An opportunity lost

July 15, 2008

In Matt Yglesias’ book, “Heads in the Sand,” which I can’t recommend enough, there’s an especially depressing chapter that explores the extraordinary opportunity the United States had in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. From Chapter Three:

Nations around the world, including ones with long-standing tense relations with the United States, felt their interests threatened by the rise of transnational terrorism. An internationalist approach could have brought a vast quantity of resources from all around the world to bear on a handful of acute problems — a global alliance capable of achieving defined goals on several fronts.

It’s easy to forget what an important, generational moment this was for the nation. Our traditional allies couldn’t have been more supportive, and were anxious to cooperate, but more importantly, untraditional allies wanted to forge new relationships with the United States, including Syria and Iran, both of which had long-standing concerns about al Qaeda. It was an unprecedented opportunity for America to lead. Instead, we had George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and a team of neocons, who had a dream to execute. We’re living with the consequences today, and will be for quite some time.

I mention this because of one of the more powerful portions of Barack Obama’s speech on national security today in DC.

“The power to destroy life on a catastrophic scale now risks falling into the hands of terrorists. The future of our security – and our planet – is held hostage to our dependence on foreign oil and gas. From the cave-spotted mountains of northwest Pakistan, to the centrifuges spinning beneath Iranian soil, we know that the American people cannot be protected by oceans or the sheer might of our military alone.

“The attacks of September 11 brought this new reality into a terrible and ominous focus. On that bright and beautiful day, the world of peace and prosperity that was the legacy of our Cold War victory seemed to suddenly vanish under rubble, and twisted steel, and clouds of smoke.

“But the depth of this tragedy also drew out the decency and determination of our nation. At blood banks and vigils; in schools and in the United States Congress, Americans were united – more united, even, than we were at the dawn of the Cold War. The world, too, was united against the perpetrators of this evil act, as old allies, new friends, and even long-time adversaries stood by our side. It was time – once again – for America’s might and moral suasion to be harnessed; it was time to once again shape a new security strategy for an ever-changing world.

“Imagine, for a moment, what we could have done in those days, and months, and years after 9/11.

“We could have deployed the full force of American power to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and all of the terrorists responsible for 9/11, while supporting real security in Afghanistan.

“We could have secured loose nuclear materials around the world, and updated a 20th century non-proliferation framework to meet the challenges of the 21st.

“We could have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in alternative sources of energy to grow our economy, save our planet, and end the tyranny of oil.

“We could have strengthened old alliances, formed new partnerships, and renewed international institutions to advance peace and prosperity.

“We could have called on a new generation to step into the strong currents of history, and to serve their country as troops and teachers, Peace Corps volunteers and police officers.

“We could have secured our homeland–investing in sophisticated new protection for our ports, our trains and our power plants.

“We could have rebuilt our roads and bridges, laid down new rail and broadband and electricity systems, and made college affordable for every American to strengthen our ability to compete.

“We could have done that.

“Instead, we have lost thousands of American lives, spent nearly a trillion dollars, alienated allies and neglected emerging threats – all in the cause of fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.”

Keep in mind, this was more than just a missed leadership opportunity, more than just a dangerous miscalculation, and more than just a mistake. It was the execution of a misguided worldview that deliberately rejected this generational opportunity.

And it is a worldview that John McCain — at least in his current persona — embraces enthusiastically.

There are 111 days until the election. Vote wisely.

Outstanding post, Steve.

  • Indeed, as stated by others, America since the collapse of the Soviet Union has had multiple golden opportunities to unite and to enhance and flourish but all of those opportunities were either squandered or ignored. We require leaders but we hire gamblers and fools instead.

  • Damn right it’s depressing. I think about this aspect of the War on Terror all the time. What a buffoon our President was and is. So many lost opportunities.

    This speech puts our losses in perspective. Obama needs to repeat this speech every day for the next 111 days and beyond until the media and the electorate hear him. If only everyone recognized what we’ve lost and how little we’ve gained.

  • I can only echo Maria: excellent post, CB. And perhaps there is a hope here, implicit, that with a new leader, a true break with ruinous policies, we can reclaim some of those lost opportunities.

  • Sure would love to see a TeeVee ad showing Obama giving the “we could have” snip from this post. Very sobering.

  • Instead of electing a rational, thinking human being, we elect someone who has the audacity to state ” I’m gonna capture Osama bin Ladin…. trust me. It works every time because we don’t want anybody who has the slightest doubt in charge of our country. We want someone like our daddy who knows everythig and acts accordingly.

  • I still remember Bush’s grand ‘Call To Arms’ following 9/11 when he asked American’s to take more vacations, go out to dinner more often, spend more money, consume, consume, consume.

    Bush constantly compares the “War on Terror” to WWII but he forgets the genuine sacrifice of the generation that fought WWII. Increased taxes, War Bonds, the draft, nation wide rationing of everything from food to rubber, not to mention the lives lost actually fighting that war.

    Bush and the Neocons pitched us war with cost that would ‘pay for itself’. No true sacrifice from this generation. Only a massive credit card bill our children will someday have to pay.

    And Bush leaves the world stage with a smile on his face saying:

    “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

    A perfect epitath for his adminstration’s disdainful and dismissive view of the rest of the world.

  • Bush didn’t “lose” any opportunity.
    He/Cheney were NEVER interested in forging new global ties.
    Remember the PNAC?
    Remember how many PNAC/Zionist fux there were in the cabinet at that time, and how many more were in senior advisory posts?
    Remember “Bin Ladedn determined to attack US?”
    Remember Pearl Harbor?
    PNAC has taken down its website now, but the list of luminaries has still gotta be around somewhere.
    Remember how they scoffed at the idea of a global police operation?

    These GOPhuquers NEVER intended to do anything other than what they’ve done.

    Missed opportunities? Like if we’d never bombed Nagasaki?

  • Hells yeah, CB! And hells yeah, BO!

    These few simple words of irrefutable truth lay bare the narcissistic lie that John McCain somehow knows how to “win wars.” Here, in plain English, is the essence of the chasm between our two candidates. One is able to succinctly frame every single thing that has gone wrong in the last seven years, naming each and every cluster fuck our conceited administration has conjured and detailing why it was so very wrong. The other hasn’t a single fucking clue what’s been going on. And is counting on the same cluelessness of voters to get elected.

    This November, vote hard!

  • Yeah, we could have done all that.

    But the media decided that it was more important to elect a likable person than a smart one.

    And they haven’t changed a bit.

  • To be fair, hindsight is 20/20. Regardless, any president with a brain would not have invaded Iraq.

  • Agreed, Chopin – the “we could have part” of the speech really stood out – long time since we heard a Democrat truly lay out what could have been.

    The Marshall Plan theme was so apt, it could make a foreign policy wonk cry – in fact, Obama hit the theme during his outstanding Fareed Zakaria sit-down on Sunday – it is a must-watch – finally an intelligent discussion on TV:

    Transcript: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/13/zakaria.obama

  • I know this has been covered before, but 9/12 was not the only time we lost an opportunity. Further details in the article, this is just the lead paragraphs.) The current group wants to extend influence by force even in the face of repeated opportunities.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/17/AR2006061700727_pf.html

    “Just after the lightning takeover of Baghdad by U.S. forces three years ago, an unusual two-page document spewed out of a fax machine at the Near East bureau of the State Department. It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States, and the fax suggested everything was on the table — including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups.”

    “But top Bush administration officials, convinced the Iranian government was on the verge of collapse, belittled the initiative. Instead, they formally complained to the Swiss ambassador who had sent the fax with a cover letter certifying it as a genuine proposal supported by key power centers in Iran, former administration officials said.”

  • “It was an unprecedented opportunity for America to lead.”

    We can thank our Supreme Court for its now proven bad judgment in 2000. And we can continue to put the blame on those who voted for Bush as the number who will admit to it shrinks. But most of all we must continue to call out the reporters and the media for swooning over Bush and broadcasting his naked emperor prancing for eight years as the country descended into the state of high level anarchy that we have today.

    I remember thinking during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal of Clinton,”he had so much and how could he have blown it like that?” Not one to be outdone, the petulant and pompous Connecticut redneck is still to this day determined to blow it bigger than anybody. He’s now determined to get Armageddon “right” as his parting gesture.

  • Heartbreaking.

    Even my diehard Republican mother, who voted for Bush twice, said recently in a wistful tone, “You know, I wonder what would have happened if Gore had been President on 9/11.”

    (Of course, she’ll still probably vote for McCain, but I’m working on it.)

  • Here’s the problem, as Steve already knows: no matter how eloquent Sen. Obama is; no matter how poetic his words, strong his convictions or right his goals; no matter how fully he articulates the difficult path that lies before all Americans, if the press does not cover it, it doesn’t matter. I think Steve’s most important contribution on this site is his constant demand that the media pay attention, that they stop going for the easy story and really dig into the things that truly matter to Americans.

    Let everyone remember the one true dictum of politics: if the press doesn’t cover it — or covers it incorrectly in an effort to be “fair” to both sides — it didn’t happen. Period. End of discussion. Keep up the good work, Steve, letting everyone know how horribly the media has screwed this election up so far. Maybe it will do some good, although I am not keeping my fingers crossed.

  • It all began with the 2000 presidential election being an opportunity lost. …Then the 2004 presidential race.

    “There are 111 days until the election. Vote wisely.” – CB

    A golden opportunity is at hand. Are you making the most of it?

  • -Reallyfedup

    It seems like the MSN meme for the day is to talk up how similar Obama and McCain’s postions on Afghanistan and Iraq are despite all evidence to the contrary. They are also stressing how Obama has moved TOWARDS McCain, again despite all evidence to the contrary.

    McCain’s base continues to do his job for him.

  • Right on, ReallyFedUp,
    All liberal bloggers and Obama surrogates need to get on point about pressing the media to analyze McCain’s positions. Every talking point needs to turn right around to how the media didn’t cover something adequately that McCain says. If everyone starts doing it, the media will have to notice and defend themselves by actually providing real coverage. This is how Republicans have operated and how they’ve been so successful getting their talking points to be conventional wisdom over the years. Everyone just keeps saying the same thing over and over, no matter how dumb, untrue, or outrageous it is, and it burrows into our consciousness.

  • Today I had four coworkers try to tell me McCain’s voting record on the environment shows that he is concerned about the environment. I printed out a list compiled from the League of Conservation Voters 2007 scorecard and left it on all their desks. McCain, by the by, scored a zero. Surprise.

    http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/mccain_zero.htm

    We’ll see if they have anything to say to me in the morning. Probably, “But…but he was CAMPAIGNING in 2007! Of COURSE he didn’t show up to vote!” To which I will respond, “Well, that’s probably why he didn’t show up to work to vote on the GI Bill expansion, either. But funny, Obama showed up to vote for it.”

    Everyone, quit whining about how the media isn’t doing its job. We know it isn’t. We know it WON’T. Use one of those newfangled Google things on the intertubes, get non-partisan information demonstrating what an incompent, useless fart McCain is, and shove it in people’s faces until they can’t ignore it anymore.

  • And it is a worldview that John McCain — at least in his current persona — embraces enthusiastically.

    This needs to be hammered relentlessly, because its true, but also because McCain’s worldview matches Bush to the core.

    No more Bush/McCain.

    No more stay the course.

  • One can only wonder—since the Congress won’t do the right thing—what would happen if millions of angry Americans started standing up and unilaterally “declaring unrestricted war on the domestic and international terrorist that is George W. Bush.”

    The “aggressive interrogators” would suddenly find themselves at risk of becoming the interrogated. Those who waterboard would fear being subjected to their own stock-in-trade. The hacks would tremble at the thought of being hacked to pieces; the mouthpieces would envision themselves being mercilessly mauled and spat out in the gutter; the propagandists would be overwhelmed by the Sword of Truth (perhaps even literally!); the senior members of the administration would find themselves endlessly hunted like diseased vermin.

    If you take those who have dies in Iraq, and Iraq alone—both military and civilian—and extrapolate their deaths to include the children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, for all the generations to come, then the Bush administration is solely and entirely responsible for the murder of billions of human beings.

    For that, there is no “high road.” There is no “greater morality.” There are only the voices forever silenced, and the endless, unquantifiable number of voices never given the first opportunity to speak.

    We owe it to those voices to wreak our eternal malice against those who have brought us to this juncture: The presidency of George W. Bush, his administration, and his cowardly followers.

  • Obama may not always do what we want, but it sure will be nice to have a president who is not a corrupt, befuddled ideologue. At his best, Bush/McCain is no more than a post-catastrophic cheerleader with ulterior motives. After a few bumpy weeks, it is great to hear Obama speak on a subject, and in a manner, that rejuvenates my sense that we may have a man here who could be a great leader not just for the USA, but for the world.

  • yeah nice post: but guess what ? it might as well be printed in the pages of the Holland Tulip Weekly Supplement for all the good it’s going to do.

    guess what, Steve ? the moronic US of A voters knew all that on election 2004, or at least they should have, or could have; well before, actually, if anyone had bothered to pick up a newspaper, or stop watching Paris Hilton TV, or used one-sixteenth of their sedentary brains.

    What in hell makes you think logic, or common sense will prevail this time ?

    don’t tell me it was close in 2004, don’t tell me the GOP stole Ohio … if even one in ten of your dumb ass voters had done the bare minimum of their civic homework, W would have been disgraced and turfed out of office by a ten to one margin.

    He’s a dangerous lunatic; and the best you and your ilk can do is count down the days remaining in his term. that’s like letting a serial rapist run loose in a school yard, because you happen to know he has cancer and doesn’t have much time left.

    you half wits should be chasing that criminal moron out of office with every last ounce of energy you have .. you should be applauding impeachment motions up to his last day.

    the idea is not to survive the bush administration — he still has four months, and plenty of time to drive this country into even worse trouble, if that’s possible.(see tonight’s headline with the all-too-familiar wmd claim against Iran; does ANYONE believe it ?

    no —- the idea is to make sure this kind of twisted abortion of a presidency is disgraced so future generations see it for the black hole that the hitler regime was … people must look back for a thousand years and remember, forever, what an outrage and a felony these eight years were.

    i personally think he’s done enough to destroy this country; he’s been personally responsible for such profound rot — it’ll take another eight years just to assess the damage, never mind begin to mend the wreckage.

    but in spite of all that: how many brainless fools will be gulled in voting for the third bush term ?

    probably over fifty percent … all it takes is a monstrous billion dollar media buy in the past week, and everything is set.

    did you see the broken down fifteen year old boy whimpering in his cage in guantanamo ?

    that’s your president. but you don’t have the balls to do anything about it, except re-elect his clone. good luck.

  • 23. On July 15th, 2008 at 8:22 pm, Keori said:

    Everyone, quit whining about how the media isn’t doing its job. We know it isn’t. We know it WON’T. Use one of those newfangled Google things on the intertubes, get non-partisan information demonstrating what an incompent, useless fart McCain is, and shove it in people’s faces until they can’t ignore it anymore.

    _________________________

    Keori, this is just an example, but indicative of the larger problem. My father-in-law, who is generally a decent guy – loving husband and father and grandfather, salt-of-the-earth kinda guy, a guy who isn’t rolling in dough but will never hear of anyone else in his family picking up a check in a restaurant – refuses to read dailykos. Won’t even consider it. I’ve told him “you don’t have to agree with the opinions of anybody on dailykos, but at least check it out, follow the links to the pages and articles from which they DERIVE their opinions. They’re not spewing venom that they’re pulling out of a hat.” No matter. The media is more than McBush’s/the GOP’s base. They act as a surrogate Svengali, feeding lies about how awesome the GOP is (and how awesome the media is) while, at the same time, telling their viewers/listeners/readers to NOT trust, under ANY circumstances, those crazy/evil/liberal bloggers. All they do is smear and lie and smear and lie some more, don’t you know. They all love the terrorists and they all hate America.

    And sadly, so many people continue to believe them. Which is why we have to keep hammering home the fact that the media isn’t doing the job it claims is actually their job. We have to keep shouting that there’s a vast RIGHT-WING media conspiracy, and #1 on their agenda of lies is that there’s a vast LEFT-WING media conspiracy. Once they get Americans to believe that, then they’ll believe anything. They’ll believe Fox News is a trusted news source, but MSNBC is criminally biased. They’ll believe bloggers are so full of shit, if they used a link from abcnews to validate an opinion, it only serves to either INvalidate ABCnews, or accuse them of distorting abcnews’s facts…somehow.

    It’s like a shitty romantic comedy on a grand scale. The girl you love is dating a serial cheater. You know it, and the cheater knows you know, so he tells the girl you love all sorts of evil shit about you. Now her relationship with you is poisoned and she’s waiting by the phone for him to stop banging some stripper from his bachelor party…but she won’t accept your call, because the man she loves said you were really mean to him. What do you do? Keep posting in your blog that she’ll be sorry? Or keep trying to save her, if only be shouting it often enough that everyone else around her starts to hear?

  • Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
    And many times confused
    Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
    And certainly misused
    Oh, but I’m all right, I’m all right
    I’m just weary to my bones
    Still, you don’t expect to be
    Bright and bon vivant
    So far away from home, so far away from home

    And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
    I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
    I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
    or driven to its knees
    but it’s all right, it’s all right
    for we lived so well so long
    Still, when I think of the
    road we’re traveling on
    I wonder what’s gone wrong
    I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

    And I dreamed I was dying
    I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
    And looking back down at me
    Smiled reassuringly
    And I dreamed I was flying
    And high up above my eyes could clearly see
    The Statue of Liberty
    Sailing away to sea
    And I dreamed I was flying

    We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
    We come on the ship that sailed the moon
    We come in the age’s most uncertain hours
    and sing an American tune
    Oh, and it’s alright, it’s all right, it’s all right
    You can’t be forever blessed
    Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
    And I’m trying to get some rest
    That’s all I’m trying to get some rest     – Paul Simon, American Tune

  • Boy, there is just no compelling arguement to that. Incomprehensibly bad leadership and judgement by the republicans. Thank God our country is finally opening it’s eyes to what these people have done to us. The republicans have used the terrorist attacks as an opprtunity to terrorize us and the rest of the world. They are going down for a long time.

  • I am against a war for oil. Obama said he wanted to “end the war in Iraq responsibly”, responsibly for whom? Ending the war does not mean that Iraquis are going to control their oil. America has prepared a special law so that Iraquis will give up 75% of their oil to Western companies. (interesting article: “Whose oil is it anyway?” in New York Times 13 March 2007)

    Then he mentioned another “goal essential to making America safer”: “securing ALL nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue states”

    How is he going to accomplish this?

    In Europe everybody knows that the next target will be Iran. What make you believe Obama is interested in peace? He mentioned the costs of the Iraq war but he forgot to say that he benefits are 30 times higher than the costs.

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