"America's 9/11 Response Subverted Our Values, Liberties" - Juan Cole Op/Ed in Detroit News

[Hissyspit]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120911/OPINION01/209110320#ixzz268sdOmq5

September 11, 2012 at 1:00 am

Cole: America's 9/11 response subverted our values, liberties

By Juan Cole

In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush was advised to avoid the phrase “war on terror.” He chose otherwise.

The United States government's reaction to the attacks of 9/11 some 11 years ago took the world into a tragic era of unnecessary wars and confrontation that destabilized allies and threatened vital long-term U.S. interests.

- snip -

For this questionable achievement, the U.S. borrowed more than $1 trillion (on which we are still paying the interest), and faces trillions more in expenses in coming years as the bills for care of wounded veterans mount. We lost 4,486 military personnel killed in action, and more than 30,000 wounded, with a fifth of those suffering brain or spinal injuries. Many veterans of the Iraq War have some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, affecting their well-being, family life and friends.

Administration officials peddled falsehoods such as that Iraq was near to having a nuclear weapon or was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Both the transformation of news into propaganda and the justification of "pre-emptive wars" degraded American values. Americans were told to be afraid. The Bush administration authorized the use of torture, and set up black sites where suspects were held without trial and beyond any law. At home, the U.S. government turned to warrantless surveillance of our telephones and emails.

- snip -

The U.S. government's response to the lawlessness and mass killing of 9/11 has too often been a subversion of American laws and values, and an abandonment of the ideals enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

The Founding Fathers would not have wanted the United States to launch wars of aggression as opposed to wars of self-defense, or to set aside the Bill of Rights. They were not naïve, and they faced more severe security challenges than do we today. Nevertheless, they insisted on the sanctity of individual liberties in the midst of those challenges.

MORE AT LINK

Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of “Engaging the Muslim World.

[avaistheone1]

1. Amen.

Eleven years on, we need to get back to those basic American values.

Amen. Amen.

[DemocratsForProgress]

2. Stop the presses!

What a shocker. Who knew?

[Hissyspit]

3. Some people need to be reminded.

The passage of time eliminates nuance and the revisionists have been and will perpetually be hard at work (See: Condi Rice at RNC 2012).

[DemocratsForProgress]

4. Anyone who needs reminding, or notifying to begin with,

won't be reading this piece. It reads like he phoned it in.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. "It reads like he phoned it in." The hell it does. n/t

[DemocratsForProgress]

6. Glad you're all fired up by being told something you probably knew 11 years ago.

Knock yourself out.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. I don't know why you've decided to piss all over Juan Cole here

But I don't predict a lot of success and camraderie here at DU.

Now off with you.

[DemocratsForProgress]

8. That's swell.

The piece is a trite restatement of the obvious, years after the fact.

He's usually a much more engaging and urgent writer than he is in this piece, is my point. I'm not sure how my saying so somehow equates to "piss all over Juan Cole here" unless you're his mom, in which hypothetical case I could appreciate your sensitivity. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you're so bothered.

By the way, your prognostications of "success or camraderie (sic)" here are of no concern to me, unless you're a hall monitor or something. Actually, not even then, but thanks.

[DemocratsForProgress]

9. PS...

if you really didn't know about any of this 9/11-related stuff beforehand, then you have my sincere apologies, but I suspect you did, just as I did.

[pampango]

10. Thank you, Mr. Cole. A dependable voice of sanity. n/t