There’s an unfortunate reality surrounding 9/11. The United States gave Islamic jihadists precisely the response they wanted, increasing animosity in Asia and the middle east. There was no political gain. No freedom bestowed to oppressed Afghans or Iraqis. The response was by most measures an expensive failure. We detained some bad actors and eliminated others, possibly thwarting another attack. That’s not where it failed.
The response to 9/11 failed to unify U.S. Americans for more than two weeks. Patriots ran to Wal-Mart to buy Chinese made U.S. flag magnets to put on their trucks assembled in Mexico. The whole country remembered churches existed because it’s became us against them. My God is more righteous than your God and will smite you down. The bigotry was immediate, I had the privilege of leaving my office at Glaxo Smith Kline by noon ET on 9/11 with three Pakistanis and an Indian and they were already terrified on the way home.
Then came the quagmire. A decade in Afghanistan and more in Iraq allowed industrial military contractors to drink more champagne from 2001-2021 than they did during both world wars combined. It never dawned to a single one of these war hawks that bombs cause animosity. Ongoing animosity. Recently Trump decided to create even more. Only a candidate for worst President to ever hold office could manage to take a people on the verge of revolting against a Theocracy and unite them against the United States. Trump did that.
Know what else he did? Worked with Fox News to convince 1/3 of U.S. citizens they’re under constant attack. Attacks from liberals, jihadists, immigrants are all on the table now. Conservative media works hard to make sure you don’t feel safe. Fear mongering is a very old but obviously effective propaganda technique. It works quickly on those already suffering delusions. When it does they come after the threat. That’s when freedom becomes negotiable in the name of security.
How bad could it get? Trading a little liberty for some safety can’t be all Franklin warned us about right? What’s the worst that can happen? If you accept innocent U.S. citizens getting shot dead at point blank range for “failure to comply” with federal forces, you might be a fascist. Wait, no. You are a fascist, full stop.
We’ve allowed those scared of everything foreign to their personal culture too much time on the political stage. We’ve allowed churches too much influence in politics without taxation. As we’ve reached the point of a being governed by a cult devoted to a personality over party or politics, we’re at damn near rock bottom.
Real American values are NOT God-n-Guns any more than Buc-ees is a symbol of national pride. Only in the world of MAGA Tea Party delusion is giving up freedom in the name of Evangelical Nationalism considered virtue. Their call is for a “Christian Nation”, thereby stripping freedom from all those who avoid participation in organized religion or follow another.
Future generations may never know how truly “free” we felt in the 80s and especially the 90s, post cold-war. On 9/11 we sacrificed those freedoms in the name of security at the behest of a geriatric political party on life support and their 24 hour entertainment network. And lawyers, I also blame the lawsuit society. That evil ended McDonald’s playgrounds.
