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We did not so much over react as improperly react. The 9/11 incident was a perfect excuse for the Bushistas' to execute a war of personal vengeance against Saddam Husain and try to create a western style stable Afghanistan to allow the successful and attack free Trans Afghan Pipeline. What we should have done, in the best Middle Eastern tradition, was take all the members of the bin Laden family we could capture (instead of flying them back to Saudi Arabia) hostage and place the responsibility for capturing the perpetrator on the Saudi King. After all Osama bin Laden was, and is, a Saudi citizen and the monarch is, indirectly at least, responsible for the behavior of his vassals.
We did not do the latter because it would have denied the shrub his vengeance and Cheney the countless billions his companies have looted out of both wars.
What happened on 9/11 was an act of war. It goes far beyond "19 thugs."
Was it meant to terrorize. Yes. But was it an act of war by a specific country. No. In fact, off the 19 hijackers - many were from Saudi Arabia
Quite the fluke actually. Even Bin Laden stated what happened on 9/11 exceeded his wildest dreams. Folks today still are questioning how 3 buildings could have totally collapsed as they did, simply from planes running into them.
Should our CIA have been more alert than they were, preceding the attacks. Many of the hijackers had been in the US since 2000. Our government knew who Bin Laden was, well before 9/11. But most of the American
people did not.
Do we need to question our government's constant involvement in places we don't belong. Does are government need to stop propping up regimes when they suit us, and deliberately take them down when they don't.
US citizens have the right to go to war to protect ourselves. Does our government have a right to create
war, without our permission. No.
Is this war on terror our citizens fight, or something created by a government out of control. Ever since World War II ended, our government has chose to involve itself in conflicts without our permission. Profit and power for a select few. A burden to the rest of us.
"Whilst war is to depend on those whose ambition, whose revenge, whose avidity, or whose caprice may contradict the sentiment of the community, and yet be uncontrolled by it; whilst war is to be declared by those who are to spend the public money, not by those who are to pay it; by those who are to direct the public forces, not by those who are to support them; by those whose power is to be raised, not by those whose chains may be riveted the disease must continue to be hereditary like the government of which it is the offspring.
War should not only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits: but that each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
As the first step towards a cure, the government itself must be regenerated. Its will must be made subordinate to, or rather the same with, the will of the community. . ."
James Madison
We did not so much over react as improperly react. The 9/11 incident was a perfect excuse for the Bushistas' to execute a war of personal vengeance against Saddam Husain and try to create a western style stable Afghanistan to allow the successful and attack free Trans Afghan Pipeline. What we should have done, in the best Middle Eastern tradition, was take all the members of the bin Laden family we could capture (instead of flying them back to Saudi Arabia) hostage and place the responsibility for capturing the perpetrator on the Saudi King. After all Osama bin Laden was, and is, a Saudi citizen and the monarch is, indirectly at least, responsible for the behavior of his vassals.
We did not do the latter because it would have denied the shrub his vengeance and Cheney the countless billions his companies have looted out of both wars.
That (bolded) seems a little bizarre. Most of the bin Ladens who were flown out were college students at school in the US who probably had never even laid eyes on Uncle Osama. His family disowned him years before because of his views. I wouldn't want to be threatened and punished because of something one of my whacked-out relatives did. Don't you remember his brother in Boston being interviewed after 9/11?
OBL was banished from Saudi Arabia because he pissed off the monarch, so I doubt very much said ruler would agree with you that he is responsible for his behavior. Bit of a stretch, I think.
The acts of war started with the marine barracks being bombed long ago. Think. We have sat on our duffs while the enemy grew in strength and numbers. Finally 9/11 came. Did we over react? No way. Every mountain cave in Afghanistan should have been nuked and every poppy field sprayed with agent orange. Then Iraq put to rubble showing the world we will not be intimidated by Jihad. Then no rebuilding with taxpayer money of either country. They would learn a bitter lesson in having to rebuild their own country with their oil money. My son left the Pentagon just hours before the plane hit it so 9/11 is a real sore spot with me. I'm sick of hearing about Islam being a religion of peace when everyday the news media is filled with bombing of weddings, mosques, funerals,etc. When will we see that here because we did not respond hard enough to 9/11. It's time to get some heads out of the sand and realize this is far from over. What if that Times Square bomb had gone off? How would that have made people answer this question? 9/11 was not the start and the end is not in sight. We have an enemy that is goal oriented and will not lay down arms like after WWI & WWII. The rules have changed. My 2¢.
Zakaria is as biased as Newsweek. I won't instantly dismiss his thoughts but they certainly don't hold much weight. Might be why Newsweek was sold for virtually nothing too.
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