It's the Foreign Policy, Stupid
Here's an interesting commentary about the findings of the 9/11 commish that reminds us it's not just all about what we do internally (i.e., create a new intelligence czar/czarina position), but what we show to the rest of the world is just as if not more important.

The greatest flaw in the commission's analysis and recommendations, however, was one of omission. The panel did not address the root causes of the Sept. 11 attacks. Dealing with them is the only way to reduce the chances of terrorist attacks in the first place.

In his statement upon release of the commission's report, Thomas Kean, the commission's chairman, incorrectly opined that the terrorists hate America and its policies. Even al Qaeda does not hate America per se. The group's statements indicate that it hates U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, especially the U.S. government's propping up of corrupt Arab regimes (such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt) for their perceived strategic significance. Furthermore, repeated polls in the Islamic world (including two polls in "friendly" Arab countries released last week by the University of Maryland and the Arab American Institute and Zogby International) indicate that the United States is hated not for its culture, technology or freedoms -- as President Bush would have us believe -- but for its foreign policy. The president has further inflamed that hatred with his illegitimate invasion of a sovereign Iraq -- a nation that had no weapons of mass destruction and that the 9/11 Commission said had no "collaborative relationship" with al Qaeda.