Ten Years After 9/11 - How 9/11 Triggered America's Decline

[katherine]

How 9/11 Triggered America's Decline

A Commentary by Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington
AFP

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 led to a wave of solidarity with the US. But the superpower has lost that goodwill over the course of the wars it subsequently waged. Now America is mainly seen not as the victim of terrorism, but as a perpetrator of violence itself.


The smoke was still rising from the rubble of the World Trade Center when Richard Armitage, at the time the US deputy secretary of state, spoke in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. "History begins today," he said.

In the coming decade, Armitage would turn out to be right -- except the politician could not have foreseen how tragic the history would be following the epochal event.


It is the history of the decline of the USA as a superpower.

Immediately before the attacks, this country was in full bloom -- like Rome at its peak, as TV host Joe Scarborough recalls today.

The Republican President George W. Bush had inherited a fat budget surplus from the Democrat Bill Clinton. In Kosovo, the US, which Madeleine Albright dubbed "the indispensable nation," had just shown the Europeans how it could resolve conflicts, even in their own backyard. Bill Gates and Microsoft were still cool.

Then came the planes, piloted by the followers of Osama bin Laden -- and for a brief moment, the superpower seemed even more powerful than ever. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had himself photographed donating blood for the victims. Even the French all suddenly wanted to be Americans. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder promised "unlimited solidarity."

What followed was an unlimited mistake. Bin Laden had hoped to entangle the Americans in bloody wars. How well he would succeed in doing this, he probably could not have imagined himself.
...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...html#ref=nlint

[Mike Cruz]

In the end, Bin Landen got exactly what he and every other terrorist wanted. Bloodshed.

[Ulysses]

All in the name of God !

[DomainsInc]

sad but true. however its not too late to learn from mistakes and move forward. though sadly witth the mentality of many people in washington and around america, i don't see the decision makers learning anything.

[Raider]

Decline in the sense of how the rest of the World perceives us? perhaps... But the real trigger was economic which began in 2006/2007 when Democrats took control of both houses of Congress, driving the economy into the ground, not to mention covering up the FRAUD and abuse by their friends at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Notice how everything went to sh*t from 2007 forward and we haven't recovered since, it's only gotten worse under their reckless and self serving leadership.

[CureCancer]

Hmmm

[Bill F.]

Americans became cattle well before 9/11. I remember being herded by Northwest at an airport one day, with a huge delay at check-in. I said something to the woman next to me about being treated like cattle. She looked at me like I'd never flown before and just said "This is the way it always is." As though it was a fact of life, like rain. The stage was set for the abuses to come after 9/11.

So far as whether the terrorists are happy with this or not, who cares? Their opinions don't matter in any reasonable equation. US policy should never be based on making a foreign entity like us, much less based on a terrorist's feelings.

I'm not optimistic. Washington is not the problem, it's a symptom. I don't think enough Americans will wake up until it's too late, if even then.

[Raider]

I remember several years at Los Angeles International airport, there was I standing in a double line that was the full length of the ticket counters waiting to have my luggage searched by TSA, I was lucky enough not to be one of those poor souls standing outside in the same line in the freezing cold weather, The flight I was taking was bound for Manila, Beyond this line was the ticket counter for Air India, and I stood in their in amazement as I watched passengers for Air India checking their luggage in with OUT inspection of any kind, it went straight on the conveyor belt behind the counter, and they didn't have to wait at all.

I made a thread about this several years when it happened, not sure if this is still the practice of allowing Arabs to travel inspection free... It was BS none the less.

[ecomindia]

i still remember while I was working (developing on some code..) and TV was running when one of my friend was navigating through the channels. it was something 5 in the evening and at that time , it had just happened. it was all horror on our faces sitting in the group, no one saying or speaking anything, silently watching in disbelief. Yes, humankind was challenged and it was a Global impact in all perspectives.

All the jobs in IT, ITES and other service sectors specially that were outsourced started vanishing like a Jini in a bottle. Before we blinked, the companies who were offering us good packages itself were struggling to balance and survive.

But then, we all across the world have become more responsbile in some way or the other.

Criticizing a government is easy, People criticize of body checks , long delays, queues, complications in clearance ... but then is it not worth to be patient?
Government in each country - specially american allies like India (which is prone to terrorist attacks as well as chinese and pakistan's cyber hack unit everyday) should learn from America as there has not a single terrorism instance repeated in a decade

Yes, America hold on other countries has declined because of their Financial, Economy status.
Russia in a decade's time has become more stable , open to west, visible to media
China is any how Asia's giant superpower and has increased 10 folds it's controls across the region and beyond (specially in developing countries)


Worry is this :

China Blasts U.S. Over Credit Rating Downgrade, Debt 'Addiction' - China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, demanded that America tighten its belt and confront its "addiction to debts" in the wake of Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. China currently owns $1.2 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt, the largest stake of any central bank

[Onward]

Here is a perspective from one of my staff writers:

http://www.bethesda.com/article/0911/4.html

[Raider]

Here is a perspective from one of my staff writers:

http://www.bethesda.com/article/0911/4.html

Perspectives are like assholes, everybody has one.

[Anthony Ng]

Here is a perspective from one of my staff writers:

http://www.bethesda.com/article/0911/4.html

While I may not agree with everything said in that article, I must say that it showcases what I meant by well-written and original content; actually it's the best I've ever read on any DNForum member website. VERY good job.

If you ask me, it's quite an irony that 9/11 brought out both the best and worst of America. We've seen e.g. New Yorkers (infamous for their indifference, learnt it first hand myself) helping fellow "stranger" New Yorkers. But at the same time, I guess Osama bin Laden would never have expected that his coordinated attacks on the US soil also took away for almost a decade the building blocks of the American way of life that he so hated, and many who would otherwise be very sensible lost even their common sense and supported a totally irrelevant war on Iraq "in order to" get back at the terrorists (albeit being at least partly misled by the Cheney administration), bringing irreparable damage to hundreds of thousands of innocent people at the other end of the world. For a while, I thought it would be the beginning of the end of the United States. Fortunately, it has proven NOT to be the case when senses and dencency recapture the mainstream.

Allow me to quote from the final letter of Jack Layton (please Google):

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."