Debt of Honor (revisiting the past)

(The following piece is a "reprint" of an unpublished editorial I wrote on May 21, 2002. It's worth remembering.)

On September 7, 1989 former President George Bush appeared at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland for the Star-Spangled Banner Ceremony with author Tom Clancy who the elder President called, “an esteemed author” and “his friend”. In 1994, that Bush friend released a blockbuster book, Debt of Honor, involving a Japanese terrorist who hijacks and flies a 747 airliner into the Capitol while the President is delivering the State of the Union message. The Executive Branch, the Congress and the Supreme Court are wiped out in one gigantic explosion. The book sold millions of copies here in the United States alone. Another Clancy novel, The Sum of All Fears, is slated for release on May 31st as a movie, starring Ben Affleck. If its anything like former Clancy books made into movies, it will reap millions at the box office.

National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice was quoted last week as saying that nobody in the current administration could have foreseen terrorists hijacking airplanes and flying them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Nonsense!

Let’s forget for a second about what the F.B.I. knew about the middle- eastern men training at the Arizona flight schools. Let’s also forget about F.B.I. concerns regarding flight student, Zacarious Moussaoui and his connections with terrorism. Let’s instead focus on people working in the White House.

If you walked into the situation room at the White House today and asked for a show of hands as to how many people read Debt of Honor prior to September 11th, at least 95% of the military people would raise their hands. If they were honest, at least half of the civilians in the Bush White House would say they have read it too. That’s because Tom Clancy is a widely respected and outspoken supporter of the United States military and a champion of military readiness given the proliferation of terror and aggression in the world. Clancy’s knowledge of the armed forces and their capabilities is widely respected and his books are universally read in military circles. It is said that even our enemies read Clancy. Equally respected is the research he has conducted on terrorist thinking, terrorist methods and the ideology they employ to spread terrorism worldwide. And Tom Clancy didn’t just become popular in the aftermath of September 11th. His first bestseller novel, The Hunt for Red October, was published in 1984. Since that sensational introduction onto the literary stage, he’s written many bestsellers, including Executive Decisions, Cardinal of the Kremlim and Patriot Games. In-depth military analysis, tactical planning and terrorist thinking are the stalwarts of every Clancy novel and are one of the main reasons they are popular with both the military and this nation’s populace. If you pick up a Clancy novel, you simply cannot put it down. They’re spellbinding, brilliantly written and unforgettable.

Clancy has spent years publicly criticizing the Clinton Administration’s military policy arguing vehemently that this country must improve its state of military readiness. He’s claimed repeatedly that any of the scenarios in his books were possible and the government should take every step to make sure none of them occurred. For those reasons he’s become an icon in military circles, a shining star and a staunch supporter of the Republican Party.

Furthermore, Tom Clancy has been a major supporter of the current President. If you visit http://www.americansforbushcheney.com, you will see that Tom Clancy was a named supporter of the BUSH/CHENEY steering committee. Remember too that he is a friend of the Bush family. The elder Bush has read all Clancy’s books. You can bet his son has too.

As I said before, Clancy’s books are unforgettable. Anyone who’s ever read Debt of Honor cannot watch a plane leaving Reagan Airport without wondering what would happen if the plane turned towards the Capitol. On September 11th, when I watched the pictures of the burning Pentagon and heard reports that a plane had circled the White House, Clancy’s book was the first thing that popped into my head. “Where were the patriot missiles that were supposed to be guarding these buildings?” I screamed.

I suppose you could blame Clinton for that lapse, but Bush had nine months to rectify the problem and didn’t take action either. That’s not the issue anyway. The issue is who should have connected the dots. For National Security Advisor Rice to suggest that in 2001 nobody in the White House, including the President could have imagined such an event is pure rubbish!
They all read Debt of Honor, and it’s coming to a theater near you!