Condoleeza Rice's Testimony

I saw a portion of her testimony last night on CSPAN. What struck me most, beyond her general passivity, was the eerie lack of response by the Bush Administration to Al Qaeda's bombing of the USS Cole. The bombing occurred shortly before the Clinton Administration left power, and the question of retaliation was left for the Bush Administration, which apparently felt that another rather ineffective response (for example, a cruise-missile standoff attack) would simply gratify and reward the terrorists. Still, doesn't the complete absence of a response gratify and reward the terrorists even more?

It was almost as if the Bushies saw the Cole attack as an attack on Bill Clinton, and not the USA (even though the Cole was a US warship and the attack certainly qualified as an act of war), and therefore didn't merit a response. September 11th required a response only because it might be seen as an attack on Bush (the USA be damned). It's that weird hyperloyal autocratic personality cult Bush has developed that seemed to stand in the way.