Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day. archive

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I love The Atlantic but “Two decades of U.S. policy appear to be rooted in a mistaken understanding of what happened that day”? I’m not sure I buy that. Maybe the Saudi complicity is deeper than we originally realized but I don’t think anybody is really shocked by these recent revelations. US policy has driven by political agendas or, sadly, certain VP’s business interests

    • kescusay@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Perhaps it would make more sense to describe it as an intentionally mistaken understanding.

      We’ve been a fragile, fractured country since that day. Al Qaida - and Saudi Arabia - did us lasting, potentially terminal, damage.

      In 2001 before 9/11, George W. Bush was clearly going to be a one-term failure of a president, a mistake of the electoral college brought about by complacency, never to be repeated. He would get the boot, be replaced by a better and more competent president in 2005, and that would be that. No Patriot Act. No Department of Homeland Security. No TSA security theater. No war against Iraq, no formation of ISIS, and likely no Tea Party, let alone the travesty that was four years of Donald Trump.

      Saudi Arabia may have actually dealt the killing blow to this country, causing the ongoing, slow-motion disaster in politics we see today.

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        One could argue that the Florida Supreme Court is responsible for millions of Iraqi/Afghan deaths and untold damage to democracy and the climate by forcing that election the way people didn’t vote. W should have been a baseball manager, he was, as the Rs do, completely unqualified against an actual experienced person at the job but had the quips and genealogy.

        Florida, republicans, consistently making everyone’s life worse. WHY DO PEOPLE STILL VOTE FOR THEM

      • PorradaVFR@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Hesitant, forlorn and very much hopefully misplaced resigned upvote.

        I want to dismiss your assertions out of hand as too pessimistic and cynical but…yeah, we let them win at least the battle if not the whole shebang.

        My hope stems from kids today generally being kinder, open minded and not “tolerant” but actually coexisting with nary a thought. Better people will make a better world if we give them the chance to before fucking up beyond repair.

        • kescusay@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          That’s where my optimism lies, too. The kids, by and large, are all right, and it’s high time we let them have their turn running things.

          I just hope that we have democracy at all after November.

    • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Propaganda was fed to the mainstream at record levels.

      It was done to fool the public into a war and reconstruction effort that fleeced America, destroyed countries, and killed a shitload.

      A few got rich. A few jumped up a few spots on the power scale.

      And Russia has taken over the role of primary sponsor of the Republican party from Saudi.