9/11
by KevinSeptember 11th, 2007
It’s been six years since terrorists killed 3000 people. Bin Laden is still alive and free. Al Qaeda has regain their strength and might actually be stronger than on 9/11. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission still have not fully been implemented. Our foreign policy establishment is still dominated by people arguing about how big our empire should be instead of reacting to the realities of the new world. Public perception of this country is as low as any time in my memory. Iraq is a disaster with a theocracy being the best case outcome and violence form it serving as both a daily recruitment tool and a graduate level course in terrorist tactics. Katrina demonstrated that we are still incapable of responding to a terrorist attack.
The best you can hope for after every tragedy, after the funerals and the shock, is for justice and improvement. If the tragedy was the result of people, those people need to be held accountable. Lessons have to be learned, to make sure that every failure has been identified, every weakness addressed, every assumption and pre-conceived notion re-evaluated, every problem and process has been corrected and tested. Six years after 9/11, the country has neither.
The people in the Pentagon, in the towers, in the planes, and the men and women who risked their lives and health to try and save them deserve better than that.
Categories: General |
“Al Qaeda has regained their strength and might actually be stronger than on 9/11.”
Who says?
Morris:
Our own government says so, that’s who.
[...] Lean Left The best you can hope for after every tragedy, after the funerals and the shock, is for justice and improvement. If the tragedy was the result of people, those people need to be held accountable. Lessons have to be learned, to make sure that every failure has been identified, every weakness addressed, every assumption and pre-conceived notion re-evaluated, every problem and process has been corrected and tested. Six years after 9/11, the country has neither. [...]
“A military intelligence report that concludes al Qaeda has largely restored itself to pre- 9/11 strength will be the focus of a meeting at the White House today.”
What part of that says they are stronger?
Morris:
At what point did anyone say they are stronger? The original remark was that they are “as strong” and “might” be stronger. Our own government’s July NIE supports the statement that as of July, al Qaeda was as strong as ever (exact quotes from the story: “by any number of measures the terror group and its affiliates are as strong as ever” and “al Qaeda’s operational capability appears to be undiminished.”). Do you suppose that they magically stopped gaining strength in July, when they reached their pre-9/11 level? Assuming nothing substantial has happened to hinder them since July — and I can’t think of anything — then it’s completely supportable to suggest that they might now be even stronger than they were prior to 9/11. The actual report seems to agree:
Of course, you seem to be more interested in splitting hairs than in serious informed debate. But the bottom line is, the answer to your “says who” question is “the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”
OK, you make your points ~ but they are meaningless without also considering alternatives. Instead of the monday-morning quarterbacking we hear from so many liberal blogs ~ how about enlighting the world with your alternative plans, ideas & policies?
It’s way, WAY too easy to just sit back with 20-20 hindsight and take pot-shots, you know?
Stop enraging people who are willing to kill themselves in order to seek retribution, maybe?…
Admit that the “terrorists,” all things considered, probably have the moral high-ground on the underlying (secular)issues, and seriously consider the implications that has on our self-congratulatory rhetoric and institutionalized hubris that characterizes our foreign policy.
Acknowledge that we are engaging in a pot-calling-the-kettle-black exercise, and that a large number of people around the world consider the U.S. the chief global terrorists, and that we really think who the fuck we are that we are above getting our come-up-ins (never even attempted to type that term before, probably terribly wrong).
A big problem between the right and left is that what we don’t seem to understand why the other side poses the type of solutions that we do. You ask me what to do to combat terrorism, I say take MTV off the air and eat more broccoli - you say, how the fuck does that have anything to do with 9/11? Well, fine. Just don’t expect me to think that bombing Iraq is any more logical a course of action than you think mine is…
Not even close, I’m afraid.
I could have looked it up, but went the phonetic route, and looked forward to seeing just how off I was. That was even worse than I imagined; sometimes I amaze myself. But, since this was based on phonetics, now I’m also wondering about my hearing…