Linkmeister

Five years on

Five years ago today I woke up to a horror which had already (what with time zones) been going on for some five hours. Like most other people not living in the New York/Washington/Pennsylvania area, I watched it all unfold on television. I remember the disbelief I felt and the urge to hit back at whoever had done this. I had no problem with going into Afghanistan, since that's where we were told the perpetrators were. When Bush started pushing to go into Iraq, I thought he was misguided and wrong; given what the Senate Intelligence Committee's reports released Friday tell us, I feel justified. I'm horrified at the loss of American and Iraqi life for specious and false reasons. However, I had no clue as to what the next five years would hold for this country.

Neither did Eric Alterman. He has some questions:

I look back on that moment when so many of us wanted to trust our president and I wonder:

Who would have imagined in their worst nightmares that these political usurpers would employ the human catastrophe of 9/11 to continue the terrorists work for them? Who would have imagined that they would embark on a course that would eventually kill more Americans than died on 9/11 in wars that do nothing to ensure the nation’s security but much to inspire more Arabs to hate us and wish to attack us? Who would have imagined they would dissipate the global solidarity and support the world had offered us? Who would have imagined that, having ignored all of the signs of a certain attack, they would continue to ignore the most obvious steps to protect us against future catastrophe, leaving our ports, our nuclear facilities, our chemical facilities invitingly unguarded? Who would have imagined that they would willingly allow bin-Laden to escape?

He has several more equally good questions at that link, which I suggest be read and thought about.