Bush says that the lesson of 9/11 is we have to adopt a doctrine of unlimited preemptive warfare. That we must strike them before they strike us.

However, this betrays a key and disturbing aspect of the Bush world-view: that such attacks are inevitable and can only be averted by killing the people who are determined to perpetrate them.

This lays bare the lie that was Bush's initial "commitment to diplomacy" where he disingenuously paid lip service to the UN while undermining his own diplomats.

Although in 2002 he argued that he only wanted war as a last resort and it was forced on him by Iraq's dangerous un-cooperativeness, that is inconsistent with the world-view he now openly professes:...

Bush says that the lesson of 9/11 is we have to adopt a doctrine of unlimited preemptive warfare. That we must strike them before they strike us.

However, this betrays a key and disturbing aspect of the Bush world-view: that such attacks are inevitable and can only be averted by killing the people who are determined to perpetrate them.

This lays bare the lie that was Bush's initial "commitment to diplomacy" where he disingenuously paid lip service to the UN while undermining his own diplomats.

Although in 2002 he argued that he only wanted war as a last resort and it was forced on him by Iraq's dangerous un-cooperativeness, that is inconsistent with the world-view he now openly professes: one in which attacks can only be prevented by preemptive war.

Bush merely sought the veneer of legitimacy, and only presented the facade of diplomacy, while the decision for war was made long before his patronizing attempts to justify it. And in the end, even though he failed to justify it to the majority of the world, not to mention the majority of Americans, he went ahead with it anyway, since he felt waging war against a country that he knew did not threaten America was more important than remaining true to the values of the nation he was supposed to be leading.

I want to make the case that Bush is wrong, and by extension, McCain is wrong - they don't understand the cause of 9/11, and they haven't learned the lessons they should have learned.

Lesson One:

THE DANGER OF SOLIPSISM

The Problem:
For much of the later half of the 20th Century, the US judged the value of its foreign policy by shockingly solipsistic standards. We presumed if what we did seemed good from an American point of view, then it was good, unconditionally. We held differing opinions in open contempt, even when they came from our own allies and admirers. Thus it happened that America squandered the good will it had in the rest of the world, and became perceived as a reckless and unjust hegemon which exercised a decidedly negative influence on the world. In many parts of the world America is not viewed heroically, but as an epitome of injustice and a threat to f...

Lesson One:

THE DANGER OF SOLIPSISM

The Problem:
For much of the later half of the 20th Century, the US judged the value of its foreign policy by shockingly solipsistic standards. We presumed if what we did seemed good from an American point of view, then it was good, unconditionally. We held differing opinions in open contempt, even when they came from our own allies and admirers. Thus it happened that America squandered the good will it had in the rest of the world, and became perceived as a reckless and unjust hegemon which exercised a decidedly negative influence on the world. In many parts of the world America is not viewed heroically, but as an epitome of injustice and a threat to freedom. Although I don't believe this is true, it is important to address this misconception, because it leads to tragedies such as...

9/11:
This international perception of America as an unjust and diabolical superpower led many to blame us for problems that were emphatically not our fault. This is principally why Al Qaeda identified America, and not England with the rise of the corrupt and decadent House of Sud. As a result, they attacked us, thinking that this was necessary in their war to regain control of Saudi Arabia. Even though we are a peripheral actor, our nefarious reputation put us at center stage.

The Lesson:
In the aftermath, Americans were shocked, echoing the question "Why do they hate us?" ad nauseum. However, they never bothered to answer that question. They never addressed the fact that many American actions, especially in Vietnam and Iraq, were viewed by the rest of the world as unjust. They never addressed that our support of brutal dictators during the Cold War had eroded our credibility. They never addressed the fact that America was percieved as acting purely out of self interest, which I will get to later.

Nobody ever realized that just because we pleased ourselves, we didn't necessarily please the rest of the world, and just pleasing ourselves wasn't

Lesson Two:

THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUES

The Problem:
America has the most admirable and idealistic values inherent in its creation of any country that ever existed. The US Government wasn't created out of a simple need for any government to stave off anarchy, it was created by people who believed that some governments could be better than others, and rather than accept established but faulty systems, they would create their own. The staggering bravery and idealism of this statement is what has endeared America to virtually all people around the world. Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword. When we fail to live up to our promise as a nation, the backlash of the disillusioned can be fierc...

Lesson Two:

THE IMPORTANCE OF VALUES

The Problem:
America has the most admirable and idealistic values inherent in its creation of any country that ever existed. The US Government wasn't created out of a simple need for any government to stave off anarchy, it was created by people who believed that some governments could be better than others, and rather than accept established but faulty systems, they would create their own. The staggering bravery and idealism of this statement is what has endeared America to virtually all people around the world. Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword. When we fail to live up to our promise as a nation, the backlash of the disillusioned can be fierce. Iranian students were shocked when the US didn't support their 1977 revolution, and as a result it turned theocratic, despotic, and terroristic, rather than humanistic and democratic.

9/11:
Because for much of the later half of the 20th Century America acted under a principle of Real Politik, acting in our interests rather than in support of our values, we betrayed the trust placed in us by so many idealists around the world. This created an atmosphere of cynicism about the US and its motivations to the point where, internationally, the defining American value is seen as greed, not freedom. Anti-materialist terrorists such as Al Qaeda feel that it is American greed that has saturated their Islamic holy land, and target us, rather than admitting that Arabs can be just as greedy as Americans. The Twin Towers and the Pentagon were chosen as a symbol of American avarice and brutality. They did not attack the Statue of Liberty.

The Lesson:
We must show the world that we are faithful stewards of those great values on which we were founded. We must fulfill the promise that America holds rather than betray it. If we are to boast of our greatness, we must live up to the burden of dreams we inherited from our founding fathers.

Lesson Three:

DO UNTO OTHER NATIONS AS...

The Problem:
In the 20th century, enemy bombs never fell on the soil of a US state (Hawaii was simply a territory at the time of Pearl Harbor. as was Alaska during fighting in the Aleutians.) Bombs never fell on the contiguous, continental United States. And yet, we continuously dropped untold ammounts of ordinance on the major cities of foreign countries around the world. Those who disagreed with us risked our bombardment. America and the Soviet Union together bear much of the responsibility for the jingoistic tone of modern politics.

9/11:
Under the impression that the only way to air their political differences with America was by bombardment, ...

Lesson Three:

DO UNTO OTHER NATIONS AS...

The Problem:
In the 20th century, enemy bombs never fell on the soil of a US state (Hawaii was simply a territory at the time of Pearl Harbor. as was Alaska during fighting in the Aleutians.) Bombs never fell on the contiguous, continental United States. And yet, we continuously dropped untold ammounts of ordinance on the major cities of foreign countries around the world. Those who disagreed with us risked our bombardment. America and the Soviet Union together bear much of the responsibility for the jingoistic tone of modern politics.

9/11:
Under the impression that the only way to air their political differences with America was by bombardment, and feeling that if they did not attack us, we would continue to attack them, Al Qaeda bombed America in 2001. They were simply playing by the rules of the game that we had long ago established: to communicate your political differences all you need to do is kill thousands of people and annihilate the modern buildings of a country's most populous city. This was our stated strategy in the bombings of Germany, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, and Iraq. Al Qaeda simply pursued the same strategy against us.

The Lesson:
If we legitimize the bombing of civilian targets, we can expect others will also bomb civilian targets. If we stoop to their level, they will stoop to our level. Although it was Germany who first pioneered the tactic of bombing civilians, it has since become an American trademark. We must rise above the dirty tactics of the terrorists we denounce if we are to drive them out of global politics.

We cannot expect others to follow a moral example that was never set. If we make moral exceptions for ourselves when it is politically convenient, then you can expect our enemies will make similar exceptions for themselves.

In the war on terror, moral superiority is far more important than military superiority.

Lesson Four:

DESPERATION IS DANGEROUS

The Problem:
Although we put heavily armed Muslims on the front lines of the Cold War in the 1980s, our favor did not extend to helping them in times of peace. The countries who had been our proxies in the fight against the USSR, particularly Afghanistan, fell into crippling poverty, rather than getting their promised share in the American dream. Failed states in the aftermath of the Cold War destabilized the Near East and Central Asia. They had been fighting for the American way of life, but once the fighting was gone, we abandoned them in the dust of the third world.

9/11:
As desperation sinks in, people become easier to manipulate, and more explosi...

Lesson Four:

DESPERATION IS DANGEROUS

The Problem:
Although we put heavily armed Muslims on the front lines of the Cold War in the 1980s, our favor did not extend to helping them in times of peace. The countries who had been our proxies in the fight against the USSR, particularly Afghanistan, fell into crippling poverty, rather than getting their promised share in the American dream. Failed states in the aftermath of the Cold War destabilized the Near East and Central Asia. They had been fighting for the American way of life, but once the fighting was gone, we abandoned them in the dust of the third world.

9/11:
As desperation sinks in, people become easier to manipulate, and more explosively violent. In the power vacuum created by the Soviet collapse and American disinterest, hungry and forgotten people were easily drawn to psychotic demagauges like Bin Laden. In the 21st century, the list of our allies versus enemies in the middle east breaks down along the strikingly stark line of affluence. Countries that have developed and prospered are peaceful and support our mission, countries that remain impoverished have turned against us.

The Lesson:
America must not simply export idealism and bombs. We need to export what people want most: a chance at the American way of life. Although the war in Iraq may have been a violent and misguided attempt to do that, we have failed. We have failed in helping countries who don't help us. We have failed to ensure the minimal standard of living in the third world that can render terrorism obsolete and unappealing.

After all, no body becomes a suicide bomber when they have a good job that puts food on the table and sends their kids to college.

So have we learned the lessons of 9/11?

1. SOLIPSISM
Judging from the Republican convention, as Bush still insists that Iraq was justified, and Lieberman waxes poetic about the "victory" we have achieved, my guess is that we are just as solipsistic as ever. Never mind what is going on in the actual Iraq, if we think of the war as justified, and think of the surge as a victory, then that is enough for us to start patting each other on the back.

This kind of self-congratulatory delusion places America in danger. If the first rule of war is "know your enemy" then we haven't got a chance.

2. VALUES
When we attacked Iraq on false pretenses, it left the rest of the world guessing as to what our...

So have we learned the lessons of 9/11?

1. SOLIPSISM
Judging from the Republican convention, as Bush still insists that Iraq was justified, and Lieberman waxes poetic about the "victory" we have achieved, my guess is that we are just as solipsistic as ever. Never mind what is going on in the actual Iraq, if we think of the war as justified, and think of the surge as a victory, then that is enough for us to start patting each other on the back.

This kind of self-congratulatory delusion places America in danger. If the first rule of war is "know your enemy" then we haven't got a chance.

2. VALUES
When we attacked Iraq on false pretenses, it left the rest of the world guessing as to what our real motivation was. The universal conclusion was oil. Although I don't believe this myself, the Bush administration has done a very poor job of convincing the world otherwise. When we demanded that the new governments of Afghanistan and Iraq elect officials who we approved, rather than ones that the people supported, we showed that our commitment wasn't to democracy. Since then, we have allowed the world to see these governments as puppet states and American proxies - adding fuel to the fire of insurgency in both countries that appears unlikely to die down any time soon.

3. MORAL SUPERIORITY
Although the terrorists have crossed moral lines by bombing civilian targets, in our fight on terror we have also bombed civilian targets. What is more, we have committed moral transgressions that no terrorist would consider doing, such as using torture and sexual humiliation as interrogation techniques in our Orwellian prison camps. In the Islamic world it is often felt that although terrorists may be bad people, they at least have more honor than American soldiers, who invade homes, torture innocent civilians, and even rape and murder.

The fact that we have done nothing significant to redress this view of Americans is abominable.

While we should be prepared we should not sacrifice our liberties and luxuries for a sense of well-being. Well-being should be the standard.
Supporting our leaders should not be a job. Leaders protecting us should not be a task that we must attend - it should be done silently and done right.
I have an anti-virus that works by itself without any help from me. I don't wish to attend my antivirus. I paid it to protect me and it does. I don't want it to ask me if I want it to protect me today, I expect it to, all by its lonesome.
I expect our government to protect me too. I don't want to be involved in the protection process. I expect it to do that on its own.
I bought my computer to do things...

While we should be prepared we should not sacrifice our liberties and luxuries for a sense of well-being. Well-being should be the standard.
Supporting our leaders should not be a job. Leaders protecting us should not be a task that we must attend - it should be done silently and done right.
I have an anti-virus that works by itself without any help from me. I don't wish to attend my antivirus. I paid it to protect me and it does. I don't want it to ask me if I want it to protect me today, I expect it to, all by its lonesome.
I expect our government to protect me too. I don't want to be involved in the protection process. I expect it to do that on its own.
I bought my computer to do things with it. I bought my AV to protect my computer so I can use it. I don't want to be chained to a protection routine, I just want to use it.
I elect my government to care for and protect me so I can live. I don't want to live my life chained to assisting my government to do its job. I just want to live my life.
Seems like I subscribed to an incompetent government.