Perceptions of America Ten Years After 9/11
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-08/perceptions-america-ten-years-after-911
Immediately after the September 11th terror attacks, the world came together to support the United States. Ten years and two wars later, the situation is dramatically different. A look at how the world views America today.
Guests
Tom Gjelten
NPR national security correspondent and author of "Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause."
Lionel Barber
editor, "Financial Times" in London
Minxin Pei
professor of government, Claremont McKenna College
Ambassador Nabil Fahmy
former Egyptian ambassador to the United States and founding Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at American University in Cairo
Comments
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After 9/11 I lost my job because I was ONE of THEM, my husband was stopped and detained by sheriffs while on a field trip in a marked official college van. He could have been arrested and I would never would have know what happened to him. Neither of us are practicing Muslims any longer. I never wore Islamic clothes he has no beard. Yet we feel fear of the authorities beating on our door in the middle of the night and being rounded up into camps. We applied for Canadian immigration got it and moved in 2004. Now we fear for his former country of Pakistan as being the new "it" for American "concern". BTW I am a native born American born of an American who was born of Immigrants- they were Russians and we felt the heat in the 1950s. I am now a dual citizen because I did love my country but my country does not want me anymore-that job loss killed my career because I they would not give me reference letters. That is my aftermath of 9/11
your guest stated that "no one saw us remaining in iraq for so long..." Wrong. Anyone with any familiarity of middle-east conflicts in the 20th century could see the potentially disastrous possibilities, including a long, drawn-out, perhaps generational quagmire awaiting our headlong rush into war. Certainly anyone in a decision-making position at the time should have known better. Sadly there were precious few elected officials who knew anything about what might result and those who did recommend great caution were steamrolled by a tsunami of jingoistic, revenge-seeking. Now the chickens have indeed come home to roost.
It seems that more attention should be paid to the fact that the Trade Center attacks were largely the result of long term and ongoing U.S. presence and interference in mideast political situations; we have long manipulated and influenced regimes in the area, deposing rulers and installing our own, supporting certain groups and rulers and then turning on them, invading and occupying sovereign lands according to our own whims and preoccupations.
And of course the hundreds of American military bases in the area must be provocative; how would we feel if a powerful Muslim country installed military bases in the U.S., Mexico and Canada?
It's no accident that it was the United States that were attacked, rather than say Poland or Brasil or Canada or any other country that had not been having its way in the Muslim world.
Jumping back a few minutes. One of your guests described how our gov. bodies and people came together within days after 9/11. I have a very different perspective. I believe the patriotic act, for example, was passed for political reasons, as was the push toward the Iraq war. 9/11 did present an opportunity for the country to come together but in a very different way. The world embraced us, but we squandered that goodwill and love by pushing to amp up security, go to war, become a self-enclosed fearful society. Oh how I longed for us to embrace that good will, to demonstrate our appreciation, assess our global conduct. It was an opportunity to transform the world in a positive way.
Diane- one of the lasting consequences of this new world order is evident in our children. My daughter, who is an extremely intelligent person, takes all of these security measures as a matter of living. She is eighteen and knows no other way. She doesn't question the need for it, nor is she outraged by what she sees as protection of her self; I see it as an infringement of my personal being. I hate to think that we are raising a generation of people who don't question what is- that is what made our country great, but the future doesn't look too bright if our youth don't look harder and question everything.
No excuses for using destructive and deadly violence to drive a point home. But as former head of the CIA's Bin Laden Micheal Scheuer and other experts and historians have pointed out people around the world do not hate us because of our "freedoms" they hate us and some want to kill us because of our destructive foreign policy and how it effects their lives.
Deadly and unnecessary invasions hundreds of thousands dead and injured that Americans barely whisper about, support for Israel no matter what they do, occupations, decades long support for dictators, military bases on Muslim lands to protect our access to their oil.
When oh when are we really going to talk about the core reasons for the hatred and attitude towards the US?
Susan M.- The real tragedy is that commercial tracking, and civil behavior tracking and security tracking of American citizens have become merged. By failing to consume in a normal expected pattern you reveal yourself as a civil nonconformist and become a potential security target. I will have to check to see what protections Europeans have against such a commercially driven dynamic. Anyway, we glorify these invasions and mind colonizations in our media (shows about perfect error free models as police for example) to brainwash viewers. Much of the world is watching our business driven self-obsession bewildered and amused. Sing the "All In The Family" themesong (about Archie Bunker's ignorant prejudices) quietly to yourself and it is a prelude to T-party faschism. Media keeps us dumb for the financial harvesters.
"Didn't need no welfare state; everybody pulled his weight. Gee our old Hummer ran great. Those were the days." And that is why the most violent nation on Earth is a laughingstock.
Damn that guest just told the truth "we never cared that much" Bingo...and that is whey they hate us
The first segment wasn't too bad for NPR, but this one was back to the usual rubbish, the standard fools fawning before the foolish statements of other fools - Gates, for example. Lionel Barber, in particular, was saying particularly stupid things when I earned myself some welcome relief by hitting the "off" button. Thank goodness there are alternatives: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/8/epitaph_for_another_9_11_reknown
The big difference between 9/11 and 12/7 (remember that date? Japan bombed Pearl Harbor) is that here ten years later we are still in a never ending war. Ten years after 12/7 that war was over and we were involved in another 'police action' (Korea).
Continue to focus on the tragedy of 9/11 to keep the fear building. hope we can move forward from this - how long do we have to continue to be fearful to keep the war efforts going?
Could be that we should have cut parts of the USS Arizona and dragged them all over the country to build warship places all over the country like these pieces of girders from the attacked buildings of 9/11.
3,000 people on 9/11 and we are going to live in fear the rest of all time? WHat about 26,000 dead in one day on the beach of Normandy? Should we still be living in fear from that?
The more we continue to focus on one event to keep the focus on fear the longer we will have to try to deal with it - the best thing for everyone is to let it go - any shrink will tell you the best thing for people is to let it go.
LET IT GO! STOP WITH THE FEAR MONGERING!
I would like to hear some discussion on the change to our economy after 9/11. I believe that Mr. Chaney during that time, was saying that deficits did not matter. At this time shortly after 9/11 is when our countryss deficit greatly increased.
All three guest said that Al Qeada has been basically destroyed.
That is not what former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit Micheal Scheuer is reporting
That Bin Laden had set up a movement that could withstand the loss of his life as well any other Al Qeada leaders.
http://nationalinterest.org/article/zawahiri-era-5732?page=3
The Zawahiri Era
From the
Sept-Oct 2011
issue
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Michael Scheuer
|
August 24, 2011
Armored in emboldened doctrine and rejuvenated recruits, al-Qaeda has now moved on to the training and implementation stage of its next attack pattern. As al-Qaeda in Iraq works to reclaim lost ground and allies, it is using attacks that fit the definition of targetable Muslims and cover the gamut of smaller operations. Oil pipelines, storage tanks and electrical-distribution assets have been sabotaged; military, security and police bases, stations and recruiting offices have all been hit by bombings and/or small-group assaults, as have national and provincial government ministries; and assassinations of government officials, bureaucrats, senior security officers and Sunni tribal chiefs working with the Baghdad regime have become part of daily life. (It is worth noting that Fort Hood and at least four U.S. military recruiting posts have been attacked by domestic Islamists in the last few years.) Iraq today has allowed al-Qaeda to practice, refine and teach (via the Internet) its host of revised tactics. Given the multinational makeup of al-Qaeda’s force in Iraq, there is no reason to doubt that those who graduate from this school will be sent abroad to ply their lethal trade.
Put this up at the wrong place
The majority of our leaders like to say that radical Muslims "hate us for our freedoms" Yet former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit Micheal Scheuer, former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, Former President Jimmy Carter, and many others tell us that the reason that there is so much hatred and efforts to kill us is because of US foreign policy and the results of that foreign policy. Decades long support for dictators, support for Israel no matter what they do, occupation, invasions, and US military bases on Muslim land to protect our access to their oil.
When are we going to talk about the core reasons for the hatred which has turned into inexcusable and deadly violence?
#Decades long support for dictators
#Support for Israel no matter what they do
#US military bases on their land to protect our access to their oil
#Invasions based on a pack of lies which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries and millions displaced that Americans and the MSM barely whisper about
#Occupations
Tom Gjelten sound like he has an agenda which is to not discuss the core reasons for the hatred. Making everything sound hunky dory.
We need to examine the reasons for the hatred closely, be honest and try to change what we can that so negatively affects others lives in such destructive ways
When the country was asked about whether Americans have stopped caring about what others around the world think of us the one guest told the truth "we never cared" The brutal truth.
Although I do believe that there are some who truly care. Just not enough
Diane,
You really need to think about taking a stand for truth and responsibility rather than having this endless parade of think tank swimmers whose main function seems to be to enable the status quo.
kathleen wrote:
"When the country was asked about whether Americans have stopped caring about what others around the world think of us the one guest told the truth "we never cared" .
And we never should have. Those who care what others think of them, with the exception of their TRUE friends., are insecure sycophants. Most countries are not our friends. I can think of 3; Canada, England, and Israel. Any of our other so-called friends will sell us down the river for a nickel - and most, at one time or another, have proven that. Why would you care what they think?
Tom Gjelton This "Two hundred year document..the Bill of Rights failed to provide freedom and equality to so many of it's own citizens for many decades. A "good" Bill of rights" is only as good as the people who interpret and enact it. It took a long time for America to live by this document and now one is not so sure if we live by it to any great extent.
You recently reported on a Saudi family that lived in Sarasota Florida that fled their house on Sept 10, 2001 leaving a car and furnishings behind that was reported to the FBI but NOT to Senator Bob Graham who chaired the investigation reported that this (and other) valuable information was not provided to him by the Bush administration. To honor the many who lost their lives during 9-11 and thereafter, it is high time that responsible and credible media sources such as NPR start to actively engage in dialogue and interview experts to encourage the disclosure of the truth about the events leading up to 9-11 and to insist that a new investigation be conducted to obtain all the facts - regardless of the political fallout. This is far more important than politics.
After watching the movie "Fair Game" about how members of the Bush administration outed CIA agent Valerie Plame leads one to believe that they were more than capable and motivated of orchestrating this horrendous catastrophe and making the "terrorists" the fall guys just as Lee Harvey Oswald was for the assassination of President Kennedy.
Our great country has been held hostage and prisoner of the controlled media conglomerates that report only what they are told to report.
The facts and the truth must be disclosed so our great nation can be freed of these shackles of lies. Justice must prevail and the truth will set everyone free!