Let?s shut down the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States -- the September 11 Commission. After all, what?s the point? 

According to its Web site, the commission ?is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.?

However, the second sentence explains the only part that really matters. After all, everyone knows we were attacked. Everyone knows we weren?t as prepared as we should have been. So while it?s important to determine exactly what we did wrong, the reason that?s important is not so we can assign blame. It?s so we can prevent the next attack.

It became clear the commission?s investigation wasn?t going to succeed when people in the audience started clapping.

 Some clapped when former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey announced, ?I?m terribly worried that the military tactics in Iraq are going to do a number of things, and they?re all bad.?

 Others clapped when National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice responded, ?I?m aware, Mr. Kerrey, of a speech that you gave at that time that said that perhaps the best thing that we could do to respond to the Cole ? was to do something about the threat of Saddam Hussein.?

One side wants to pin all the blame on the Bush administration while another side wants to claim the administration did nothing wrong. So supporters of each side cheer when their representative scores a partisan point.

Come on. This isn?t a basketball game where one team just hit a three-pointer. It?s (or it?s supposed to be) an investigation into why 3,000 Americans were killed by terrorists. There will be no ?winners? here, and nothing worthy of applause.

I suppose it?s comforting for some to attempt to go back to the old politics of impeachment and ?stolen? elections. But we need to recognize those partisan differences existed in a pre-Sept. 11 universe. They?re gone now. Or, they should be.

Part of that requires admitting mistakes, and Rice edged in that direction. ?The terrorists were at war with us, but we were not yet at war with them,? she said. ?For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America?s response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient.?

But the administration should also say, ?Yes, we weren?t completely focused on terrorism before Sept. 11. It was a priority, but not the priority. Nor, for that matter, was it the priority for the Clinton administration.