Paging Captain Responsible, first name Not

George Tenet has apparently penned a stern critique of the Bush Administration, in particular the Vice President, for initiating war with Iraq without a "serious debate" on whether going to war was the correct course of action. And no wonder:

I can't take anyone wearing a pink tie seriously, either.

Alas, unlike many other better-managed sources of information, I can't provide a detailed review of George Tenet's book, mostly because I have an aversion to reading self-serving apologias. I will take this opportunity, though, to snipe from the security of the internet at this line from the preliminary NYT article:

Mr. Tenet expresses puzzlement that, since 2001, Al Qaeda has not sent “suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half-dozen American shopping malls on any given day.”

What, you mean the inaccessible prisoners at Guantanamo aren't responsible for preventing that? I thought that was the whole point! Why is he puzzled? Even "self-congratulatory" would be better than "puzzled"! He was the penultimate Director of Central Intelligence--shouldn't he know why, if not being actively responsible for why? The only explanation I can give is that somehow George Tenet mixed up his entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest with the last chapter of his goddamn book.

"Frankly, Tarzan, I'm puzzled as to why Al Qaeda hasn't sent suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half-dozen American shopping malls on any given day."