or three, or 19 needles that you absolutely need to (yet at the same time, you don't even know what - or rather, who - they are) in a haystack of 7 billion needles. Harder still to predict exactly what that needle (or needles) will do, when it/they will do it, where it/they will do it, and how it/they will do it (not to mention, the few other needles in that haystack of 7 billion needles that could potentially lead you to the ones that you need to find).
Oh, and I forgot to add; you are supposed to do all of this with finite resources, under often-stifling rules and regulations, among thousands of competing professional (and personal) agendas (and their associated egos), on what can only be described as borrowed time. Oops, the real world isn't a utopia. Darn!
Basically, the theory is that such catastrophic events - whether it be the assassination of a US President or the massacre of a total of 3000 people in NYC, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA via the hijacking and deliberate crashing of four domestically-operated commercial airliners - cannot be committed without the knowledge and even active assistance of the US government (and by that, they usually mean the CIA, the FBI, the so-called "Shadow Government" and/or the highest levels of certain presidential administrations e.g. the second Bush administration re: 9/11).
What these people apparently don't understand is that the US government - particularly the executive branch - is not some monolithic entity; there are many, many different departments, agencies, and other institutions (along with all of the smaller sub-departments, offices, etc. that are embedded within larger parts of the federal bureaucracy) that are all part of the US government, yet that all have their own distinct roles, regulations (from both internal and external sources), responsibilities, and objectives. Sometimes, there are many overlapping aspects to these different parts of the US government. Sometimes, there is a lot less overlap. And sometimes, you have different agencies, departments, bureaus, local offices, etc. that have vaguely defined (and thus, differentiated) rules and regulations but clearly defined objectives. Or, you may have the opposite. It really all depends, honestly. And this isn't even taking into account the fact that all of this (well, most of it - the computers are becoming more and more important in a lot of stuff
) is done by human beings. You know, the same species as the assassins, terrorists, criminals, and other bad guys. Fancy that!The main point of this thread, however, is that even if we assumed - for the sake of argument - that there was some hypothetical world where the US government was uniformally competent, efficient, and united in both its mission and its methods of carrying said mission out (and furthermore, had the ability to coordinate all of its operations), it still wouldn't have a perfect record in preventing the assassinations of high-profile government officials or deadly terrorist attacks on the homeland (let alone, overseas). And there's a very simple reason why, so simple and "common-sense" to the point of being a worn-out cliche that I am honestly surprised that CT'ers - who, of course, pride themselves on dissenting from expert opinion or mainstream explanations of seminal events in general via their "common sense" and their layman's incredulity - have yet to acknowledge it:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/needle_in_a_haystack
It's hard enough to find the one needle, or two, or three, or 19 needles that you absolutely need to (yet at the same time, you don't even know what - or rather, who - they are) in a haystack of 7 billion needles. Harder still to predict exactly what that needle (or needles) will do, when it/they will do it, where it/they will do it, and how it/they will do it (not to mention, the few other needles in that haystack of 7 billion needles that could potentially lead you to the ones that you need to find).
Oh, and I forgot to add; you are supposed to do all of this with finite resources, under often-stifling rules and regulations, among thousands of competing professional (and personal) agendas (and their associated egos), on what can only be described as borrowed time. Oops, the real world isn't a utopia. Darn!
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