Posted on 02/08/2003 11:51:58 PM PST by Jewels1091
If anyone had told me, in the autumn of 2001, that we were less than 18 months away from what might become the world's first nuclear war, I would have thought they were insane. In the half century since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no one has been that reckless or indeed that stupid – even, or so I thought, the Bush White House. Then came the twin towers and everything changed overnight, to the point where we find ourselves apparently on the threshold of a terrifying conflict in the Middle East. So the question I am going to ask, at the risk of causing great offence, is this: when is the US going to get over the events of 11 September?
I am not talking about people directly affected by the terrorist attacks, the survivors and relatives whose lives changed for ever on that horrible day. Nor am I referring to the millions of decent Americans who are just as opposed to war with Saddam Hussein as I am. What I am challenging is a mindset that sees al-Qa'ida or Saddam behind every tragedy, from the Oklahoma bombing to the murder of a detective in Manchester and the loss of the space shuttle last weekend. It is a measure of the paranoia afflicting parts of the US that officials deemed it necessary to announce, only hours after Columbia blew up in the sky over Texas, that a terrorist attack was not suspected. I know Saddam is a cunning old brute, but is it really likely that his agents have penetrated Nasa?
A few days later, after a young American artist was found murdered in a park in east London, police announced that they were looking for two men of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern appearance. An al-Qa'ida connection! That was the conclusion of a friend of another American living in London, who reported it in the Daily Telegraph and described the city as a place where "you could be mugged, murdered, raped or gassed by al-Qa'ida at any moment". Strange, then, that not a single member of my vast circle of friends in London has experienced any of these events within living memory. We have not been infected with anthrax either, although some of us got a flu-like virus at Christmas that turned out to be – well, flu.
It is not that I don't take the threat of terrorism seriously. I am quite prepared to believe there are al-Qa'ida cells in European and American cities, but it is important to keep things in proportion. My guess is that most of us are more likely to be run over by a lorry than die in a terrorist attack, and I certainly do not want people in this country to reach the advanced state of paranoia reported in some American states. Just the sight of a foreigner reading Arabic is enough for a busybody to summon the authorities, which is what happened when a friend of mine took an Egyptian newspaper from his bag on an internal flight a few months ago.
Paranoia is not the only problem. The administration's war against the Taliban was neither a great military success (huge areas of Afghanistan are still in the hands of vicious warlords), nor did it provide the kind of catharsis that millions of shocked Americans demanded after 11 September. President Bush needs an enemy and Saddam fits the bill nicely, even though no one with an ounce of common sense credits Colin Powell's claims last week about an alliance between Iraq and al-Qa'ida. Powell did make a powerful case but it was for pressing on with weapons inspections, and giving Hans Blix immediate access to information from spy satellites, rather than for going to war in the next few weeks.
The Bush administration creates the impression that the US is still as wounded and ready to lash out as it was in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Centre. I am not sure that this is true of the majority of Americans, but the country's moribund political structure and the Democrats' horror of appearing unpatriotic combine to make effective opposition very difficult. The President may take comfort from the thought that Tony Blair's Gladstonian vision lends him some moral authority, but it does not wash over here. If the world has become a more dangerous place since 11 September 2001, it is not solely because of the activities of a bunch of Islamic terrorists.
When every last Jihadist on earth is dead.
Personally, I've never seen, heard, or been told of a single democrat politician or "activist" who was ACTUALLY patriotic. All I've ever seen were wastoids, marxists, & dirty filthy hippies spitting on flags, cops and soldiers - all the while screaming viscious slanders against America.
"Horror of being unpatriotic.."??
Try "enthusiasm about being unpatriotic". That phrase truly describes the left.
This shows that the author has never really talked to people outside of LA or New York.
I can't think of a more offensive title for an article
What are we supposed to do? Act like Clinton and make a few threats and sweep the dead under the rug?. I'm sorry but this kind of journalism is what makes me hate the media. I wonder if the author of this liberal spew had lost a family member in the "World Trade Center", "The Pentagon" or that field in Pennsylvania would be making such a shallow remark.
I have this question for this maggot, Just when should we forget about the 3,000+ innocent lives we lost on Sept. 11th, 2001, When?
I say never. When a group of Islamic Terrorist kill on a scale that has no rival, what the *uck shopuld we do, Turn the other cheek? or go after these groups and all those who harbor them?
I say we take this fight to our enemies and do so relentlessly until they no longer represent a threat to our country. I dont care if it takes 30 years, We need to hunt these parasites down and kill them on contact and continue sending the message that if you pull this bullsh*t on us, we will hunt you down and kill you
I guess that means that we are not decent :(
Not to nitpick, (well, OK, to nitpick), but the author should have said 'late summer of 2001'. Autumn began on the 22nd that year, so 9/11 was still in summer.
I know it's minor, but details like that can influence the reader's judgment of the author's credibility.
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