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| 12/7/41, 9/11/01, . . . ? |
| 2008-11-04 |
| Brett Stephens, Wall Street Journal . . . People also began speaking of the [9/11] attacks as a "tragedy," as if they were no different in kind from a catastrophic earthquake. This was largely a product of linguistic slovenliness. But as George Orwell once observed, "the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." To suggest that 9/11 was anything other than an outrage is one such thought, though really it's more like a form of ideological legerdemain. A tragedy involves no villainy or evil, except perhaps metaphorically; assigns no blame, except perhaps against fundamentally impersonal causes; and prescribes no remedy, much less any form of justice, other than the act of "healing" itself. Marking 9/11 as a "tragedy" thus becomes a way of signifying its political irrelevance. On the most recent anniversary of 9/11, both candidates walked side-by-side into Ground Zero, presumably to underscore some baseline commonality of purpose. This was appropriate, but it was also in some ways misleading. The animating impulses of Mr. McCain's life have always revolved around the act of confrontation: against the traditions and methods of the Naval Academy; against his captors in Vietnam; against "special interests," especially those connected to his own party; against Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin and the general threat posed by radical Islam. Most, though not all, of these were fights worth having, and 9/11 is a reminder of what happens when they are avoided. By contrast, Mr. Obama's candidacy rests on the promise of transcendence, though in practice that often seems like a form of slipperiness. He has campaigned on the theme that the old categories no longer apply: not of race or class, or of blue and red states, or of left and right. And in the matter of race, the transcendence Mr. Obama offers is genuinely wonderful. But not everything is susceptible to transcendence. Terrorists will not be less dangerous by being contextualized in a matrix of threats that includes climate change and global poverty, or because they will be mollified by Mr. Obama's middle name. Nor will Iran be deterred from developing nuclear weapons because a President Obama will restore faith in "brand America." A global financial crisis has now given voters a fresh reason to turn the page on the 9/11 era and attend to a different set of fears. Electing a "transformational" president might even ease the transition. But it bears keeping in mind that America's second Pearl Harbor only took place when we were well on the road to forgetting about the first one. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 As argued or inferred long ago, before and after 9-11, the anti-US Islamist = Terror Threat [including aligned] is such that Americans may have to overtly formally conquer the World and OWG-NWO, whether they want to or not, like it or not, etc., in order to preclude another 9-11 event or worse upon America. AT THIS TIME, DESPITE ITS MANY BATTLEFIELD SUCCESSES AND GEOPOL ENTRENCHMENT, US DOMINATION OF SAID OWG-NWO IS NOT YET ABSOLUTE OR CERTAIN, WHEREAS RADICAL ISLAM, ETC IS SERIOUSLY WEAKENED BY LOSSES BUT STILL REMAINS CAPABLE OF DEFEATING THE US = US-ALLIED, AND IS IN FACT GOING ALL OUT TO NUCLEARIZE + EXPAND THE BREADTH OF ITS JIHAD [Eurasia], ESPEC IN EAST-SOUTH ASIA. * "GETTYSBURG", "NORMANDY", "CHOSIN", etc. DECISIVE BATTLE/CAMPAIGN ISN'T OVER YET FOR EITHER CAMP. * E.g. INTERFAX/TOPIX > RUSSIA: CAUCASIA CRISIS IMPACTS THE WHOLE WORLD. Russia = Vladvedev may not want to publicly admit it before the MSM-Net + World, but IMO they covertly recognize the Islamist threat to HISTORICAL/TRADITIONAL EURASIAN ORDER + ASIAN ORDER, + THAT BY 2020 THE GEOPOL, ETC. MAP OF EAST-SOUTH ASIA AS COLD WAR + EARLY 21ST CENTURY GENERATIONS KNEW IT MAY DE FACTO CHANGE!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-11-04 17:46 |
| #3 11/4, a day that has the makings of being a tragedy, one more day and we will know. Then it's either a sigh of relief or outrage.... |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2008-11-04 15:26 |
| #2 Hell, the New York |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2008-11-04 09:58 |
| #1 Has to be a tragedy just like a natural disaster. Show and re-showing the pictures of the leapers would only reinforce the evil behind the act. So let's not let the American people see those every day, routinely. It'll only aggravate them. However, pictures from Abu Ghrab.... /sarcasm off |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-11-04 08:17 |