Nightmare in America Pt.2 (9/11)

"How did our country change?"- I hate to say it but I decided to run after 9/11. Not right after it- but once I started to see how it was affecting our government, our media- our whole culture. We were afraid; all of us were- nothing like this had ever happened to us. None of us had ever fathomed in our worst nightmares that someone hated us enough to hurl an airliner into our office tower. None of us could have- we would have been incapable of functioning in any normal way.

President Bush appealed to us- to all Americans- to get back to our normal lives as quickly as possible. We tried, and managed to get back to work, to shop, to sit in our living rooms and watch television. To drive our kids to the football game. By reclaiming our blissful lives we hoped to prevent the terrorists from winning; from changing the way we live our lives. We continued as best we could while 280 million Americans choked back their tears and tried to pay tribute to our fallen in their most personal ways.

We in your government thought that we could help protect America and prosecute a "Global War on Terrorism" without adversely affecting the face of our nation. As the weeks turned into months, I saw that the more we tried, the further away we were getting from our pre-9/11 ideals about what America was. It was no longer "Morning in America"- we were quickly approaching midnight and the night we had entered appeared to have no end.

A lot of this campaign has focused on this fight on terrorism; about who is best capable to safeguard America and find those responsible. And a lot of the criticism that is leveled against me is based on hypothetical questions about what I would have done differently. Here's a short list:

• I would not have allied with Pakistan before invading Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden. The Pakistani spy agency was one of the original backers and organizers of the Taliban- and doubtlessly their operatives confounded our attempts to arrest the Taliban and al-Qaida
• I would not have created a new Intelligence wing within the White House to compile and review CIA and NSA information to lead us into a war in Iraq on politicized intelligence.
• I would have allowed the UN Security Council carry out the weapons inspections.

Would I have invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein? Yes. Even without the weapons of mass-destruction. Even without the missing link between Iraq and al-Qaida. Even though they had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11.

I wouldn't have lied to the American people about why we invaded Iraq. I think America can handle the truth.