The original page at the ZMagazine web site can be seen by at this link. While slightly old now, it still provides some important additional thoughts and political analysis on the current situation, some of which are still relevant, and others are indications of concerns even early on, just after the atrocity. The necessary will? Sooner or later, that will mightily manifest itself, as it always has in the past.With kind permission from Michael Albert from ZMagazine, a Question and Answer that he posted on his web site has been reproduced here. We have the means, brainpower and inventiveness. withdrawal from Afghanistan won’t be a lasting disaster if we respond with a renewed sense of purpose-starting with a resolve to get our people and partners out of the country, whatever it takes-and if we provide ourselves with the capability to credibly counter our adversaries. The Taliban’s victory is a result of U.S. Although still very capable of lethal attacks, it is now but a shadow of its former self. A few years ago, for example, ISIS looked unstoppable, as it conquered territory that exceeded the combined size of Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. Until August, terrorist organizations hadn’t achieved permanent success anywhere. Our armed services developed the needed capabilities, as did local law enforcement, especially in New York. Our intelligence agencies got their acts together. While we’ve been hit with periodic, life-taking strikes on American soil since 9/11, none of these attacks, thankfully, have been on a scale like that which we experienced on that terrible September day. (Photo by Mir Ahmad Firooz Mashoof/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Anadolu Agency via Getty Images withdrawal from Afghanistan, in Herat, Afghanistan on August 31, 2021. HERAT, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 31: Taliban members gather and make speeches in front of Herat governorate after the completion of the U.S. Second, despite all the ghastly mistakes we’ve made, terrorist movements were thrown on the defensive. This characteristic shone through clearly that day and afterwards. In hierarchical Europe one asked permission or waited to be told what to do in the U.S., De Tocqueville marveled, citizens would just up and do what needed to be done. He had never seen anything like it before. Everyone, it seemed, was making an extra effort to deal with the unprecedented crisis.Īlexis de Tocqueville, who had visited this new country in the 1830s and who wrote the classic Democracy In America, was mightily impressed by what he called voluntary associations, that is, people coming together for all sorts of purposes, whether it be professional, charitable, educational, medical, recreational or tackling a particular problem. Spontaneously, on their own initiative-and from all parts of the country-nurses, doctors, medics, firefighters, law enforcement officers and numerous others volunteered to come to the city to help out.Despite extensive infrastructure damage, New York’s financial markets were reopened within days. Improvisational efforts abounded: Restaurants organized food deliveries for first responders local mariners evacuated hundreds of thousands of stranded people individuals and groups poured resources into stricken New York City. He was profoundly wrong.Īs the horrifying events of that September 11 unfolded, everyone knew things would never be the same, that the trajectory of our nation’s history would be profoundly altered.įirst, what emerged on that day and afterwards was an astonishing display of the strength of our civil society. Osama bin Laden was convinced that our national will would collapse with the Twin Towers. We should not, however, mark this day with a sense of despair. Our adversaries are confirmed in their conviction that the U.S. decided to pull out of Afghanistan, we didn’t consult them, even though they had several thousand troops on the ground there. Our NATO allies and other friends, who themselves have suffered more than 1,000 dead in this war, are stupefied and angry. Indeed, who could have imagined that we would be involved in long wars in the Middle East and in Central Asia?įor now, U.S. And they hold in their blood-soaked hands the fate of hundreds of Americans and thousands of our Afghan partners whom we didn’t evacuate. They possess tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. Their flag now dominates our abandoned embassy in Kabul. No one could have foreseen on Septemand in the days following that the rulers of Afghanistan, who had provided a safe haven and support to the perpetrators of these attacks and who weeks later would be forcibly removed from power by our armed forces with assistance from numerous allies, would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of that infamous day in total triumph.
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