9/11, Revisited

The modern Republican Party and the state of the world today is bin Laden's lasting gift to humanity. When history traces the roots of the current state of the world, the morning of September 11, 2001 will be properly accepted as the moment of birth for all the death, destruction and dysfunction that came afterwards. It might seem obvious, it might not, but its a fact.

It's easy to look at the immediate reaction to 9/11 and lament Al Gore conceding the presidency he more than likely rightfully won. The republican response pivoted so quickly to Iraq that few had time to research The Project for the New American Century or other anti-Saddam right wing think tanks led by the people in the Bush Administration that had been talking about regime change in Iraq and abstractly about a "pearl harbor" type event being necessary to attain the political willpower and capital for an undertaking, but the evidence has always been there. The Bush Administration shamelessly and nefariously manipulated national trauma and grief to unleash fire and fury in the middle east. A strategy devoid of anything resembling a coherent plan to defeat an ideology. A belligerent mirror to bin Laden instead of a counterbalancing force for good. This is all known.

What is less examined is the ways in which that day and our subsequent decisions draw a straight line to where we sit today. The dead bodies weren't the biggest casualties that day. It was our national feelings of safety and invincibility that were the most consequential things to meet their end on that day. Without fear the modern Republican Party does not exist as we know it. Without fear true life and death fear, Fox News loses a significant amount of it's potency. Imagine a politician suggesting a Muslim ban if 9/11 never happened. Imagine a world where we didn't light the middle east on fire and we actually took some time to use the post soviet world to actually spread our values without killing people. I want to say imagine a Christ like response to 9/11, but I'm not even sure we agree what that would mean anymore. (and that doesn't mean there are two valid answers, it means one is wrong)

So much of the things that are right below the surface of life in 2020 are animated by what happened that day. It could have been very different and I think as a country we would be wise to look at our recent history and hold our leaders accountable for the bad decision that have been made and for the way our national emotions have been manipulated and used to turn this country into something that is almost unrecognizable from the promise of the new century we all felt 20 years ago. Before the fall.