"To govern is to choose, and the choices made [by the Bush Administration] in 2002 were fateful. The United States began that year shocked and wounded, but with tremendous strategic advantages. Its population was more closely united... World opinion was strongly sympathetic. Longtime allies were eager to help... The federal budget was nearly in balance... All that was required was to think broadly about the threats to the country, and creatively about the responses."
"The Bush Administration chose another path... And by every available measure it only worsened the risk of future terrorism. In every sense 2002 was a lost year".
That was James Fallows' conclusion to his rather remarkable piece -- "Bush's Lost Year" that appeared in The Atlantic in October, 2004.
Ten years have now passed since that fateful September day, and just as it hurts to recall the horror and the death and profound sense of loss we suffered back then, it is as painful to think of all that we have lost and the damage we have done to so many others and to ourselves in the decade that followed.
Instead of building on the broad and deep international sympathy that had expressed itself so dramatically in the weeks that followed the terrorist attacks on our country, we let our worst instincts trump sound policy. The Bush administration's displays of arrogant bravado may have played well at home, but they cost us the support of friends across the globe.
Two ill-conceived, unnecessary, badly executed, and now failed wars have left America weaker. And where once we were seen, and saw ourselves, as "the shining city on the hill" -- after Guantanamo, torture, secret "black sites", and Abu Ghraib -- our reputation is now in tatters.
There is something both tragic and ironic about the fact that the policies pursued by the Bush administration's adherents of the "Project for a New American Century" that were supposed to make us stronger, securing America's global hegemony for a century, have instead left our country less respected, our resources over-stretched, and, therefore, more vulnerable in the world.
It is disturbing to tally up the damage done by these two wars. On just the American side, we can count more than eight thousand lives lost, and tens of thousands shattered by permanent injuries of war. And then there are the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis who perished and the millions whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed. One-fifth of Iraq's population now live as refugees or internally displaced persons.
In addition, there is the more than one trillion dollars spent on these unresolved wars. And the fact that while bin Laden is dead; al Qaeda and its spin-offs have now metastasized into a global menace threatening three continents. Other unforeseen consequences of these wars have been the dangerous destabilization of Pakistan and the emboldening of Iran -- all of which have made the region and the world a far more dangerous place.
The damage done didn't stop at our doorstep. Instead of responding soberly and thoughtfully to the crisis brought on by the terrorist attacks, the Bush White House and Department of Justice reacted wildly, throwing caution and the U.S. Constitution to the wind. Instead of acknowledging the failure of intelligence and law enforcement to "connect the dots" in dealing with the threat, the administration put in place far-reaching, intemperate and discriminatory practices that, until today, run the risk of alienating entire communities and changing the very character of our country.
Not stopping there, the very same cast of characters has continued to spread fear and division, by inciting against America's Muslim community. They are creating a wedge issue out of Islam, and in the process, poisoning the well of America's civic life.
The holes dug during the past decade have been so deep and the problems created have been so great, that it has been difficult for even the best-intentioned president to dig our way out.
The world breathed a sigh of relief when Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009. They had great hopes that he would change direction, restoring America's image. But the challenges have been greater than the efforts of one president. Facing stiff partisan opposition at home and weak support from his own party, that often cowered in the face of attacks, the president was unable to close Guantanamo, reintroduce fundamental principles like due process and judicial oversight, change direction in the conduct of Middle East foreign policies, and restore civility to our domestic political discourse.
The net result is that ten years after 9/11, we look back at a painful decade of loss, and look forward to real challenges that we must address.
Fallows was right. Fateful choices have consequences. The "lost year" has become a "lost decade." And today, as we mourn the loss of so many innocents who perished at the hands of cruel terrorists, we must mourn, as well, all that we have lost since then.
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American-community.
Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA
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Dr. Zogby would like us to think Obama simply didn't have the support to change the policies Bush put in place following 9/11. This is a laughable explanation that flies in the face of common sense: Once in office, Obama realized there were no practical alternatives. Bush's policies work.
Zogby also wants us to believe that confronting our enemies make the world a more dangerous place. The word he fails to conjure is "appeasement". It's understandable why he avoids this word, it doesn't sit well with most Americans.
Would anyone call the '30s "The Lost Decade"? Too neutral. Keep it simple: The Bush Decade.
We are now almost a Third World country.
So we stumble along, with far too many trying to feverishly defend the indefensible and b/c of it we leave ourselves vulnerable to doing it all again. Closure on the chapter would allow us to rediscover who we are and what we want to be as a NATION....something we desperately need, RIGHT NOW!
"To govern is to choose, and the choices made [by the Bush Administration] in 2002 were fateful. The United States began that year shocked and wounded, but with tremendous strategic advantages. Its population was more closely united... World opinion was strongly sympathetic. Longtime allies were eager to help... The federal budget was nearly in balance... All that was required was to think broadly about the threats to the country, and creatively about the responses."
"The Bush Administration chose another path... And by every available measure it only worsened the risk of future terrorism. In every sense 2002 was a lost year".
It's also funny that liberals think the obama regime isn't stumbling and bumbling along. obama turns everything into a crisis and campaign photo op, but that's what liberals believe it's all about.
But you probably won't agree with my reason, why we folded so easily: we got spoiled. The years since the draft and Vietnam ended have been the most peaceful in US history, fewest casualties as percent of population. 50,000 of us Boomers died in Vietnam, 10,000 died since. We got used to peace and security. When it was threatened we overreacted and like you say, we lost.
But now that bin Laden is dead, he lost and things will be different. We're still going to be paranoid, but terrorists will be a lot more afraid. Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia are about the only places terrorists can train, group and plan. When those are gone it will be just loners like Tim McVeigh. They can hurt us, but not really terrorize us. Lawless places in the world are disappearing, none in this hemisphere any more. Without them organized terrorism is impossible.
Most important: Muslims now know terrorism threatens them most of all. The Arab Spring is getting rid of dictators, lack of democracy is the main cause of terrorism. Things are getting better, but you have to be 61 like me to see it, change is slow.
The Bush years were quite productive. The focus was not on the world stage, but at home. The overall gains for corporations, the banking world, the wealthy and political conservatives were impressive. Each group gained in wealth, in power or in both.
Most of these gains have also held up very nicely during the recession. The poor and the lower middle class bear the burden, but that's just political collateral damage.
Cheers!!! :)
How utterly ridiculous. America responded to a a Middle Eastern attack by an all too familiar "cast of characters".
You don't have to like it but you and yours will be held accountable.
I have news for you, sir. No real American would threaten his fellow countryman because he doesn't agree with him. A real American would stand behind another's right to express him or herself regardless of whether they agreed with them or not.
How far we have fallen. Bin Laden has won.
Also, NO ONE knows who fired the first shot. Your lie exposed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord
Mr. Zogby could have written and excellent article. He is well capable of it. As it is actually written, however, it is all about the mistakes the Bush Administrtion made, we made as a society, and a *Klage* about what is happening to the poor Muslim in this country. And that is the specific problem with what Mr. Zogby writes. Muslim attack, and he turns the table on the attacked, making them, by hook and by crook, perpetrators.
Nothing is happening to Muslim in this country. No one attacks them. They are, however, extremely unpopular at this time, and not only in the U.S. What happens to immigrants is the same for most of us. Why should it be different for Muslim? If you stand out in any way, whomever you are, whatever you are, or wherever you originate from, if you have an accent, and are a relative newcomer, you encounter all sorts of resistance. Only those whose communities are large enough to influence elections get special breaks.
We have nearly obliterated al-Qaeda and their popularity has plummeted in the Arab world. How is this ill-conceived? Any sober mind would call this a clear cut victory. I have no doubt that you support the uprisings in the Arab world, commonly known as the Arab Spring. But these are a direct result of our wars in the Middle east, which ended in the birth two democratic countries.
I put it to you that not one statement in your entire article has any basis in reality. You, Sir, are a fifth columnist.
If one insists on finding a victory anywhere in this nation's response to 9/11, an honest and objective analysis can only lead one to conclude that it's been Osama Bin Laden and his kind who have won a victory greater, by far, than anything they might have hoped for in their wildest dreams, a "victory" that is still unfolding. And the grand irony is that it's been us Americans and our perverse responses to 9/11 that have helped the bad guys damage and diminish our institutions and our American way of life.
Finally, sir, when you belittle the work product of such an outstanding American and intellect as James Zogby, especially having demonstrated such a remarkable inability to appreciate what has occurred to this nation post 9/11, you forfeit what remaining credibility, if any, you yet enjoyed.
Did we not create two democratic countries in a region of the world where democracy never existed? The Iraqi and Afghan democracies are imperfect. However, they are vast improvements over what existed there not too long ago. Where there were once backwards tyrannies oppressing Iraqis and Afghans, there is now hope for the two peoples. Is this hope not visible in the rest of the Muslim world? Surely the Muslim world can see that democracy is possible now. Surely you can see that this has led to the Arab Spring. Contrary to what leftists claim, social media and Wikileaks had almost nothing to do with the initiation of the Arab Spring. It was the American servicemen and servicewomen responsible for toppling Saddam and the Taliban who prepared the way for the Arab spring, though leftists will never admit this.
I can tell you that the majority of the people in the world realizes the need for new super power(s) to balance the US military industrial complex, and will witness this happening in the next few decades if not sooner. This is the worst and direct consequence of the US policies during the previous decade.