"It Began with Iran"

With those words, the Republicans began their "9/11 Victims Tribute" video.

Iran? Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. Al Qaeda who was responsible (we know the current Republican party doesn't care about science but you'd think recent history...) was not mentioned once.

Iran linked to 9/11. Al Qaeda not even mentioned.

The Bush administration partly justified the invasion of Iraq due to alleged ties to 9/11.

"It began with Iran."

McCain at least is clear, however implicitly. His election = war with Iran.

Do we really need to do this all over again?

Sir Realities

It's Monday, President's Day, the Federal Government has declared a legal holiday and I have to work.

Thus it's ever been on these Faux-Holidays. And these days always take on a surreal feeling as the city feels not like a weekend but not like a workday either. And of course the building cafe is closed interrupting my morning ritual of buying their coffee and flavored water to go with my oatmeal.

Add on top of that a very un-February like day of 65 degree temps and an unsettled feeling in the air; add a dash of not having slept well the past two nights and what you get is a feeling that the world just isn't right. Like you're viewing everything through a lens of surreality.

Days like today remind you what creatures of habit we are; that if even the most trivial and banal matters of routine are interrupted how out of whack things seem. And such is predictability is a hallmark of modern, middle-class life. We not only know where our next meal is coming from, we know how it will taste and how much it will cost.

This is one reason why September 11 left such a scar on our psyche. The attacks threw the world off its predictable pattern. Airplanes weren't supposed to be weapons. You didn't get up to go to a normal workday only to be killed with thousands of your fellow co-workers. Was the Subway safe? Where would a plane crash next? Would the banks be open tomorrow? You literally didn't know what was going to happen next.

I'll take minor surreal days like this faux-holiday to remind me how safe and predictable my life is. And take a moment to be thankful for it and offer a hope that such it will ever be.

Why Not Here?

Eugene Robinson wonders why the US has not seen the same attempted attacks as Britain. He offers one (scary) reason that I suspect is right: our enemies are not going to waste time or resources on such smaller scale things as car bombs. They are biding their time until they can top September 11.

But, in this gloomy time for the Republic, when the president has squandered the good will of the free world and sacrificed our ideals on the false altar of security, Robinson finds something positive to think about this Fourth of July:

The radical, anti-Western, jihadist ideas that inspire would-be suicide bombers in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have a much harder time finding receptive ears here -- even though it's the United States that many Muslims around the world believe is leading a modern-day crusade against Islam. I know there are Muslims here who are bitterly angry about U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush but who do not respond by killing themselves and others.

I think that's because the United States, for all its faults, is still the most inclusive society on Earth. Our nation has a way of making outsiders into participants, a way of convincing people that they are protagonists, not just pawns. The United States can fall short of its promises, but it has a genius for manufacturing possibility. If people have even a glimpse of a better tomorrow, no matter how unbearable today might be, they are less likely to pack a car with explosives and crash it into an airport.

Robinson is on to something -- our first and best defense is our freedom and democratic ideals. Abandoning those is giving true aid and comfort to the enemy. You could learn something here, Mr. Bush.