Saturday, November 14, 2009

Hello Déjà vu, it is Good to See You Again

Lessons learned from 9-11
Apparently, none.
Really.
Shall we review (and by we, I mean me)
Uncomfortable, but necessary - much like a prostate exam (have I shared too much)?

In the hearts and flowers world of pre 9-11, Clinton was more interested in fighting terrorism in court than on a battlefield. It was a magical time when the dot.com bubble was still building and we were beloved by all the world (or at lest that is the way it is portrayed in the Clinton Library and Massage Parlor...) oh yeah and Bin Laden was offered to us on a silver platter...which we refused on legal grounds ....which strangely didn't work out in our favor....
There were several mitigating factors in this decision:

1) Largely because the battlefield was a nebulous mess, not easily teased out into readily identified target areas ....it is very inconvenient when the enemy does not wear uniforms you know....
2) He was too busy fighting domestic terrorism in the White House after the whole Monica Lewinsky thing
3) In la-la land, one can rationalize with the irrational, evil does not exist and we can all just get along if, darn it anyway, we just try hard enough (because, everyone would really love us if they just got to know us better...)

Then 9-11 happened and along with the Towers that came crashing down, so did our sunshine and lollipops vision of the world. We were resolute. We were united. We recognized that enemies were to be defeated, not placated.
Yeah, that lasted. We are either incredibly stupid or suffer from serious memory issues....

In the revisited land of sunshine and lollipops that is the current administration we have:

1) An end to the war on terror (tho nobody told the terrorists that). I believe that it has been renamed the 'unfortunate altercation with people who don't like us for causes purely of our own making'
2) Soldiers who need to read Miranda rights to the enemy... an idea so asinine, it actually boggles the mind (it is true, my mind has been boggled...)
3) Farewell to GITMO... ah yes, now our enemies are privileged to have access to our court system and rights previously only known to our citizens... SWEET! Because nothing says 'deterrent' like access to US courts
4) Phrases like 'crime against our nation' and 'tragedy' are used by the administration to describe the recent events in Ft Hood. Sadly, phrases like 'shout out' are also used prior to announcing the necessity of said aforementioned phrases.... (insert old man voice here) " I remember way back in 9-11 when we used to call things like that 'terrorism' "
5) A criminal trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang of merry murderers in New York City...
6) Did I mention .... A criminal trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang of merry murderers in New York City...? Silly me, here I thought the killing of thousands by a foreign enemy would be considered an act of war, not as a crime. Then again, a military tribunal wouldn't potentially damage our intelligence operations nor would it give the terrorists (oops, can I even say that word anymore) a forum to spew their hatred from.... and we can't have that, now can we?

Hello Déjà vu, it is good to see you again. At the risk of repeating myself, repeating myself, are we really this stupid? Did we have a collective Alzheimer's moment, erasing the last 8 years?
I have the audacity of hope that the administration does not get us all killed by wallowing in naiveté and abject stupidity....

I will leave this posting with another prostate exam-like question... If acts like 9-11 are criminal and not an act of war, why are we in Afghanistan? How then, was it ever the 'right' war, the 'just' war, the 'necessary' war?

Methinks the administration forgot to put some lube on the glove....



1 comment:

  1. History is full of fallen empires which understimated the will of savage cultures.

    ReplyDelete