I’m on the road tomorrow
I’m on the road tomorrow and all weekend - off to Bergen, London, Vancouver…I’ll leave you with the latest ponderable summary on September 11 and Iraq, put together succintly as usual by Derek. Lessons Unlearned.
“…We cannot forget that. The U.S. is not to blame for September 11, any more than the Allies at Versailles were to blame for Hitler’s genocidal Jew-hating and Aryan expansionism. Neither could have been predicted in advance. History is contingent, yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it. The best way to fight terrorism is to drain the swamp — to help alleviate the feelings of powerlessness, despair, and resentment that come from corruption, decay, and oppression and lead to indiscriminate ideological killing. Had Germany been rebuilt in 1919 instead of 1947, things might have been very different. Jean Chrétien was not blaming the victim. Like all of us, he was asking, Why did this happen? What can we do to stop it from happening again? The answers are not simple. There may have been no direct western responsibility for the September 11 attacks. But that doesn’t mean we have no responsibilities now. We had them before too, and we neglected them. Now it’s time to pay attention.”