This is nice but it is not where we are at. We face a relentless descent into authoritarianism . There is actually only one reason to come together and that is to oppose those forces as a United citizenry. I don’t see that happening .
Thank you. A wonderful post for the 9/11 anniversary. All the big concepts, justice, patriotism, unity, strength, tolerance, excellence or competence. With a quiet delivery that stirred hope and resolve.
These ideals of humanity, justice, patriotism and empathy were well on their way to being a reality until January 2017 when somehow, everything turned around and our country elected the worst president in possibly the nation's history. Lies, hate, racism, mysogeny, incompetence and stupidity took over. And then, after a brief recovery, it happened again. Some people don't want nice things - and they don't want others to have them either.
I think 9/11 was a terrible psychological blow to this country. I think it was a major exacerbating influence towards our decline. In other words it messed up our minds terribly and we have not recovered from it, just as we have not recovered from that other mind insult, COVID. Our kids are less educated, our life expectancy is declining and the hate permeates us like a poisoned gas cloud.
What a peculiar sentiment. This reminds me, not in a good way, of Glenn Beck and his “9/12” project. Malinowski mentions the torture of supposed “terrorists” and the war in Iraq only in passing, while then claiming these calamities gave “the ability of our democratic institutions to correct themselves”.
This is not just seeing the past with rose lenses, but is straight up revisionism. Many of those supposed “terrorists” are still languishing in prison with no trial or formal charges. The war in Afghanistan was an abysmal failure, resulting in little more than decades of mass destruction and death. What on Earth does Malinowski think was “corrected”?
Malinowski does not mention the explosion of the surveillance state, the open persecution of Muslims that never really ended, or the fact that the US has continued military engagement across the Middle East to this day.
To say the Bush admin was more sensible than the Trump admin is an incredibly low bar, but even that is questionable in some respects. America has never really reckoned with the massive civilian deaths in Iraq, setting the stage for further animosity to the US that has never subsided. The war in Iraq remains the worst US military engagement of this century, although the bipartisan support for the genocide in Gaza may be a contender.
9/11 was a terrible day, and it only got worse after that. The fact that many in the US united in mourning, hatred and fear is nothing to wax nostalgic about.
The country learned no positive lessons. Nothing good came as a result.
And, many of us knew this would happen at the time, and protested the invasion of Afghanistan as well as Iraq, even when Dems and Republicans alike scolded us…. Same as they do now for the US support of genocide in Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank.
Heather Cox Richardson had a 9/11 post today. She started with retelling the story of the group of what she calls, ordinary Americans, who she says "voted" to act with unimaginable bravery to take down the 4th airplane and "denying the terrorists a fourth American trophy".
She then recounted that 4 years ago Bush gave a wonderful speech commemorating the sacrifice of those ordinary Americans.
And then HCR went on to list the horrors ushered in by the Bush administration, taking advantage of his surge in popularity as a "wartime" president. And the horrors, mentioned here, presage what is happening now.
So it is possible to want to throw up at Bush's hypocrisy in giving the speech 4 years ago.
But I think that misses the point HCR was trying to make and that Malinowski is trying to make.
We, or at least, I need reminders of when Americans acted their best. Of some spark of decency that hasn't yet gone out. I think that is worth celebrating.
Respectfully, I'd say their takes are actually quite different.
HRC (who I love btw) only really mentions the actions of 'that day, and our memories of it', while spending much of the piece outlining the terrible results that followed, which you mention.
And therein lies the major difference of these two takes . While Malinowski claims we 'helped our neighbors, opened our hearts, and supported our government ' for 'at least the first few months after the attacks', HRC (much more correctly ) says '(Bush) and his advisers saw that popularity (which increased after the attacks) as a mandate to change America, and the world, according to their own ideology. “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” he announced. He and his loyalists attacked any opposition to their measures as an attack on “the homeland.”'
Where Malinowski makes the really bizarre claim I quoted above, that 'the ability of our democratic institutions to correct themselves.' was on display after the 'mistakes' of the Iraq War and torture of suspects. Setting aside that it's not truly a 'mistake' if the actions were fully intentional and never apologized for, HRC's description is much more accurate. She draws a direct line in the devolution of US democracy from the post 9-11 actions of the Bush admin to right up to now.
It's interesting how HRC quoted this line from Bush. She is certainly astute enough to see the irony here:
'I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of Muslim faith…. At a time when nativism could have stirred hatred and violence against people perceived as outsiders, I saw Americans reaffirm their welcome to immigrants and refugees'
She no doubt understands the rank hypocrisy Bush displays here. By no stretch of the imagination can anyone seriously claim the US as a whole, certainly not the US government 'embraced people of Muslim faith' after 9-11', or that 'nativism,' didn't become supercharged after that event, and never really subsided (of course, its once again been supercharged).
I think we can , as you say above, celebrate the genuine 'sparks of decency' shown by the passengers of Flight 93, or Welles Crowther, of the first responders, while also dismissing Bush's pious words that were undermined almost immediately by years of terrible actions by him and his admin, that we are still paying for.
I get your desire to see something hopeful, truly I do. These are dark times and we aren't seeing much daylight yet.
But personally I won't accept that anyone showing a shred of any positive quality past Trump is worth commending. IF the only bar is set by Trump, there is no bar at all. I think our standard should be higher than that. We can't allow Trump to normalize complete awfulness to that extent that anything better is now good.
Well Jason, you’ve persuaded me, once again. How could I not when you enlist HCR to your side.
Just to be clear, I threw myself into the fight to stop the Iraq war. Letters to Congress, to the newspaper. Protests. Anything that came my way. The futility can be overwhelming.
But I try to make an effort to celebrate the good. And in fact, protesting now along other good folks makes a big difference. As does some outstanding daughters.
I have no doubt you did! I was there too...and you are right, it is really overwhelming right now, I fully get the 'effort to celebrate the good'.
We can do that now too, there are many people fighting the good fight and its not over yet.
This Substack thing is really interesting? Do you subscribe to Zeteo? Mehdi Hasan and his team are my favorites journalists on here as of now.
HRC's strength IMO is expertly weaving the historical context into todays events...she does have a great way of writing a simple update that can move from one event to another in a seamless narrative. I've taken to listening to her daily updates more than reading them.
James Mattis, retired 4-star Marine General and former Secretary of Defense, summarized Don "The Con" Trump well in this quote:
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.
The alleged president of our country is a henchman of Vladimir Putin. Pretending patriotic Americans have anything in common with this corrupt treasonous regime is a mistake.
President Bush made some mistakes along the way after 9/11. But his leadership was welcome immediately after the attacks. I saw the very pissed off look on his face the moment he was being briefed about the attacks.
I so much...want to reclaim the country that overcame... [9.11]. And I don’t think it is impossible or too late to try. Let that be our resolution today."
Here’s what we did after 9/11: We panicked and passed the horrible Patriot Act that created Homeland Security (the name instantly had me thinking of the Nazi Fatherland and Soviet Motherland), ICE and the TSA, expanded the surveillance state, and allowed the expansion of presidential power that is now facilitating many of the abuses Trump is using to establish the Republikkkan Reich.
The pre-9/11 United States was still thirty years into the Republican project to turn the nation into a fascist autocracy, so let’s not pretend “returning” to that would be all that great.
Thank you Tom for your words in commemoration of 9/11 and addressing the issues its anniversary remind us of today. Here's my poem in memory of those lost on 9/11.
This is nice but it is not where we are at. We face a relentless descent into authoritarianism . There is actually only one reason to come together and that is to oppose those forces as a United citizenry. I don’t see that happening .
That descent took a nosedive after 9/11.
Thank you. A wonderful post for the 9/11 anniversary. All the big concepts, justice, patriotism, unity, strength, tolerance, excellence or competence. With a quiet delivery that stirred hope and resolve.
These ideals of humanity, justice, patriotism and empathy were well on their way to being a reality until January 2017 when somehow, everything turned around and our country elected the worst president in possibly the nation's history. Lies, hate, racism, mysogeny, incompetence and stupidity took over. And then, after a brief recovery, it happened again. Some people don't want nice things - and they don't want others to have them either.
I think 9/11 was a terrible psychological blow to this country. I think it was a major exacerbating influence towards our decline. In other words it messed up our minds terribly and we have not recovered from it, just as we have not recovered from that other mind insult, COVID. Our kids are less educated, our life expectancy is declining and the hate permeates us like a poisoned gas cloud.
What a peculiar sentiment. This reminds me, not in a good way, of Glenn Beck and his “9/12” project. Malinowski mentions the torture of supposed “terrorists” and the war in Iraq only in passing, while then claiming these calamities gave “the ability of our democratic institutions to correct themselves”.
This is not just seeing the past with rose lenses, but is straight up revisionism. Many of those supposed “terrorists” are still languishing in prison with no trial or formal charges. The war in Afghanistan was an abysmal failure, resulting in little more than decades of mass destruction and death. What on Earth does Malinowski think was “corrected”?
Malinowski does not mention the explosion of the surveillance state, the open persecution of Muslims that never really ended, or the fact that the US has continued military engagement across the Middle East to this day.
To say the Bush admin was more sensible than the Trump admin is an incredibly low bar, but even that is questionable in some respects. America has never really reckoned with the massive civilian deaths in Iraq, setting the stage for further animosity to the US that has never subsided. The war in Iraq remains the worst US military engagement of this century, although the bipartisan support for the genocide in Gaza may be a contender.
9/11 was a terrible day, and it only got worse after that. The fact that many in the US united in mourning, hatred and fear is nothing to wax nostalgic about.
The country learned no positive lessons. Nothing good came as a result.
And, many of us knew this would happen at the time, and protested the invasion of Afghanistan as well as Iraq, even when Dems and Republicans alike scolded us…. Same as they do now for the US support of genocide in Gaza and apartheid in the West Bank.
Heather Cox Richardson had a 9/11 post today. She started with retelling the story of the group of what she calls, ordinary Americans, who she says "voted" to act with unimaginable bravery to take down the 4th airplane and "denying the terrorists a fourth American trophy".
She then recounted that 4 years ago Bush gave a wonderful speech commemorating the sacrifice of those ordinary Americans.
And then HCR went on to list the horrors ushered in by the Bush administration, taking advantage of his surge in popularity as a "wartime" president. And the horrors, mentioned here, presage what is happening now.
So it is possible to want to throw up at Bush's hypocrisy in giving the speech 4 years ago.
But I think that misses the point HCR was trying to make and that Malinowski is trying to make.
We, or at least, I need reminders of when Americans acted their best. Of some spark of decency that hasn't yet gone out. I think that is worth celebrating.
Respectfully, I'd say their takes are actually quite different.
HRC (who I love btw) only really mentions the actions of 'that day, and our memories of it', while spending much of the piece outlining the terrible results that followed, which you mention.
And therein lies the major difference of these two takes . While Malinowski claims we 'helped our neighbors, opened our hearts, and supported our government ' for 'at least the first few months after the attacks', HRC (much more correctly ) says '(Bush) and his advisers saw that popularity (which increased after the attacks) as a mandate to change America, and the world, according to their own ideology. “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” he announced. He and his loyalists attacked any opposition to their measures as an attack on “the homeland.”'
Where Malinowski makes the really bizarre claim I quoted above, that 'the ability of our democratic institutions to correct themselves.' was on display after the 'mistakes' of the Iraq War and torture of suspects. Setting aside that it's not truly a 'mistake' if the actions were fully intentional and never apologized for, HRC's description is much more accurate. She draws a direct line in the devolution of US democracy from the post 9-11 actions of the Bush admin to right up to now.
It's interesting how HRC quoted this line from Bush. She is certainly astute enough to see the irony here:
'I saw Americans reject prejudice and embrace people of Muslim faith…. At a time when nativism could have stirred hatred and violence against people perceived as outsiders, I saw Americans reaffirm their welcome to immigrants and refugees'
She no doubt understands the rank hypocrisy Bush displays here. By no stretch of the imagination can anyone seriously claim the US as a whole, certainly not the US government 'embraced people of Muslim faith' after 9-11', or that 'nativism,' didn't become supercharged after that event, and never really subsided (of course, its once again been supercharged).
I think we can , as you say above, celebrate the genuine 'sparks of decency' shown by the passengers of Flight 93, or Welles Crowther, of the first responders, while also dismissing Bush's pious words that were undermined almost immediately by years of terrible actions by him and his admin, that we are still paying for.
I get your desire to see something hopeful, truly I do. These are dark times and we aren't seeing much daylight yet.
But personally I won't accept that anyone showing a shred of any positive quality past Trump is worth commending. IF the only bar is set by Trump, there is no bar at all. I think our standard should be higher than that. We can't allow Trump to normalize complete awfulness to that extent that anything better is now good.
'
Well Jason, you’ve persuaded me, once again. How could I not when you enlist HCR to your side.
Just to be clear, I threw myself into the fight to stop the Iraq war. Letters to Congress, to the newspaper. Protests. Anything that came my way. The futility can be overwhelming.
But I try to make an effort to celebrate the good. And in fact, protesting now along other good folks makes a big difference. As does some outstanding daughters.
I have no doubt you did! I was there too...and you are right, it is really overwhelming right now, I fully get the 'effort to celebrate the good'.
We can do that now too, there are many people fighting the good fight and its not over yet.
This Substack thing is really interesting? Do you subscribe to Zeteo? Mehdi Hasan and his team are my favorites journalists on here as of now.
HRC's strength IMO is expertly weaving the historical context into todays events...she does have a great way of writing a simple update that can move from one event to another in a seamless narrative. I've taken to listening to her daily updates more than reading them.
Thanks. Yes, the sub stacks do seem to be a big thing. Thanks for passing along more Substacks that you like. I’ll definitely take a look.
Not over yet.
The Iraq war also cost us $2.9 trillion for the period of FY2003-2022, so I all words by Republicans about deficits and the debt are null and void.
James Mattis, retired 4-star Marine General and former Secretary of Defense, summarized Don "The Con" Trump well in this quote:
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.
The alleged president of our country is a henchman of Vladimir Putin. Pretending patriotic Americans have anything in common with this corrupt treasonous regime is a mistake.
President Bush made some mistakes along the way after 9/11. But his leadership was welcome immediately after the attacks. I saw the very pissed off look on his face the moment he was being briefed about the attacks.
Thanks Tom. Well delivered and much needed.
I so much...want to reclaim the country that overcame... [9.11]. And I don’t think it is impossible or too late to try. Let that be our resolution today."
the part about basically a single news source then, and hundreds of news sources now, sums up our current problem in large part
Here’s what we did after 9/11: We panicked and passed the horrible Patriot Act that created Homeland Security (the name instantly had me thinking of the Nazi Fatherland and Soviet Motherland), ICE and the TSA, expanded the surveillance state, and allowed the expansion of presidential power that is now facilitating many of the abuses Trump is using to establish the Republikkkan Reich.
The pre-9/11 United States was still thirty years into the Republican project to turn the nation into a fascist autocracy, so let’s not pretend “returning” to that would be all that great.
Thank you Tom for your words in commemoration of 9/11 and addressing the issues its anniversary remind us of today. Here's my poem in memory of those lost on 9/11.
https://wadenewmanpoetry.substack.com/p/those-lost-in-the-world-trade-center