As everyone knows, this Sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Though anniversaries are just another day, they can also become moments of reflection. Towards that end, I wanted to start this thread to discuss the following two questions: 1- It is said that hindsight is 20/20. If you had the opportunity to look back in the aftermath of the attacks, what policy decision would you have changed? For example, do you think launching a war with Afghanistan was necessary? Iraq? What about national security measures such as wiretapping and the passing of the Patriot Act? Should we have engaged in a war on terror, or should we have acted differently, and if so, how? 2- Even though we've invested quite a bit into securing the nation, the reality is that we'll always be somewhat vulnerable to terror attacks. My question here is how you think we should respond to a future attack if we experience one. I know both of the above questions are pretty loaded and that its well nigh impossible to make a thorough assessment absent the breadth of security data and information needed to make a definitive statement, but I think we can all speak to the generalities of our environment, our own experiences, and what we felt could have/should have been done differently, if anything at all. Personally, I've found that over time I've grown less critical of George Bush than I previously was. I still disagree with many decisions he made, and believe that his administration should have been prosecuted for illegal detentions, authorizing torture, etc. But I dont hold him responsible at all for 9/11, think that Afghanistan was at least understandable at the time, and that even without the war in Afghanistan, we would have been forced to engage the Taliban at some level militarily. I think the national security industry is oversaturated and that we overreacted. We were vulnerable, and rather than fully assessing what should have been done, we probably invested far too much in government institutions that will never get scaled down and in projects that shouldnt have been funded to begin with. That said, I actually look back and think the Bush administration, given the key personnel, showed much more restraint than I would have imagined. I think Iraq was a mistake. I dont blame Bush for this and think both parties were complicit in either authorizing Iraq or standing pat out of fear of castigation. As for what I would do in the future if we experienced an attack, at the moment I'm not sure I'd do anything, especially not launch another war.... Looking forward to reading others responses.
i'll say one thing, its interesting that with the upcoming election, with the republicans having debates since the democrats have the incumbent, it really isn't a topic. even this week. woke up this morning and the pundits were railing on jim hoff jr about his words about the tea party. its especially interesting since the republicans are the tough on defense party. hell, foreign policy was still the issue in 08. it just goes to show you, its all about the economy.
We learned lots of things about our country-- many of them negative. We learned that though many individual citizens will be heroic and generous in response to such a tragedy we have folks who will fight tooth and nail to keep them from having health care if they get sick cleaning up a national disaster because of their hatred of taxes for themselves. Well one thing we learned is that there is a powerful elite in this country will use any opportunity to scare people in this country to give away their freedoms such as the 4th Amendment. This elite will use any opportunity to expand their profits from the military industrial complex. We also learned how easy it is to scare and manipuate the citizens of the most powerful country in the world. We learned our "free" press is afraid to cross the president and other powerful political leaders. Finally I think we should learn that if we needlessly kill and oppress folks around the world through drones, sanctions, invasions, support for torturers and dictators etc. that it will eventually blowback here in one fashion or another.
I learned that a President of the United States can take an incredible national catastrophe and use it to carry out a personal vendetta against the leader of a sovereign nation, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, the injury of hundreds of thousands, the devastation of an entire country, a hammer blow at both our international standing in the world and our military power, and all at a cost to this country's treasury amounting to a sum that beggars the imagination and is still growing. I learned many other things, as well, but this one jumps out at me.
1. Afghanistan was necessary, but we took an absolutely idiotic approach to that war, being more concerned about creating a civilized and stable government for a bunch of savages rather than working for our own interests and power. With Bin Laden dead, at this point we need to just get out and let those people fend for themselves. Iraq was stupid, but it was the result of naivety, a lack of understanding of Middle Eastern culture, and a sincere desire to do good as opposed to some ludicrous "War for oil and capitalism blah blah blah" junk - it's representative of both the best parts of modern American foreign policy as well as its worst. And really, at this point, it's doing much better than I had expected. 2. As for another attack? Someone does something that drastic to us again, you kill them using almost any means necessary. Pretty simple.
after the current administration nabbed bin laden, it's not an issue the GOP can get much traction with, politically.
We learned that people will give up their freedoms quickly and listen to trigger happy idiots because we are a country of set it and forget it.
i don't know about that, it seems defense spending is finally rearing its ugly head as an options for cuts with the current state of the deficit.
Interesting, sad, but probably true. Afganastan has turned into a modern Vietnam, and we took the sympathy we had from the rest of the world and ran over parts of the world to get back at a few that attacked us. We then sent the army where there is no battlefield or army to fight against. Meanwhile bankrupting our own country... Yeah, not good... DD
Really? I agree we need to withdraw but not for the reasons you've stated. WTF is wrong with you? So much ignorance in your post it's absurd.
I've said it elsewhere on this board - I think we had the wrong priorities in the Afghanistan War. At times it seems like we have been more concerned with setting up a centralized democratic government in possibly the most uncivilized region of the world than with actually getting back at those who inflicted harm upon the United States. The latter should have been our priority. It wasn't. That's why we've stuck in that ****hole for the last ten years, repeating and not learning from the mistakes of the Soviets, just as the Soviets did not learn from our mistakes in Vietnam. That's what I feel is the most important we should learn - war is an agent of destruction, not one of creation. Attempting to create a new society, a new government in the middle of a war, is foolhardy. I mean, why are we there anymore? Bin Laden's dead, and to paraphrase the great Bismarck, Afghanistan isn't worth the bones of a single Marine. Get out of there, and let those people go back to their stupid tribal feuds and ignorant superstitions and their opium.
THIS IS NOT HUMANITY. IF someone attacks, I say we turn the other cheek and leave them the **** alone. Poking at the wasp's nest just causes more trouble, but most of America seems to lack this understanding as I see this in peoples' daily lives as it reflects our international policy.
The lives of Iraqui children do not matter because, well, they're not americans. Lets invade again, 2016!
Oh God. If someone attacks me, I fight back. If someone attacks the United States, we will fight the heck back. THAT is humanity, not some ludicrous set of pacifist ethics that you want to follow. I can't believe this merits explaining.
