The U.S.Ten Years After 9/11
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-08/usten-years-after-911
A decade ago the United States suffered an enormous blow: the September 11th attacks killed nearly three thousand people in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The tragedy led to the start of two wars abroad and an enormous effort to boost security at home. The U.S. has since experienced a massive financial meltdown and is now suffering through a persistently meager economic recovery and an increasingly partisan political divide. Join us for a conversation on how this country has changed since 9/11 and why.
Guests
James Thurber
professor and director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University; author of "Obama in Office: The First Two Years."
David Wessel
economics editor, The Wall Street Journal; author "In Fed We Trust"
Laura Murphy
director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office
Comments
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I was in Europe when the attack occured. I think there was an outpouring of sympathy for the American PEOPLE. However there was un underlying sense form the Europeans, that the government had it coming to them because of there over involvement in other countries.
Damn that guy just told the truth "we never cared that much" Bingo
There are some of us who do care how we are viewed by the rest of the world, but only because of the shame that we deserve it. Even as a people, many refuse to stand up against "foreign policy" inflicted upon the world.
We are NOT all in this together, unfortunately, because there are those too blind to see, or who will not acknowledge, what's been done in ALL of our names.
Asking "are we becoming a police state?" is a little like asking "do you think our support for the Mujahideen to put pressure on the Soviets is going to have some consequences down the line?"
David Wessel has an almost deluded in his view of the security post September 11, 2001. A prime example of the ineffectiveness of our security is the much despised full body scanning devices at the airport.
These devices, which were installed in response to the "underwear bomber", are highly intrusive, expensive, and actually do not accomplish the goal of finding explosives that a person may be hiding. Better yet, it turns out that a labrador is as good, if not better, at sniffing out explosives than the machine. The dogs are $200 a pop and work, and the body scanning machines are $1M a pop and don't work.
But then, I'm sure the company that made the body scanners paid good money to a lobbyist to bribe...er...lobby congress to approve the more expensive, less effective means of security.
This is a first – I agree 100% with one of Monte’s statements. The 9/11 attack harmed this country far beyond bin Laden’s wildest dreams, and most of the subsequent harm to our national fabric we inflicted on ourselves. No, Diane, we can’t blame bin Laden for two wars. In Afghanistan we reacted militarily to a criminal act; an international police investigation and use of Special Forces where necessary and warranted would have been far more effective than invasion. The invasion of Iraq was itself a criminal act that had nothing to do with 9/11; the criminals’ punishment is to appear on TV talk shows selling their books. The United States has become a society where advocates of torture are actually taken seriously. We are liable to humiliating searches when traveling that were unthinkable before, and who knows what kind of unwarranted surveillance? We have been let ourselves be conditioned to be more distrustful of our fellow-citizens, especially those who look or sound unlike us.
Where Monte and I part company is his “supposition” that the so-called “nanny state” has anything to do with it. The UK probably fits his idea of a nanny state more than the US, yet it went through decades of IRA terrorism without knuckling under to it; unfortunately, once 9/11 came along it got swept up in same security mind-set as the US.
If the US is a “nanny state”, its beneficiaries are the coddled ultra-rich who not only have been spared from contributing more to our treasury during difficult times, they actually have their hands out to scoop up more of it for themselves with the help of their bought-and-paid-for politicians.
@mattlove1:
Yes, but if you watched Frontline the other night covering Dana Priest's new book, someone (I couldn't make out the name, but no doubt a cheerleader or member of the team of the previous admin) tried to say we hadn't been in Afghanistan in 60 years. LOL
Who do they REALLY think they are kidding??? I think it's themselves.
What I find amazing is our collective lack of understanding about how the world views America not just as a nation of diverse peoples, but as an idea, or product of you will. Our leadership as well as our media have done an extremely poor job of marketing who we are and what we stand for. You cannot sell America by force. It must be a product that sells itself globally. The idea is that if the world can embrace enthisiastically. Because we have not been recently the ideal example of what a democracy can become we lose global "market share". Sadly most associate who we are with what we are militarily capable of. We are better than that. If America were a corporation we would be in trouble because we have outdated product which noone really wants.
@John Yates:
I agree somewhat, however, there's nothing "recent" about it. We didn't "recently" put 130+ bases in other countries around the world and why don't others have them everywhere?
And I agree with the further comment above that Bin Laden succeeded beyond his wildest dreams because of what the attacks caused us to do to ourselves. The economy DID take a nose-dive then, the fact that the latest downturn was homemade, is just an example of what this country has become on so many levels and how we've impacted the rest of the world for decades and decades.
Let it go, let it go, let it go. I would hook up the TV cable if I didn't have to look at parts of girders supposedly from the twin towers being dragged around the country to make warship places at fire stations all over the country.
We should honor firefighters everywhere for what they do - aside from these girders being made into shrines.
Our country might get moving again if we let go of this fear mongering and move forward rather than hold onto one awful event and keeping the focus on creating fear.
How about creating jobs instead of fear?
That could actually help us - being afraid and looking backward will help none of us.
CONgress is the opposite of PROgress so here we are looking back instead of looking forward - mayhaps because we don't feel there is anything to look forward to?
You know, I think there are two sides to getting an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. We have not always sided with Israel's positions. And Palestinians have repeatedly attacked Israel with indiscriminate weapons. Though one is the most armed country in the mid-east and the other is truly a group of people in need of almost everything there has not been much opportunity afforded by the "victim" people to make accommodation with this organized power.
Fear and intimidation has been the result of 9-11. My first thoughts as I saw the attack was America now has its Reichstag Fire, Bush will get his war in Iraq now. First thing we got was Homeland Security, ( a Nazism if I ever heard one), He did get his war and now our economy is in a shambles. If the attacks were indeed carried out by terrorist…They won.
Fear and intimidation has been the result of 9-11. My first thoughts as I saw the attack was America now has its Reichstag Fire, Bush will get his war in Iraq now. First thing we got was Homeland Security, ( a Nazism if I ever heard one), He did get his war and now our economy is in a shambles. If the attacks were indeed carried out by terrorist…They won.
One big difference between 9-11 and Watergate was the media was willing to investigate Watergate. The media became a silent accomplice to this crime. I know they were intimidated by the Bush administration, but very few voices have cried out.
One big difference between 9-11 and Watergate was the media was willing to investigate Watergate. The media became a silent accomplice to this crime. I know they were intimidated by the Bush administration, but very few voices have cried out.
I think one of the biggest chages is the lack of confidence in the press. Truth has been lost to spin. Mass protests no longer rates as news. Public opinion is purposely manipulated by the press. The media has been emasculated. Everything we read, watch, and hear now just seems to be spin. Prove me wrong Diane, talk about the inconsistences in the attacks.
I think one of the biggest chages is the lack of confidence in the press. Truth has been lost to spin. Mass protests no longer rates as news. Public opinion is purposely manipulated by the press. The media has been emasculated. Everything we read, watch, and hear now just seems to be spin. Prove me wrong Diane, talk about the inconsistences in the attacks.
I will stick by my "nanny state " comment. By the way Mr. Obama who said many times the Patriot Act was unconstitutional reinstated it without batting an eyelash. President Bush was able to get anything he wanted with the help of eager frightened democrats slathering grease on the skids of self destruction. Republicans seemed more about misguided military revenge, democrats were more about kicking nanny state government into high gear and cowering.
Can someone please tell me what that sweet guitar riff during the break was from?
Adam wrote:
One of then things I have been suprised about has been how little has changed after 9-11. While there have been some changes, if you compare the nation reacted after December 7th and how they reacted after September 11 th, you'd hardly believe this was the same country. During World War 2, there was a massive increase in enlistment, the nation sacrificed through rationing, and there were massive increases in taxes to pay for the war. With September 11th, for the first time in U.S. history, taxes were reduced and we were told to go to the mall. The wars were left to the military and no one outside the military has been asked to sacrifice
Adam:
What fianced WW2 was Americans buying bonds not the Chinese. Remember up to WW2 we had still not come out of the Depression. Not sure how much taxes increased during WW2 being that we were still in a Depression.
Monte, stick by your nanny state comment all you want, but it just doesn’t hold up. The far right that has taken control of conservative politics likes to talk about a “culture of dependency”, which is another way of saying “nanny state”. What you consider a nanny state actually enables people to live in dignity that could not have done so at an earlier time in our history.
The real dependency of the last ten years is the dependency of fear. That is a totally different animal that was imposed on us after 9/11 by people with entirely different instincts from the ones that motivated the new deal.
http://www.trumptowels.com/fbi/pictures.asp?o=32
Diane,
Need your honest opinion. Does this mean anything to you?????? as a Journalist, that is.
Recently a report on NPR described 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!
The story of
Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham says most people don’t know the whole story behind 9/11.
http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2011/09/08/bob_graham_wants_911_inquiry_reo...
A tremendously significant choice rationalized by the 9/11 attacks was the shredding of the Just War doctrine. It is dizzying how the Bush administration and the religious right spin things around and around. They assert that the United States is a Christian nation, founded as a Christian nation. It is not. And yet the Just War doctrine which the United States had embraced as one of its high principles *was* a Christian doctrine - and the religious right proudly shredded it!
One simple question that went unanswered:
Why do conservatives use the term "Democrat Party"? Conservatives know that the side that defines the debate wins. They have managed to redefine words like "liberal" and "stimulus" and "entitlements" and "taxes" in ways that taint them or completely drive them from public discourse. (Think about the so-called "death tax.") They are now seeking to redefine “Democratic Party.” On the other hand, conservatives have sought to name everything they can after Ronald Reagan, to legitimate his ideas. These things matter.
The other simple question that went unanswered:
Is there any connection between 9/11 and our current economic situation? Of course there is. 9/11 caused an overreaction--the Patriot Act, the invasion of Iraq, the Transportation Security Agency, etc.--which drew battle lines between security and freedom, between the right and the left. The intensity of that struggle caused both sides to have a diminishing respect for the other's values. To cripple government after he left office, Bush went ahead with another tax cut and refused to pay for his wars. The hell with the Democrats. The hell with government. Conservatives intensified their attacks on regulations and Bush appointed enforcers who did not believe in laws. Because of the disruption of checks and balances, we had a financial meltdown that was completely avoidable. Because of the extreme partisanship, we have been unable to do much to ameliorate it. Instead, the government has acted in ways that will prolong the economic crisis. Discouraged, fearful, and reacting to extreme partisanship, the rabble has risen up to attack . . . teachers? Etc. Osama Bin Laden wanted to disrupt the American economy, and in an indirect, unintentional, but no less devastating way, he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.