A Lost Decade
(By Dr. James Zogby, Director of the Arab- American Institute) as we look back at 9-11 and try to put it in some perspective. One thing is sure.
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. 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.
Not because Iraq attacked us on 9-11, or because they had WMD, but rather, because the arrogant cowboy in the White House had his own agenda. Bin Laden himself couldn't have done a worse job, for America, than Bush, as he squandered 'our national treasure', in lives and dollars. Thanks again George, for all you've done, as we look at the country you received, and the one you left.
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. 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.
Not because Iraq attacked us on 9-11, or because they had WMD, but rather, because the arrogant cowboy in the White House had his own agenda. Bin Laden himself couldn't have done a worse job, for America, than Bush, as he squandered 'our national treasure', in lives and dollars. Thanks again George, for all you've done, as we look at the country you received, and the one you left.
Comments
We've had 10 years to look at what he did. Worst prez ever, by SO far, without a doubt