What is "everything" that changed on 9-11?

[mindwalker_i]

I've heard Bush say many times that "everything changed on 9-11." So what exactly is everything? There seems to be a real difference between what the perceived answer to this question is, and how it is applied to policy.

Here's what I think it is intended to mean, and what most people think it means. "Everything changed" means that America is no longer isolated in terms of being too far away for terrorists to strike at. Looking back at other incidents in the past, like Pearl Harbor, the change is diminishingly small. That doesn't agree with the perception. Also, I believe that people think this means America needs to spend more effort on national security. They are probably right about that.

The real contrast is that this perceived "change" of everything is completely different from how it plays out in policy. The attack on Iraq was done without provocation and with no reason to believe they were a threat. The latest reports show this to be the case, and there is ample reason to believe that the administration knew this at the time America attacked Iraq. This goes against centuries of knowledge gained about diplomacy and how to fight wars. Like the administration's rejection of science, knowledge gained is being discarded in favor of reckless policies.

I don't mean to imply that America should "give in" to the terrorists in any way. In fact, the goal of the terrorists is to destroy our way of life. If we give up on using things we have learned in order to behave irrationally or like bullies, we have lost what made America, and what made America great. The terrorists win.

To sum it up, the sentence "everything changed on 9-11" is an excuse to behave badly. It's a bad justification for a set of horrible decisions. We're seeing the effects of this policy not based on hard won knowledge in Iraq's, and the world's, reaction to America.

-mwalker

[XanaDUer]

1. MY RW relative went batshit when I pointed out

that it's the same old rotten world it has always been. Sigh.

[ladybugg33]

18. It means "America went crazy!!"

Over reaction, paranoia, hysterics. the rest of the world had been living with "terrorism" for thousands of years. We are delusional if we think shit will never happen to us. Osama started it but the Bush administration has the rest of the job to destroy America as we knew it.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Clinton put it more plainly when he said something to the effect that

U.S. foreign policy amounts to, "something terrible happened to us on 9/11, and as a result, we seem to feel the right to tell the rest of the world to go straight to hell if they don't agree with us."

I don't think that's the EXACT sentence but pretty much.

[virgdem]

3. You hit the nail right on the head...

it is their justification for screwing the country and world over with their disastrous policies. It gives them cover to do exactly what they please.

[No2W2004]

4. after 9/11 we realized for the first time that oceans won't

protect........oh wait a minute....

the 1993 WTC bombing was when we first realized........ no... wait

during the cold war....THATS when we realized that the ocean won't....

...Shit!....that's not it.....

Pearl Harbor......yeah, that's it....Pearl Harbor, THATS when we realized that oceans wouldn't protect us anymore...

Oh well, never mind.

[NightOwwl]

5. Yeah, it's getting old.

I'm sick of them using that day as an excuse for every damn mess they've gotten us into.

[mindwalker_i]

6. Yeah, it's getting old

But this is a question that really needs to be asked. Does "everything changed" mean Bush does whatever he damn well pleases to do? Failure of the American people to ask that question doesn't absolve them from the responsibility.

-mwalker

[NightOwwl]

14. We've been asking...

but because "everything changed on 9/11", the response has been "How dare you question your government. You are traitors to America,"

[BOSSHOG]

7. Its a short little statement that

ignorant american hating conservative lemmings can be dragged around with. It allows them to feel all good inside about hating america. They've finally got body counts again. They longed for the good old days of the Vietnam war when our kids were getting killed on a daily basis. American hating conservatives are sad that only 57,000+ Americans died in Vietnam. Why else would they oppose John Kerry for working to end the war?

Not a fucking thing has changed since 9/11 except liberals stopped being polite and thats a good thing.

[Goldmund]

8. It's just their answer for whenever somebody brings up historical...

...contradictions.

This way, they only have to be self-consistent, since they have been the only administration to be in power since 9/11.

[greyXstar]

9. exactly

it's just a lame excuse. They had the imperialism and the miserable domestic policy ideas ready to go straight away. They just needed an excuse, and they got one.

[napi21]

10. Bill Mahe had quite an argument about this on his show.

Bill had Britt Hume and some Lt Gov (both Pugs) on, and they were pushing this statement. Bill finally said the world didn't change on 9/11, we just joined the real one. I think he's right. The US really has always thought they were imune from all the terrible things that have been happening in many parts of the world. We found out that just isn't true.

[Wapsie B]

11. It's changed only because a repug is in the WH.

It's just another way for konservatives to quash discussion and criticism of their positions and leaders. A Democratic President would still be hanging from the highest tree in DC. But then again 9/11 would not have happened at all under a Democrat's leadership. Of that I remain truly convinced.

[BOSSHOG]

15. You are right

If Clinton or Gore or Kerry had been president on September 11th, there would not have been a terrorist attack, because those men DID NOT NEED A TERRORIST ATTACK.

And just what the fuck is in cheney's energy task force report? Enough to get a whole bunch of american hating conservatives put in jail? Would a lurker please jump in and let us all know.

[NightOwwl]

16. Yep. If this had happened on a Democrats watch

he/she would be impeached by now.

[kikiek]

12. I agree. Before 9/11 people really were against Bush and his policies.

Now they seem to buy into his reasoning. Fear has taken over this country. They want to make people fearful of democrats in everyway. They will raise your taxes, make you less safe, take God away from you, make you switch doctors, cause small businesses to close, make your children gay. It is so pathetic. I think Kerry is doing a good job and is aggressive. I wish though they would tell people in plain and simple english those things aren't going to happen. Also I think they need to drive home the latest Iraq report in simple terms..sanctions were working and Saddam was on the verge of collapsing on his own. You know that Bush and company knew that. They wanted to get in there and get the oil and put in military bases before it happened.

[LynnTheDem]

13. 3000 American kids are murdered by their US parents every year in the USA

Every year, on average, 3000 US kids.

That's over 9000 American kids dead since 911.

So where's the WAR ON MURDERING AMERICAN PARENTS?

Every year on average 16,000 Americans are killed in drunk-driving related accidents.

That's over 48,000 Americans murdered by drunk drivers since 911.

So where's the WAR ON DRUNK DRIVERS?

Oh that's right...bush can't TERRORIZE AMERICANS with those deaths.

[Poiuyt]

19. Tobacco industry

About 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco related deaths. That's like having 2 - 9/11 tragedies every week.

[noamnety]

17. I am still trying to understand

Why people list 9/11 as Bush's greatest accomplishment.

Or what "great leadership" they saw in him in the way he handled it. What did he do that was great leadership exactly?

I think it's the up is down, down is up syndrome.

[BUSHOUT]

20. IT MEANS HE CAN DO WHAT THE PHUK HE WANTS AND WE SHOULD STFU!!! N/T!

[Protagoras]

21. What changed is the Neocons finally had an excuse

to advance their fascist policies so that the serfs (the bottom 98%) would stop meddling in government and stop expecting the rich to help them with all that medicare and social security bullshit. We'd stop asking for OSHA regs, and job security, raises and promotions and...god forbid...respect because it was our sweat and blood generating the profits.

instead.

Now we have an event that looks terrible that we can replay over and over on TV while we beat a drum and spout nationalistic rhetoric while we take over the media, and loot the treasury while eliminating all those barriers to an effectively run corporatist country like oh...free speech, privacy rights, and worker rights.

The Middle class and all the millions below were leeching at the teets of the superior aristocracy. 911 changed everything because it wiped all those concepts of equality and freedom from their minds, replacing it with a convenient, blinding fear that made them happy to give up essential liberties for the illusion of security.

911 did change everything. It didn't have to. But we allowed it, and they are going to milk it for every cent they can.