Just a rant, at the expense of Kos bandwidth.
Listening to Talk of the Nation, I just heard "...since nine eleven" one too many times. I am now officially over my limit for this excuse. I am fscking tired of hearing "September 11 changed everything" as an apology for the failure of every failed Bush policy, and for the general failure of our elected officials to govern wisely or well. I don't think a day has passed in the last two years, w/o my ears being assaulted, and my intelligence insulted, by some pundit explaining the mood of the country, or temper of the times, or state of the economy by invoking the magical "...especially since nine-eleven" in place of genuine analysis.
The attacks of September 11 were awful. The images of the towers coming down were horrifying. The deaths of the victims terrible tragedies,and the heroism of the "emergency responders" and the passengers on flight 93 was stunning and wonderful...but come on already!
3000+ families lost loved ones. The skyline of NYC was dramatically altered. But it DID NOT "change everything", and poorer nations have suffered far worse, for far longer. We inlficted more civilian deaths on Afghanistan in our failed attempt to assasinate Bin Laden, or in Iraq, in our similarly failed attempt to assasinate Saddam.
Will somebody (some candidate) please stand up and say:
The attacks of September 11 are OVER. The damage is done. Let us move on!
</rant>