Today I was thinking back on all the negative events of the past few years, Iraq, the Republican majority, Bush's reelection. And as was thinking about it, it dawned on me that all of these terrible things could be traced back to a single event four years ago.
Republicans have often sounded like a broken record over the past several years, constantly hemming and hawing about how "9/11 changed everything". Well, it didn't change everything, that is a lie, but the ripples of 9/11 have had a profound impact on all of our lives. Even those of us who knew no one who died in the attacks, and even people halfway around the world, have been impacted by an attack masterminded by a single man (or a small group of men) out in the wilds of Afghanistan.
Pretty much everything people on this site are angry about can be traced back to 9/11. Before 9/11, Bush's presidency was looking like an absolute dud. He had no credibility and no mandate. His defining moment might have been when he was forced to apologize to the Chinese for the spy plane that crashed into one of their fighter jets and killed one of their pilots. He might have been remembered for his stupid tax cuts, poor economic policy, and a stagnant economy (the economy was already turning down well before the attacks).
It is highly unlikely he would have been reelected in 2004, even with everything in his favor he barely was. Dems probably would have picked up seats during the 2002 midterms, cementing control of the Senate, and widdling down the Republican majority in the House, if not retaking it. And after 4 ineffective years, Bush would be gone, and more or less forgotten. We and the rest of the world could move on.
Instead, 9/11 defined Bush's presidency. The American public was terrorized and wanted to lash out at the person who attacked them. Only, that was impossible, because the attackers were dead, and Osama had long since slipped out of Afghanistan. The Afghanistan war happened because of 9/11, but that was really just a warm-up. Thanks to the fears of the American people, it was easy to mislead them into focusing their anger on Iraq, an old enemy who people remembered only because it had invaded Kuwait a decade before.
Now, thanks to 9/11, 100,000 Iraqis may have died, and countless more have been maimed and wounded. Iraq lies in ruins. In his remaining decade or two of life, Saddam probably would have caused far less damage and inflicted far less suffering on his people. In addition to the 3000 or so Americans who died in the initial 9/11 attacks, over 1500 more American soldiers have died, in addition to over 200 allied soldiers. Hundreds of billions have been spent on the quixotic war in Iraq, with hundreds of billions to come.
Moving beyond Iraq and the magnitude of human suffering that it encompasses, 9/11 was a huge political boon for the Republicans. Sure, there are secondary factors, like the Dems not standing up to them, or the media giving them a free pass, but once again this all can be traced back to the psychological impacts of the terrorist attacks. In my opinion, most of the GOP ascendancy of the past several years can be attributed directly to the 9/11 attacks.
So, adding to the legacy of 9/11, we have the reckless fiscal policy of the United States government, plunging us further and further into debt. We have legislation passed that has limited people's rights in our country, and executive decisions that outright violate the rights of people from other countries. We have people illegally detained in Guantanamo bay with no right to a trial, or any real expectation of ever being released, even though many are harmless individuals who simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We have a pathetic energy plan, which is basically corporate welfare for the oil companies. We have bizarre corporate tax cuts. We have a growing inequality in wealth between the rich and the poor. On top of that, we have legislation passed which makes it more difficult for people to declare bankruptcy. We have alienated the rest of the world with our irrational, bellicose behavior. We have religion invading our government and impacting policies such as Aids prevention and the funding of stem cell research. And, there are many more things which it would take too long to list.
Now, I'm sure some of you are saying, "Bush and the Republicans would have wanted to do most of that, even without the attacks," and that's true. The world would not be a perfect place had the attacks never occurred. We'd still have problems, and we'd still probably be angry at Bush for various things. But if you look back, the 9/11 attacks were still instrumental in enabling the Republicans to do all the damage they have done.
So, what's the point of all this? Just one thing: if one fairly insignificant attack can do this to our country, then what would happen if there were more attacks? How many attacks would it take to obliterate most of our rights, and transform this country into a military dictatorship governed by martial law? It wouldn't take a nuclear attack, it would just take a few large terrorist attacks, perhaps as few as one every year.
Many look back on Nazi Germany and ask, "How could the Germans who didn't support Hitler tolerate what was going on? How could they let that happen? Why didn't they do something?" In the past, I might have shared in those questions, but after these last few years, I understand better. Freedom is extremely fragile, and terrorism is scarily effective. Because, for all the lofty moral ideals this country was founded on, at any moment we stand just a hairs breadth away from tyranny.
It's as Thomas Jefferson said: "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ..."
"And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
We must remember to remain always vigilant, so when the next attack comes, or the next hardship afflicts us, that we may preserve the freedom that we have. We must continue to fight those who would prey upon people's fears to achieve social and political gain.
