Can we please end ONE 9/ll myth? There was NO "unity" after 9/11

[Thtwudbeme]

I was bartending in Charlotte, NC on 9/11. I walked into work and the owner of the bar looked at me and said, "This was Clinton's fault." The bar was smack in the middle of Myers Park/ Eastover. For those that are not familiar with that area, think: Rich as hell. Old money. Hugh McCall was a regular.

Customers started ordering "freedom fries."

Customers started carrying guns into the bar- with full approval of the owners.

If you admitted you did not like the Bush admin, you were a "traitor."

Middle Eastern people were getting beat up.

Were you on DU? Do you remember what it was like? People were posting about "Agent Mike." Posters here were afraid of getting a visit from the FBI/ CIA.

I am so exhausted with the myths around 9/11- No, "We" were NOT "united" by any stretch of the imagination. No, the events did not "impact the world." (If you have issues with that- ask yourself why a normal family in Nepal would give a crap)

My greatest sadness of 9/11 was that we missed a very real opportunity to improve the US through infrastructure and education. We had clowns at the helm that only were excited to start a war with a majority of public support. That's it.

[Tomconroy]

1. I don't know. W's approval ratings went through the roof. For

A while he could do no wrong.. I had read my history though. I knew it would last about six months. Same as Pearl Harbor.

[Thtwudbeme]

3. Oh, I remember his approval ratings

Shot up to 90 something percent. Hell, I even liked him for 48 hours. I would have liked Mickey Mouse for 48 hours. I think even Will Pitt (do you remember him? He was prolific) wrote, "Bush is my president."

That went to hell in a hand basket pretty fast.

[Igel]

8. Depends on how monolithic you think "unity" has to be.

If it needs to be 100.000%, then no, there was no unity.

If getting into the 90s is adequate, then yes.

I'd ask that the same standard be used elsewhere if it's used here.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

31. The day before 9/11 Dubya's approval ratings had tanked.

I can't remember the exact number, but I know it was lower than any other president's at the same point in their presidency.

Then the terrorist attacks occurred and the 9/11 mythology began to be written.

Before he took office, Bush had said that the greatest presidents were wartime presidents. When he addressed Congress several days after the attacks he referred to the event as beginning "the first war in the twenty-first century," which implies that war is the normal state of things and peace an aberration. He was spring-loaded to declare war on someone -- anyone -- to secure his place in history.

Dubya campaigned on the promise that he would never use cruise missiles to "fly up a terrorist's ass," but he ended up doing just that. A lot. A cruise missile costs about a million dollars. That's a really expensive piece of ass.

Biden is doing a remarkable job, especially when his so-called Senate majority contains two "Democrats" whose dedication to the filibuster über alles has won them plaudits from the GQP.

[Lasher]

80. The RCP composite put him at 52.2% approval just before the attack.

Just afterward it shot up to 88.2%, the highest of his presidency.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_bush_job_approval-904.html

[yardwork]

85. I was among the small percent who still disapproved of w.

[LT Barclay]

93. Agreed. I just had to keep my mouth shut about it, as I was active duty USCG at the time.

[AZ8theist]

94. You weren't the only one....

I hated Shrub. Still do.
I remember after his "bullhorn" speech at the WTC, Chris Mathews on NBC screamed out "WE'RE ALL NEOCONS NOW!!!!"

I threw up in my mouth. What a fucking asinine claim to make.

That wasn't the start of my hatred for all things Republican, but it sure fueled the fire.

[yardwork]

96. Chris Matthews has a lot to answer for.

[JHB]

33. That was the "rally 'round" effect. The same thing happened with his dad in '90-'91

Polls asked what people thought should be done, and going to war tended to rank pretty low. But the answer to "Do you support the president?" was around 90% "yes".

[Skittles]

76. why would people support that lying piece of shit

disgusting

[Polybius]

91. Depending on the poll, only about 8-12% didn't support him 20 years ago

Even I was caught up in the BS.

[Skittles]

101. I was among that 8 - 12%

I was never fooled by that lying, stealing hack.

[Polybius]

102. I wish I could say the same

I was like "Stand with Bush!" for a good three months. Then sanity kicked in.

[Skittles]

103. the man and his SC hacks stole the presidency

there wasn't a low they would not sink to - starting senseless wars, endorsing torture, the Katrina incompetence, etc.....a complete, thorough corrupt fucking asshole.....I just CRINGE when I see him....the only positive I can give him is his wife and kids seem like fairly decent folk, which is more than I can say about Trump

[Skittles]

75. I remember that

it was sickening.....that fucked up "approval" helped Dubya start two senseless wars

[jcmaine72]

86. Temporary insanity

It certainly didn't take Dumbya long to squander all that national good will and solidarity, that's for sure.

[GoCubsGo]

2. Yep, that's how I remember it, too.

I also remember being told that "If you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't worry about all the intrusions on your privacy."

God help any politician who forgot to wear their goddamn flag pin. Flag fetishism, in general, gone rampant.

Sikhs getting shot to death because they wear turbans.

Yep, the whole "united" thing was more like "Step out of line, and the man come and take you away." It was fear-based compliance for many.

The thing that became blatantly obvious is that most people don't know shit about what is going on in the rest of the world, or the people who live outside our borders. I knew that, but I didn't know just how bad it was.

[McKim]

11. Bless Barbara Lee!

Bless Barbara Lee, she stood up for us and our true interests!

[BigmanPigman]

90. Ditto!!!!!

[luvtheGWN]

23. Up here in the Great White North, we remember

how Bush officials blamed Canada for allowing some of the highjackers into the country. They conveniently forgot that it was US Border Services who let them in.

Bush conveniently forgot that planes aiming for US airports were re-routed to Canadian airports, and Canadians took care of many thousands of stranded passengers. So when he was thanking all the countries who helped the US in the aftermath, he "conveniently" forgot to thank Canada.

That's what we remember.

[wnylib]

34. I remember very well how Canada

stepped up to take in stranded travelers on 9/11.

I also remember how Canada saved US embassy members during the Iranian revolution.

I am grateful and so are many other Americans, even if some of our politicians don't acknowledge the gratitude that we owe to our "neighbors to the north." (literally neighbors in my case, since I am near the NY/Ontario border)

Thank you Canada for saving our asses in crises.

[robbob]

36. From Alexandria, Ontario

You’re welcome, neighbour, and thank YOU for your post!

[wnylib]

43. From a small city near Buffalo, today.

Originally, I am from Erie, Pennsylvania. There is a peninsula at Erie that extends out into Lake Erie like a curved arm, forming a bay and natural harbor. The entire peninsula is a Pennsylvania state park with several beaches on the lake side. It is directly across from Long Point, Ontario. On clear days at the beach, I was able to get a glimpse of land across the lake. (It helps that I am farsighted.)

[madinmaryland]

71. Are you referring to Presque Isle? My grandparents and cousins lived/live there.

We used to go the beach there when we were kids. Nice beach.

[wnylib]

72. Yes, Presque Isle State Park.

Some of my happiest memories are connected to Presque Isle.

[2Gingersnaps]

44. X1000

Canada has always had our back. Remember the day after? Americans could not fly in our airspace. But an airplane went around the country picking up Bin Ladens, particularly in Florida, and flying them out of the country. Bin Laden's were the contractors to the Saudi royal family. Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia was nicknamed "Bandar Bush." The Bushes have been rehabilitated, thank you tRump for being far worse than most people could imagine. But no, there was not "unity" after 9/11. Karl Rove came from the school of Lee Atwater, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, "creating your own reality." Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney had been at the table with Nixon and Kissinger on Vietnam. They were at the table for Afghanistan and Iraq. And now 20 years later there may be trials for the people who actually participated in 9/11. Why twenty years later? Remember John Yoo? The man who wrote the Torture Memos that provided the rational for torture of the detainees? Remember Abu Ghraib? The prison were torture took place? A private and a sergeant went to prison for that, not Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney. Remember the CIA agent outed by Cheney, Valerie Plam, whose job was to track WMD around the globe? Scooter Libby, who worked for Cheney, was pardoned for that-by Trump. Where indeed did Donald Trump get the idea that the law does not apply to people like him.

[hedda_foil]

78. Hell, Bush the elder was breakfasting with Bandar Bush in Manhattan when the planes hit.

[GoCubsGo]

51. I honestly don't remember the blame game or lack of thanks. But...

I believe every word you're saying here. One more reason to despise Dumbya. I do remember Canada taking in the stranded air passengers, though. I can safely say that the rest of the country is thankful for that kindness and hospitality, even if our shithead of a so-called leader wasn't.

[luvtheGWN]

82. Thank you!

I'm pretty sure you would do the same for us. Good neighbours!

[Walleye]

4. Don't start a land war in Asia. Don't start a land war in Asia. Oops, Damn!

The first attack on the world trade center happened in the second month that Clinton was president. I never heard anybody blame that on Bush Senior. The whole Republican party now has become who can we blame for this besides ourselves?. The idea of governing I don’t think ever enters their head

[CrispyQ]

16. "Republican don't want to govern. They want to rule." Molly Ivins

Oh my! Would she & Ann Richards have some things to say about the state of the country today!

[catrose]

92. Oh Molly, yes.

[OAITW r.2.0]

62. And, don't forget that OBL's dad was meeting with W.'s father on 9/11/01.

They were on the board of the Carlisle Group. They made bank when they got their war in Iraq and Afghanistan going....

[Walleye]

63. Oh I remember that. I always thought the bushes were dirty with the bin Laden's

For some reason all these facts were buried in the war mongering

[WarGamer]

67. Not that it matters much...

But it was Shafiq bin Laden, OBL's estranged brother.

[OAITW r.2.0]

83. Huh, I thought it was OBL's dad that was tight with GWB....

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Maybe "united" against Muslims . . . . .

And "united" as the mythical nationalistic Americans.

It got to the point of irony. I was at a German-American Bierfest event where the snack concession stands were selling "freedom fries". I pointed out to them how during WWI, certain food items were re-labelled "liberty cabbage" (sauerkraut) and "hot dogs" (frankfurters) to detach German-Americans as a group, to discriminate. The concessionaires were impassive.

[agingdem]

6. we became insular...

scared..we were not allowed to question how this could happen (why was the "bin Laden determined to attack the US" intel daily briefing ignored?..where the fuck was Bush?)...we were told to watch what we said and to whom...muslims became the new boogeyman...and then came the wretched Patriot Act and the nazi sounding Department of Homeland Security...and because Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld had no one to blame but themselves for the devastating security breach, they patched together a ludicrous revenge war to deflect from the disastrous fallout from their benign neglect..shock and awe, baby, while God Bless the USA played in the background...20 years later it still sickens me...

[Igel]

12. I've had the same response straight along to that intel assessment.

It's August 2001. Put yourself in the US as you were then,

In response to a classified intel assessment Bush II imposes some rather severe flight restrictions. A no-fly list. Increased border controls, and they start looking at Muslim immigrants (whether student visa or green card or work visas). Calls for increased ease of surveillance and wiretapping are issued, and suddenly security in DC and around federal buildings is sharply increased.

I'm pretty sure fewer than 10% of (D) would have said, "Good job, Georgie. We needed a larger police presence under (R) control in our lives, and the inconveniences in the name of greater security and control--esp. examining the loyalty of Muslims and Muslim-Americans--is great. Please, surveil more people--that kind of coercion and surveillance is required for true freedom (tm)." Sort of along the lines of "I, for one, welcome our new fascist overlords" (which some DUer or set of DUers a decade ago used to say fairly ironically).

Even at the time a lot of the measures were controverted.

Here's the problem: "AQ is going to attack the US" leaves out anything to help. In Wonkese, it's non-actionable. What's threatened? Los Angeles high school? Smithsonian Museum? Hoover Dam? Space Needle? Electrical systems? The water supply in Pocatello or maybe three hospitals in Chicago? Shit, a previous attack on the US was in Saudi Arabia. So perhaps an embassy in Europe?

Biological weapon? (Hey, they had access to live polio virus.) Chemical? Explosive? Cyberattack? (The Y2k threat was just past.) A kind of mass sicarii attack?

When? August 30? September 11? November 2001? Xmas 2001? Easter 2002?

How do you stop that? Without engaging in a sort of total surveillance regime? I have no idea. I suspect nobody does.

[LeftInTX]

30. I agree

[robbob]

37. Good points, but was totally ignoring the memo

and taking yet another vacation to go “clear brush” on his Potemkin ranch really the best option? And why, to this day, are Bush and his administration never held to account for doing so?

[jaxexpat]

39. I remember being told that intel brief also said, "attack with planes".

In response, a few calls to flight schools (there are about 600 in the US today) to ask if anybody has seen anything that doesn't add up" would have borne obvious fruit, and relatively quickly. There were MANY people whose ONLY job was to be VERY suspicious ALL the time about specific aspects to US security from foreign threats. It's NOT impossible so long as Republican preconceptionalism doesn't get in the way of the job. You know the type. The explanation is ALWAYS so simple only fools can't see it, except it's only simple if you ignore the complexities. It's like my neighbor who thinks the economy would chug along nicely if EVERYBODY paid the same standard tax rate. (I just sighed and walked away mumbling something about a drink.) One ignores complexity at the high risk of missing simple things. Things like passengers who take over a plane to use as a guided missile.

The flight schools in Florida had already spoken with authorities about some of their students' peculiar curriculum. It was in the process of follow-up on 9/11/2001. Perhaps a sense of urgency on the part of federal employees could have prevented the whole thing. I remember George Tenet getting some medal or another and disappearing from the public scene into academia.

[mopinko]

7. i remember a doonesbury from around that time,

mike and a thug character, mike is flying his flag.
the gist is- yeah, it's our flag again, no you cant have it back.

that was one level. beating up everyone in a turban was there, too, tho.

[McKim]

9. At the Supermarket on 9/12 2001

My immediate thought was that this was an international crime and to bring the criminals to justice. I wore an anti war button to the supermarket and was harassed by some man who was hot to kill for revenge on "them". I wonder what he thinks today? There needs to be a massive PR campaign about all the social goods we could have had here over the past 20 years if we had spent those war dollars on our own people!!!!!

[Gore1FL]

10. Another lie resulting from 9/11 is that Bush kept us safe during his presidency.

9/11 was the only time it came up, and when it did, not only did he not keep us safe, he didn't see fit to involve himself during the attacks.

9/11 was a tragedy turned into a GOP marketing tool.

[2Gingersnaps]

45. Absolutely a marketing tool.

Thriteen attacks on embassies, 60 people killed, and Republicans voted down the money for increased embassy security. Then Benghazi happened. They danced on those four graves for every drop of blood.

[Baitball Blogger]

49. +1

That man exploited the pain of mothers who lost their sons and daughters on 9/11. They were so blinded that they didn't even blink when they rah-rah'd a decision that would put the sons and daughters of other women in danger for a war operation that was folly and never should have happened.

[GoCubsGo]

54. I always reply to that with:

He didn't keep us safe when we needed it the most. In fact, he was derelict in his duties deliberately ignoring all of the warnings.

[randr]

13. Your assessment is correct

We did let the opportunity to review our mid-east policies that led to the situation, that continues to this day, slip away.
We did nothing to correct our mistakes.
At the same time I did travel across the country during the "no fly' time. At every stop, especially when pumping gas at crowded stations, I met people eye to eye for the first time and we needn't communicate verbally our thoughts.
It was a spiritual experience of unity in those first few days. Seeing other people through our empathy is very special.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. Dumbya's approval rating went extremely high...

... immediately after the attacks, but the difference was Democrats trying to come together in the hopes of swift and sensible action, which later didn't happen.

The right-wingers did NOT offer unity, though, so you're correct about that!

They were just mindlessly following their leader and his propagandists, so they ALREADY approved that moron, while continuing to denounce liberals in ways that weren't even fact-based.

Bill O'Reilly was quickly trying to pin all of the "blame" on the Clinton administration. There was no mention that it happened after months of Dumbya being in charge, of course, or the many warnings that even appeared in numerous newspapers prior to it happening. It was revolting behavior, and it was one of the first examples of divisiveness within this country that I witnessed soon after the attacks. Then I soon witnessed many other right-wing propagandists following suit.

[2Gingersnaps]

47. Remember Richard Clark

going on every news broadcast that would have him trying to warn Dubya and company? Totally ignored, treated like a crackpot? Cheney and Rumsfeld knew better. Colin Powell destroying his career at the UN?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

58. Oh, yes, I can recall.

I've mentioned on DU before how almost all of my coworkers on the evening of 9/11 (worked night-shift) acted like they didn't even care about it, except how it might affect their gasoline prices and such. I had no sleep that day, and I was furious about what happened. I expected similar behavior from them, but nope!

THEN later that night, inside the break room, I observed them finally getting whipped up by Fox News! Their evening propagandists were already trying to blame Democrats for what happened (which was amplified even more in the following days), and suddenly they were filled with rage over the day's events!

It was so bizarre to me back then! I directly watched their transformation occur!

I used to think the attitude change happened because Fox viewers are gullible and easily manipulated, but after reading this thread, I think their earlier emotional deadness was simply them worrying about how it might make Dumbya look bad! After Fox offered them idiotic counter-arguments, though, they were comfortably back to their default setting of outrage!

Meanwhile, witnessing those talking heads on Fox instead diminished my earlier anger. Some of that anger was basically pushed aside by revulsion of those instigators on TV instead.

[IronLionZion]

15. Plenty of racists united in scapegoating brown people

and encouraging discrimination for jobs and travel. And brown people discriminated against each other too when many of us had to remind people that we're not Muslim. There were many disgusting experiences after 9/11 where Sikhs got shot dead in their businesses for wearing a turban.

I didn't get US citizen coworkers until 2014. Companies felt it didn't matter where I was born or held citizenship, I look foreign. Even now in interviews I get "No real American" would do the jobs that I've had a few years ago because some people keep a very narrow idea of who is a real American.

[Fla Dem]

17. There's been no unity since Richard Nixon, Ronald Regan, Newt Gingrich, and Dennis Hastert

The creation of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 1975 and the Federalist Society (1982) and Rudolph Murdoch and FOX (1986). There were other factors, but these were the front men and the behind the scenes instigators and agitators.

The addition of the internet, Facebook, twitter and other forms of mass communications that were and are being used to spread lies, RW propaganda and misinformation,

[Baitball Blogger]

53. hear! hear!

[samsingh]

18. You are absolutely right. Cheney was going around saying the Democrats would coddle the terrorists

and the beginning of cancel culture was seen with what the repug SOBs did to the Dixie Chicks.

And bush - shrub - when asked about the Chicks being cancelled did not jump to their defense.

In fact, george w who stole the election at the behest of his privileged mother created the lawless repug atmosphere that created evil obscenities like trump, deathsantis, the imbeciles leading texas (both the governor and the ag), moscow mitch, leningrad lindsay, and so many many other gop traitors.

[AllaN01Bear]

19. isnt that the era where shrub went after anyone who opposed the war?

dixie chicks were booed out of country music. and a episcopal church(all saints pasadina ca _ came under his ire for being progressve and against the war because some rs complained . then he ordered the episcopal national cathederal to " tone it down " as he felt they were too liberal.

[Jon King]

20. Exactly, had a Dem been President, Repugs would have blamed and attacked him right away.

Bush had a short lived high approval which I guess they are calling 'unity'. That is only because Dems gave him the benefit of the doubt and rallied for the country.

Had a Dem been President, the opposite would have happened. The Repugs would have been calling on him to be executed before the dust from the buildings even settled. Sure as heck no unity, not even for a moment.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. Yep! nt

[TimeToGo]

22. I believed then

And I still do. If the president on 9/11 had been a democrat. There would have been no unity. The GOP would have been merciless against the White House.

[Ned Low]

24. I suggest that there was unity afterwards...

... because Dems are willing to put aside political differences for the good of the country. Repubs have not shown that quality for many years, a lfetime for many of you. Dems rallied to a GOP prez, I'm doubtful Repubs would have done the same for a dem prez.

[milestogo]

25. But...W hugged a firefighter

and that made everything ok

[LeftInTX]

26. Unity lasted a few weeks

Freedom fries showed up a year or so later, leading up to our invasion of Iraq.

[Sgent]

27. Your association of

Freedom Fries with that time period makes me think your probably talking about 2003 more than 2001. I agree with VP Harris about the unity in the months following 9/11.

[Thtwudbeme]

35. Really. How do you explain the Republicans blaming Clinton on 9/12/2001?

I wasn't bartending in 2003- so- nope, my memory is pretty good.

Do you not remember the hatred for Dems the day after? I do- very well.

[Baitball Blogger]

55. I am dark-skinned and I definitely felt like I was on their radar from day one.

"They" being the neanderthal right-wingers.

[radicalleft]

97. Yes..."freedumb fires" was RW propoganda respone

to Frances's refusal to join in the war against Iraq.

[Tommymac]

28. I was not 'Unified'

I was and am still pissed off and sick about the SC giving the election to GWB.

9/11 was a direct consequence of GWB ignoring the World situation and terrorism in particular. AS I recall his Justice Dept was more concerned with covering up nude statues then fighting terrorism.

I was NEVER on board with Gulf War 2 - I was shocked that the US did not treat this as a criminal investigation as it should have.

Instead Cheney and Rumsfeld and the other neocon War Criminals used it as a justification for their Eternal Mideast War to protect Big Oil profits.

[Paladin]

29. I remember it all too well. No unity whatsoever. (nt)

[ck4829]

32. And who can forget Jerry Falwell blaming gay people, liberals, feminists, and the ACLU for it?

Yeah, real unity.

[JHB]

38. The usual suspects were blaming Clinton before the sun had even set.

I'd say "before the smoke cleared", but Ground Zero smouldered for weeks and they were at it much sooner than that.

The "coming together" I remember most clearly was right-wingers "coming together" in their belligerence to suppress any who disagreed with them. Disagreement was "wanting the terrorists to win."

They made 9/11 their patriotic toy to play with. It was theirs, and they would go on the attack to tamp down on anything they saw as being un-'MERICAN!. While the rubble was still being cleared I remember some random asshole shouting "GOD bless America!", with "GOD" so over-emphasized it made the rest sound like a mumble, clearly eager to start a fight with anybody who said anything other than "Yeah!"

[marble falls]

40. He had his unity until January or February 2002. His honeymoon was short.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

48. Yeah, maybe that long.

I was yelling "What are we DOING?!" at the TV screen weeks earlier.

The polls might've tanked for Dumbya later, but I can't remember those details now.

[love_katz]

41. Maybe check out Michael Moore's FIM, Fahrenheit 9/11.

It can be viewed for free on YouTube this week. I am not trying to make a Saint out of him. Hopefully, I won't get flamed for mentioning him. But, the film makes a couple of very good points. It shows how Bush 2 and Cheny, et al were very chummy with the Saudi royal family and Bin Laden, receiving billions of dollars from them, and it shows how the war machine is a strategy which keeps most people impoverished and poorly educated. It is worth watching.

[Baitball Blogger]

42. And, therein lies the truth.

We knew a week after 9/11 that the Saudis were involved but were pushed off a proper and righteous retaliation because the dumb right-wing mob was activated to keep us off the truth. Our patriotism was questioned, we were ridiculed and dismissed. And while we saw this country follow a foolhardy direction from a foolhardy president, we also had to tolerate the inequities at the local level when the good ole boys took advantage of the elevated status of their kind who had military connections.

Yeah, that happened. I saw twenty years ago how white privilege operates, creating pockets of entitlement to hold onto their unfair advantages. THIS is why they show support for each other. They know that the laws and rules will be upended and they will be rewarded for their uncivil actions.

So I'm asking today, when do the rest of us receive reparations?

[Lars39]

46. Middle Eastern people we're getting rounded up

in Michigan(?) iirc.

[fescuerescue]

50. The term freedom fries came about in 2003

Overtime, our timelines get muddle. Things that are far apart can be transposed or seem similar.

Btw. I actually know "Agent Mike's" brother. Or least the picture that was put up on DU that folks here believed him to be.
His full name is Mike Evanoff. His mother was the 1st female supreme court police officer.

Both of these folks protected Democrats and Republicans with their lives.

In any event. I disagree. There was a degree of unity for a time after 9/11. Didn't last long. It had fallen apart by 2003 when the term freedom fries was coined.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-t-evanoff/

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsobserver/name/lyle-evanoff-obituary?pid=89614501

[Thtwudbeme]

52. Describe the "unity" you saw please

I am interested in reading that.

[fescuerescue]

64. So you can pick apart my 20 year old memories?

No thanks.

I'm not here to argue with strangers about my own life and memories. This is just chat.

But it's certainly ok if you saw the world differently. We all have our own unique viewpoints on the world.

[Thtwudbeme]

77. If you don't want to respond- then don't

But, you came here to disagree with me- either clarify that or don't.

Why did you bother to respond to this in the first place if you have nothing to say?

[fescuerescue]

98. I didn't thanks.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

61. Yeah, that was after France rightly didn't go along...

... with the coalition against Iraq nonsense.

[fescuerescue]

65. yup.

[Tomconroy]

79. Yeah. They didn't like the French because France didn't

Want to go into Iraq.

[malthaussen]

56. No, but a lot of people desperately wanted us to be. n/t

[Aviation Pro]

57. It's funny how incompetence seems to correlate

To a rise in polls.

[NCjack]

59. Yeah, I remember. But, I refused to rename French Fries. Did not buy a gun.

And, I continued to enter into friendships with Arabs.

[Oneironaut]

60. It was a Fascist form of "unity."

We became one (white) country, under Gawd, united against the Muslim inferiors [/s].

[bluedevil4]

66. Freedom Fries came

about when France wouldn't join the coalition at least that's how I remember it.

The line I still use is "Don't forget about Poland" does anyone remember that? LOL still makes me laugh

[carpetbagger]

74. The French sent some of their NBC units to the Gulf.

Snarky at the time, snarky now, clearly having internalized the comic genius of Jerry Lewis and Hebdo Charlie. In short, they were prepared to help us on the front line once we found those WMDs.

[KentuckyWoman]

68. "With us or against us." - Saxby Chambliss vs Max Cleland - the swift boating of John Kerry.

Cleland lost 3 limbs in Vietnam. Chambliss successfully painted him a coward for disagreeing with going into Iraq.

And what they did to Kerry is inexcusable as well.

Forget the general public being idiots (and they were) ... Republican party leaders used every nastiness possible.

The sheer nastiness went up several 100 notches all across the board.

[FakeNoose]

69. It was the biggest spin of all time

Instead of going to war against Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal Family ...

... we attacked their enemy Saddam Hussein!

[Silent3]

70. There never is and never will be 100% unity, but in comparison with the usual...

...background level of disunity in the US, things really were indeed more unified than is typical in American society and politics for a time after 9/11. Pointing out the remaining disunity that still of course existed doesn't negate that.

And that's mostly because Democratic politicians did not behave the way Republicans almost certainly would have. Democrats either voiced support (in limited ways) for Bush, or at they least didn't outright attack him.

In some ways that mostly a good trait of Democrats. In retrospect, however, they should have been tougher on Bush and the Republicans, tougher on the rush into war, and definitely more courageous about doing what was right instead of fearing voter backlash if they seemed too "weak" by not rushing into war.

[egduj]

73. I felt it.

Very organic. Unfortunately took a terrible tragedy to create.

[Snackshack]

81. Worldwide

It was amazing seeing what citizens in other countries were doing to show support for us. Nationally the unity in congress lasted for a little while but it soon became evident that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz didn’t give a 💩 about what anyone else thought. They were going to do whatever they wanted. “You’re either with us or you against us”…

There are so many people that were allowed to walk away scott free from crimes they committed. One of President Obama’s greatest mistakes was saying “we need to look forward not backwards”

[yardwork]

84. I agree with you.

[johnp3907]

87. Don't forget the firefighters and cops fighting at ground zero.

They were united in wanting the overtime pay.

From November 2001:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/03/september11.usa?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Demobrat]

88. What I remember most about those days is

“It’s unpatriotic to criticize the President” repeated ad nauseum, and how my flesh crawled every time I heard it.

The first amendment got put on hold. You could NOT criticize the government in public places. If you did it was “Why do you hate America?” and threats of violence.

I blamed Bush. Still do.

[Ferryboat]

89. I knew United We Stand was over when I got flipped off on I-5

3 or 4 months later. We never were united, the divisions were ignored for the sake of unity.

The current rehab of shrub is galling. As the saying goes "Never forget".

Bush is thanking his lucky stars tfg came along. Makes him look likes the statesman he never was.

[xxqqqzme]

95. I don't recall any

unity. My recollection is I was out on the streets demonstrating and attending weekly Friday night and Sunday morning corner and pier vigils. There were 5 bus loads of Orange County activists who traveled to San Francisco to attend a massive demonstration. I met many Vietnam vets at the demonstrations and vigils who were very vocal in their opposition to W and gang's war mongering.

[Akacia]

99. Yes, it was about that time when I discovered DU.

I thought I was going crazy till I found this place and some like-minded individuals.

[themaguffin]

100. Without any doubt, the GOP would have crucified a President Gore starting on 9/12.