Word: retrospect
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...inevitable that as the months passed after Sept. 11, reports, memos and speculations would be found that, in retrospect, would seem to have provided early warning--if only someone had connected the dots. While some pre-9/11 items of intelligence today seem like red flags, pulling together incomplete or ambiguous fragments of information into a credible and compelling analysis is more difficult than the Monday-morning quarterbacks would have you think. Especially doing so convincingly enough to prompt high-level, high-risk decisions...
Before Sept. 11, we were a different country, and Washington was a different city, where turf issues prevailed and concern about CIA and FBI "overreaching" trumped concern for security. In retrospect, clues were almost certainly missed, and, as is Washington's way, blame will be attributed. However, for the future, a thoughtful, balanced congressional inquiry can identify the pre-Sept. 11 structural and bureaucratic impediments to information sharing and better coordination across the government, and can recommend changes that improve our defenses against terrorism. But using fragments of information as ammunition against the President, the CIA, the FBI and others...
...West announced he was leaving for Princeton, he infamously called Summers “in one sense…the Ariel Sharon of American higher education,” specifically claiming that Summers “acts like a bull in a china shop.” But in retrospect, it appears that the disagreement was little more than a turf war, with two strong-willed men playing an intricate game of politics. That Summers happens to be a Jew and West black was only incidental to their disagreement. The same race-based misconception plagued those who claimed West?...
...which was compressed when Harvard’s Office of the General Counsel became occupied reviewing the contract’s details. Aborting the concert only days before it was scheduled to happen was unfair given HCC’s persistent work in bringing popular talent to campus. In retrospect, however, the administration and HCC were both unprepared to carry out this event; there was, at the very least, a communication breakdown...
...it’s tough not to wonder what the original collaboration might have been produced. Says Brustein, in retrospect, “It was theoretically a marvleous team...