The Long Lesson, and New Legacy, of September 11

[WilliamPitt]

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout )

The Long Lesson, and New Legacy, of September 11
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Wednesday 11 September 2013

(snip)

Frankly, it doesn't matter; the speech is far less important than the ongoing dialogue and diplomacy that is keeping people alive while avoiding a region-wide conflagration. Mr. Obama could have stepped to the podium and read The Great Gatsby like Andy Kaufman for all I care. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding does not smell like rocket fuel, so we're all ahead on points.

All told, it's a hell of a thing to encompass on the anniversary of September 11. I, along with many others, argued that Osama bin Laden won his war the minute he compelled the Bush administration to go militarily berserk abroad while shredding the Constitution at home. Twelve years later, the Constitution is in worse shape than it has been since the Civil War, as evidenced by the ongoing NSA scandal. But maybe, just maybe, the manner in which this Syria debacle has unspooled offers a glimmer of hope that we are finally, finally crawling out from under that long, dark shadow.

After all, Mr. Obama didn't just flip some missiles the way his predecessors have. He actually went to Congress for approval of what he has described as a very small military engagement, a virtually unprecedented Constitutionally-appropriate move that took the legs out from under the Unitary Executive Theory we've been enduring for so long....and when Congress appeared poised to slap him down, along with a tremendous plurality of the American people, he backed off, looked around, and began working to find another way. Nothing is certain, and this whole thing may go sideways at any moment, but it is a refreshing change of pace to see diplomacy at work after so many years of bomb first and ask questions later.

Timothy Egan wrote a scathing article for the New York Times last Thursday that skinned the legacy of George W. Bush alive. In its conclusion, he wrote:

The voice that stands out most by his silence, the one that grates with its public coyness, is Bush himself. He has refused to take a side in the Syrian conflict. The president, he said, "has a tough choice to make." Beyond that, "I refuse to be roped in."

This is cowardice on a grand scale. Having set in motion a doctrine that touches all corners of the earth and influences every leader with a say in how to approach tyrants who slaughter innocents, Bush retreats to his bathtub to paint.

I celebrated this article when I first read it, broadbanded it via social media to everyone I know...and then stopped, and read it again. Egan, I realized, was lamenting the aspect of the Bush legacy that makes it harder for presidents like Obama to make war on other countries. This, I decided, is not something for which Mr. Bush should be dunned. It cost the world a mountain of blood, bonemeal and treasure to learn the lesson, but as this whole Syria situation has shown, the lesson has finally taken hold.

If he did nothing else, Mr. Bush made the United States of America very, very wary of war. He should not be celebrated for this - he should, in truth, be in a prison cell chained to Cheney and Rumsfeld picking grubs out of the cold oatmeal he got for dinner - but the fact of it should not be ignored or denied.

And so the legacy of September 11 continues to grow. It used to be all about war. Now, it is also about giving peace a chance.

And that's just fine with me.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/18745-the-long-lesson-and-new-legacy-of-september-11

[snappyturtle]

1. I hope that peace is given a long chance but I think it will

only be long enough for warmongers to regroup and strategize
their way back to their nefarious and selfish purposes. imho

[WilliamPitt]

2. Up

[Owl]

3. K&R!