In 2004, I asked my readers to consider an alternate universe where a 9/11 scale disaster is averted by Presidential action.

Nobody would ever know that 9/11 was averted, either, and even if they did notice the story would be played up as the Adminstration trying to take credit for preventing something that couldn't possibly have happened anyhow.

Like I said, you can't win.

Today, we get to see that played out in the real world. A 9/11 attack has been averted, and do the Powers That Be get any credit? Nope, silence at best, conspiracy theories at worst. If the attacks get through, it's Bush's fault. If the attacks are stopped, well, obviously, they don't exist, so the fact that anybody believes they did and may have become unduly concerned is Bush's fault.

An unfalsifiable belief is an irrational belief.

(Also, that "timing" argument is getting old. Now elections have a three-month "halo" around them during which events can be "suspicious" merely for occurring? Has there been so much as a minute during the past almost-five years that an event could occur in that would not result in a "questionable timing" accusation? Not with a three month window and a low, almost non-existant threshold of "event worth distracting the public from".)