Posted on 09/11/2009 5:13:02 AM PDT by angkor
Our National 9/11 Schizophrenia The great debate over 9/11 and the American response — is it coming to an end?
By Victor Davis Hanson
Ninety-six months ago, 19 Islamic terrorists — led by Mohamed Atta, organized by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and ordered by Osama bin Laden — hijacked four American airliners. They destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered 2,974 people. The al-Qaeda–planned attack was the most lethal on the American homeland in our history.
In response, the United States quickly attacked and removed the Taliban government that had offered sanctuary to the killers. About 15 months later, in March 2003, America successfully invaded Iraq, deposed the dictator Saddam Hussein, and fostered a constitutional government in his place.
At home, a new Department of Homeland Security oversaw fresh counterterrorism measures. The government stepped up wiretaps and email intercepts of suspected terrorists. It established military tribunals, continued renditions of jihadists abroad, and inaugurated Predator-drone assassinations of terrorists along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The Bush administration ordered the creation of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGU2ZWM2YzI5MzkxMjhjOTVhYWU1ZTZlZGM5ZGY0Y2U=
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
The "national schizophrenia" and the Orwellian disconnect between everyday America and the DC Beltway is increasingly untenable.
Pinging you for your VDH ping list.
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index:
Just a partial list. Much more at the link: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index
Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out. Links:
FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/victordavishanson/index NRO archive: http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjI1MQ== Pajamasmedia: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/ His website: http://victorhanson.com/
Hanson is deadly serious in this summary article.
“... we are reaching a critical moment of clarity. We continue practices that we say are either futile or wrong, and we demonize their architects in speech even as we ratify them through action. At some date, the Democrats and Obama may well close Guantanamo, try our own CIA interrogators, cease tribunals and renditions, ground the Predators, pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, reach out to Iran and Syria, and distance the United States from Israel.
“At that point, when liberal deeds at last match liberal rhetoric, the great 9/11 debate of the last eight years — are we still in lethal danger from radical elements of Islam or not? — will finally be decided by either our continued safety or another September 11.”
...will finally be decided...
But that book cannot possibly be closed, no matter how hard they try...
ping BTTT
Brilliant as always. His columns right after 9/11 were unforgettable.
Right on, VDH!
It’s a luxury to have a “national schizophrenia,” to blatantly play party politics during war time, especially when the opposing party has ensured national safety. If al Qeada where marching on Washington would the left be talking about the insensitivity and chauvinism of America, would they be talking about water-boarding and whether it is considered torture? Bush won the war but lost the media battle — that outcome continues to drive the debate and is the source of the America’s “national schizophrenia.” Yet this disorder is really not a bad thing at all. America has achieved a supposed higher sense of morality and victory on the battlefield all in one take. Pure luxury.
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