What we seek in these stressful, confusing times is clarity. For many people, clarity is achieved in the context of faith. For the agnostics and atheists, there is still faith, but it is in the empirical fact, in the pursuit of knowing and understanding what has gone before, and using that to look ahead.
So in that spirit, I have three links that I think present relevant glimpses of the past, the future, and the present.
First is this piece on Tora Bora, and Osama bin Laden's notorious escape therefrom, by the NY Times Magazine. Excellent rundown of the conditions and characters, and the only mildly partisan tack it takes is in implying the obvious --we should have finished the job in Afghanistan before even thinking about going anywhere else.
Also from the NYT Magazine is this article from Mark Danner on this nebulous, far-flung war without end we find ourselves in. How do we reconcile the principle of stopping repressive, violent strains of Islamic terrorism with the concrete reality of chasing shadows all over hell's half-acre, with little to show for it?
Finally, Michael Moore has an open letter to the Republican base that stubbornly stands by their man, even as he weasels and waffles in a way that would make even Bill Clinton blush. Moore pointedly asks exactly what many have been asking for quite some time:
How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.
I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety?
....
Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
....
Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?
With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?
Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.
It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"
He's right. I think we're at the point where we pretty much have to indulge in MAD Magazine nicknames and snarky phrases to even discuss these issues much of the time, because the serious, sober, objective reality of it all is a bit overwhelming. That's why The Daily Show has become so iconic already -- we need to hang on to the absurdity of it all just to keep from being swept away by the enormous implications of what's going on.
Americans have collectively hung their hat on an indefinite, massively expensive military campaign without goals, without plans, without effective decision-making. We've turned our lives and aspirations over to people whose every breath is drawn in political opportunism and exhaled in utter cynicism. And it's all being financed by the Chinese using the trade deficit and our T-bills as a hedge fund to ensure the massive growth of their own economy, while we flip houses to each other in an escalating spiral of wealth that could literally collapse at any moment.
We've been distracted by non-issues and snake-oil hucksters long enough. If we should draw one real lesson from the tragic events of September 11, 2001 it is that we need to keep our eye on the ball.
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