When George W Bush held his speech creating the Department of Homeland Security, I shuddered. The word "homeland" made my skin crawl for fear of where this country was headed. That gut feeling turned out to be dead on.
A great thought experiment. I remember 9/11 as the bursting of a bubble. The United States was pax romana - in every sense. And the outpouring of grief was about the end of an era for everyone. For 9/11 and then Uncomfortable Truth exposed the US as empty. Some day the US squandered an opportunity. But it was not in the US to become humble, to be contrite, to relinquish her underserved hegemony.
I think this is a worthwhile effort, so keep going! I have a controversial thought concerning the squandering of all the good will, as you refer to in that those were done under Republican presidents, and their response was military. Yes, Democratic presidents inherited that and had to keep working within the situation while trying to solve it, but as we saw with Biden's withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, there is no good solution once we are bogged down in a war (same with Vietnam; we didn't learn from that either). And now we are caught in this situation again, under a Republican/MAGA president with no good way to get out of it, and this time with no widespread support. Instead, we are facing widespread condemnation, stirring enmity with allies who can no longer count on us, and making rash, incoherent decisions that increase a volatile situation. I hope that your writing can give us some sort of hope and possible solutions. Thanks for taking this on.
When George W Bush held his speech creating the Department of Homeland Security, I shuddered. The word "homeland" made my skin crawl for fear of where this country was headed. That gut feeling turned out to be dead on.
Tanner,
A great thought experiment. I remember 9/11 as the bursting of a bubble. The United States was pax romana - in every sense. And the outpouring of grief was about the end of an era for everyone. For 9/11 and then Uncomfortable Truth exposed the US as empty. Some day the US squandered an opportunity. But it was not in the US to become humble, to be contrite, to relinquish her underserved hegemony.
Congrats on such a thoughtful thought experiment.
Alan
Yes, please continue, as painful as it is to watch how the US squandered its goodwill.
If 9/11 happened today, would the world shrug and say “Well, they deserve it”? Please continue your insights beyond Scripture.
Looking forward to the rest. I wrote this recently. Something of a corollary to what you wrote. Keep challenging us. https://medium.com/@davidpeters_34514/cancer-world-cup-and-world-peace-dce014d1c680?sharedUserId=davidpeters_34514
I’m with you so far. Please continue this series.
I think this is a worthwhile effort, so keep going! I have a controversial thought concerning the squandering of all the good will, as you refer to in that those were done under Republican presidents, and their response was military. Yes, Democratic presidents inherited that and had to keep working within the situation while trying to solve it, but as we saw with Biden's withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, there is no good solution once we are bogged down in a war (same with Vietnam; we didn't learn from that either). And now we are caught in this situation again, under a Republican/MAGA president with no good way to get out of it, and this time with no widespread support. Instead, we are facing widespread condemnation, stirring enmity with allies who can no longer count on us, and making rash, incoherent decisions that increase a volatile situation. I hope that your writing can give us some sort of hope and possible solutions. Thanks for taking this on.