In response to Adam White’s letter ,”Crazy like a fox,” on Thursday, 9/11 could easily have been prevented, but not by President Bush. President Clinton’s administration had multiple chances to capture or kill Bin Laden, thus preventing or at the very least abating the amount of damage caused on that horrific day.

The most obvious chance was in February 1996, when Sudan tendered intelligence and even offered to arrest Bin Laden.

However, the Clinton administration refused to negotiate, and Sudan had no choice but to let Bin Laden escape three month’s later to unknown whereabouts in Afghanistan.

The next chance was shortly after the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in August 1998. Now, Clinton had a reason to go after Bin Laden and even had intelligence about his location, but instead of mobilizing our powerful military forces, he launched $60 million worth of Tomahawk missiles. The result? A destroyed “nerve-gas” factory (which later was identified as a pharmaceutical plant producing medicine) and a razed training camp. Too bad all the trainers and trainees were left unscathed in their underground bunkers.

The last chance was in October 2000 when the Predator spy drones were able to locate Bin Laden in at least three separate occasions. All Clinton had to do was authorize the launching of Hellfire missiles, but instead, he sat on the issue until he left office in January 2001. I’m not trying to point the blame at Clinton, but these missed opportunities just show why we just shouldn’t elect another Democrat as our commander-in-chief.

Jeff Chieh

graduate student