The 5 year anniversary of 911 yesterday prompted a bunch of thoughts.
1. It is good to be reminded of that day so as not to forget both the horror and the way that the country came together.
2. That good will and common purpose that existed in this country have been squandered on partisan politics, bad policy, and an almost unprecidented attempt to imperialize the presidency. I, and others like me, are not defeatists to criticize the conduct of the war on terror. If we cannot criticize, what then are we fighting for? They say we are fighting for our way of life - isn't freedom of speech and criticism a prime part of it?
3. The press and Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for believing that patriotism required assent and support rather than debate and critique. They are finally coming out of that coma, 5 years later.
4. Even more than squandering the goodwill inside our country, we have REALLY squandered the goodwill that existed in the world toward the US by our go-it-alone approach. Don't get me wrong; those who know me know that I think we must pursue our interests regardless of what people think, but tactically we have relied too much on unilateral military power at the expense of "soft power" - the power of persuasion, diplomacy, etc.
5. I can't tell if the true-believers in the Bush administration really believe that the "terrorists hate our freedom" or if it is just their cynical attempt to convince a reluctant American public that the conflict is defined in that way. They don't hate our freedom. They hate our support of the authoritarian governments in Egypt and Saudi Arabia that keep them from establishing an Islamic republic. Now, an Islamic republic would be no picnic either - see Iran - but the reason Al Qaeda is oriented against us is for our support of their enemies, not because of "our freedom." Truth is far more complex than that simple statement.
6. This war cannot be won be traditional means and probably cannot be won by force at all. Imagine the boon to a modernist view of Islam if we took a fraction of the $ we spend in Iraq and put it into a program of free schools of science, math, technology and open literature in those places in the Islamic world where the only option for an education is the Madrases who spew radicalism and hate.
7. Despite all of this negativism, life in our country IS remarkably resilient. People still hold their goodwill somewhere and they just need to be inspired to let it come through. The country longs for a leader to make us feel good, not to divide us, and not just to make us feel good through empty statements but by bringing us together in common purpose and to celebrate our freedoms, not to trade them for some illusion of security.
