R.I.P.Eric Alterman gets fired up... and fired from MSNBC:
This nation was doubly cursed on this day five years ago; first by the attack itself, and second by the reaction of our dishonest, incompetent and corrupt leadership's exploitation of it for their own naked political and ideological purposes. As every single global poll during the past four years indicates, we are a less admirable nation than we were five years ago. We are more warlike, more arrogant, more ignorant, less compassionate, less generous, less free, and thanks to the Bush administration's catastrophic invasion of Iraq, far less safe.
Think back five years and it's all but unimaginable...
Who would have imagined in their worst nightmares that these political usurpers would employ the human catastrophe of 9/11 to continue the terrorists work for them? Who would have imagined that they would embark on a course that would eventually kill more Americans than died on 9/11 in wars that do nothing to ensure the nation's security but much to inspire more Arabs to hate us and wish to attack us? Who would have imagined they would dissipate the global solidarity and support the world had offered us? Who would have imagined that, having ignored all of the signs of a certain attack, they would continue to ignore the most obvious steps to protect us against future catastrophe, leaving our ports, our nuclear facilities, our chemical facilities invitingly unguarded? Who would have imagined that they would willingly allow bin-Laden to escape? Who would have imagined they would lie to the rescue workers about the health effects of the air they were breathing. Who would have imagined that they would put the fate of the nation in the hands of a group of lying, conniving, rats like "curveball," Ahmad Chalabi and the INC? Who would have imagined a political campaign in which a man like Max Cleland, a man who lost three limbs in Vietnam, would be branded as insufficiently patriotic by right-wing politicians and pundits who never sacrificed so much as a chicken dinner for their country? Who would have imagined they would use homeland security as pure pork money, doling out millions for Red State fire houses while leaving tens of millions who live near obvious targets--and were attacked last time--unprotected? Who would have imagined they would emulate our enemies, employing methods of torture and massacre? Who would imagine they would force our brave soldiers to die fighting phantoms, without even proper body armor? Who would have imagined they would outlaw photographs of military funerals, or that the president could not find time to attend a single one of them? Who would have imagined they would use the attacks to create a domestic spying regime, a series of secret prisons and tribunals, and the declare the right to abrogate any and all American civil liberties whenever it struck their fancy? Who would have imagined, in other words, that they would exploit these tragic deaths to seek to undermine our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, indeed the very foundations of the same "freedom" that allegedly inspired the terrorists in the first place? And finally, who would have imagined that our vaunted "liberal media" and nonpartisan political establishment would cheer them along the way, failing to ask the difficult questions and attacking the patriotism and even sanity of those with the courage and foresight to do so?
9/11 could have been a rebirth of our nation's civic and political culture, together with a recommitment to use our power to ensure the security and prosperity of a world community that looked to us with sympathy and admiration. "We are All Americans," said Le Monde. Today most of the world is anti-American and understandably so. We have failed the Afghans. We have failed the Iraqis. We have failed our long-time allies, indeed, virtually everyone who trusted us. We will survive, of course, and someday, a more enlightened leadership will be able to undo some of the damage these two curses have inflicted upon us and return us to the values that helped build this great nation. But the opportunity offered by a world united in solidarity with America and its values is almost certainly dead for good. Let the coroner's certificate read: "Cause of Death: Lies, Extremism, Incompetence, Corruption, Murder, Torture, and Hypocrisy, Stupidity, and Even More Lies."
Blog Archive
-
▼
2006
(2154)
-
▼
September
(177)
- Back To... Reality???Wow. I really needed that hol...
- Yo.I am going on holidays for a week.
- So why did Bush suddenly decide to move prisoners ...
- Got It, Thanks Daniel Trotta at Reuters wants you ...
- Bush vs. RealityDan Froomkin: On the dominant issu...
- Words"The meaning of words had no longer the same ...
- Kinky S&M FreaksTed Rall looks at GOP double stand...
- Global BullyUS 'threatened Pakistan' after Sept 11...
- The AWB Scandal Gets Very Messy IndeedThe Age repo...
- Freedom On The March - NOT!WaPo highlights some ma...
- Do gas prices drive Bush's ratings? Statisticians ...
- Saddam Judge Death WatchI don't know which is wier...
- Israelis in Iraq: Former Israeli commandos secretl...
- WordsMolly Ivins on the presidential 3-year-old: S...
- "Fear dictates everything we do."Just another day ...
- America Go Bye Bye Now?As Think Progress notes, ev...
- Tony Judt: America’s liberal intellectuals are fas...
- Kofi Annan ends 10 years in office on December 31:...
- Spinning The Good News On Global WarmingThe good n...
- God Says USA Can TortureAccording to a poll by Ang...
- Thai Military CoupAll you need to know about the T...
- Ted Turner says the Iraq War was dumb, has caused ...
- A Short History Of The Bush AdministrationLew Rock...
- Think For YourselfKeith Olbermann says Bush owes t...
- ImpeachmentThe latest local government impeachment...
- The greatest, most sophisticated military force in...
- Pas De Poodle Pour La FranceIt's not just GOP cand...
- Why? Because They CanPaul Krugman says there is re...
- Vote Wal-MartGiven that the US retail giant is set...
- MUST WATCHThe Siebel Edmonds movie.
- CommentsBarack Obama meets Bush: On his first meet...
- Ye Gods!Murdoch's News Corp has a new Christian Fi...
- Joshua Micah Marshall: Don Rumsfeld has apparently...
- MUST READThe Boston Globe: MY DAUGHTER started hig...
- As soon as I saw the heading, I knew this was a st...
- World's Biggest Flip FlopWell, this will make John...
- Coming Down The Tube...This important warning is p...
- I swear, the first twenty seconds of this video ar...
- Who Are We? Where Are We Going?Contempt for Life: ...
- You know, if George Orwell wrote "1984" today, he ...
- No Common Sense, No Sense of Common DecencyBush st...
- Fourteen Thousand Terrrrrrrrsts!!!U.S. war prisons...
- Iran Invasion Slated For OctoberTIME magazine leak...
- A quarter of a century later, the USA is still war...
- People Power: An Alternative To Corporate GreedGeo...
- West Won’t Win Afghan War : As Canadian, American ...
- Every Great Castle Needs a MoatThe latest cunning ...
- Al Gore's New Book"The Assault on Reason". WaPo sa...
- Abu Bakker Qassim, who was imprisoned at Guantánam...
- A rare nugget of unadorned truth: the CIA is an un...
- WaPo asks "Is Jim Baker bailing out the Bushes onc...
- Reality Bites"Evidently, we lied throughout the la...
- GetUp! Goes To Washington: This coming week, the U...
- No News Is Slow NewsPilger: "On 11 September 2001,...
- Where is the evidence?: How, for example, can it b...
- No Shit, ColColin Powell: "The world is beginning ...
- Bush, 9/12/01From Mahablog: President Bush met wit...
- 9/11: When Bush went AWOL (again)White House lied ...
- MUST READ: WHO ARE WE?Bob Herbert in the NYT today...
- Borat! Borat! Borat!Speaking of new movies: In Coh...
- Where's Chrenkoff?Atrios goes exploring: While loo...
- Get Up, Stand Up For David Hicks's Basic Human Rig...
- More Satyagraha, Please!A new movie featuring Gand...
- Summary of Findings: Democrats Hold Solid Lead; St...
- Exploding The Myth Of "Bush's Greatest Moment"Maha...
- Yes, Virginia, ...Is There an Islamic Fascism? DEA...
- The Phony War: "I hate the term 'global war on ter...
- Bush Cannot Provide Security In Iraq... or in the ...
- Make A Stand For Peace!Here's a copy of my email t...
- What is the point of listening to someone when you...
- EmailsMeanwhile in Baghdad...I know it is hard to ...
- I wonder if Judith Miller's Iraqi-wearing-a-baseba...
- Awakenings????What the f*ck is a "Third Awakening"...
- Bush's Man In OzThe new US Ambassador pops into pa...
- Corporate WarfareGlen Greenwald's new movie, Iraq ...
- Err, Does John Howard Have A Sense Of Humour?Becau...
- Bush's Death - the video.
- Call It "Surrender" If You WantAnthony Gregory: Fi...
- In God We TrustLance Armstrong blames the NYT: "I ...
- Tim Dunlop is in good form lately: Sometimes a box...
- Can't help but wonder if Dick Cheney reads Working...
- Yeah, remember those old post-Cold War articles: H...
- Anyone Remember Chile, 1973???From the comments at...
- The Road To NowhereScott Birchill: The habit of im...
- What Bush Doesn't SayBy Dan Froomkin: He doesn't s...
- Save The ChildrenTalk about your root causes of te...
- Dems Have Work To DoCheck this out: Where the midt...
- Bushism of the day: "You know, one of the hardest ...
- The Sun Turns GreenOr should I say, Rupert Murdoch...
- The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Gui...
- We Come To Bury "Islamic Fascism"Sen. Feingold fau...
- Five Years Later:A ReflectionMy wife and I spent t...
- It's a bit of a worry that Riverbend has not poste...
- One day Americans are going to have to accept that...
- The View From Paris9/11/06 'Le Monde' Editorial: "...
- Hollow WordsBush today: "Whatever mistakes have be...
- Worth It, After All...?Disney is the parent compan...
- Drop The "War" MetaphorSays George Lakoff: Terror ...
- Is it time to be Anti-Flag yet? Nationalism sure d...
- R.I.P.Eric Alterman gets fired up... and fired fro...