Is it better to be lucky then good?
It's been five years since the worst day in our nation's history. On the evening of that horrible day, as candlelight vigils took place all over the world, from Manhattan to Iran (!) one thing seemed pretty obvious...that we would undoubtedly be attacked again.
Since then, we've done a lot of stuff wrong. We've spent tons of money on security, but most of it is being allocated "pork-style" with plenty of cash going to protect terrorist "targets" in rural states (i.e. the Wyoming State Fair) and not nearly enough towards protecting real targets in big cities (i.e. the New York subway). The Department of Homeland Security has turned into a giant boondoggle of make-work and convoluted confusion that would be comical if it weren't so life-and-death serious. In actual military work, we let Bin Laden get away and we've gotten bogged down in a jihadist's wet dream of a fiasco in Iraq, bleeding untold quantities of blood and treasure for an impossible goal. We've managed to piss off most of the world, and have put up with war-like curtailments on civil liberties at home for a war that is undeclared and with no forseeeable end. Yet the political leadership demands no other sacrifice from our citizens and in fact has passed increasing largesse upon the richest Americans. Any ephemeral unity that developed immediately after the attacks was quickly replaced with partisan divisions as the far left ("Jews") and far right ("gays") found easier enemies to attack right here at home. And preventative security? Somewhere between "Gitmo" and being forced to dump your soft drink before boarding a flight there are good ideas somewhere, but the skittish, reactive farce now passing for security is not it.
So, it's five years later. Gas is considered "cheap" if it drops below $2.50 a gallon. Events in the Middle East have played out according to both radical Islmaic and fundamentalist Christian doctine (kinda ironic that it is one and the same in those areas!) The latest news out of Afghanistan (one of the war's early success stories) is that the infamous Society for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue is back in business -- at the invitation of the 'democratic' government we helped install. The one event since 9/11 where the Federal Government was called upon to aid thousands of citizens in need (Katrina), they failed miderably. We've been told to prepare...by a simplistic and often inaccurate web site filled with advice about duct-taping windows. And in New York City, the spot where the World Trade Center stood is still a hole in the ground. No new tower has risen majestically to announce to the world that we are back.
And yet, five years later, one strange fact stands out:
We have not been attacked again.
Maybe there's some real effective hidden security and police work going on behind the scenes that we have no idea about. Or maybe we've had the luck of a drunk man and it will change tomorrow. Maybe Jack Bauer will save us again and again.
But for now, we have stayed safe for 5 full years. And for that I thank Lady Luck, I thank Providence. If he had anything to do with it, I'll even thank President Bush.
It is better to be lucky then good.
It's been five years since the worst day in our nation's history. On the evening of that horrible day, as candlelight vigils took place all over the world, from Manhattan to Iran (!) one thing seemed pretty obvious...that we would undoubtedly be attacked again.
Since then, we've done a lot of stuff wrong. We've spent tons of money on security, but most of it is being allocated "pork-style" with plenty of cash going to protect terrorist "targets" in rural states (i.e. the Wyoming State Fair) and not nearly enough towards protecting real targets in big cities (i.e. the New York subway). The Department of Homeland Security has turned into a giant boondoggle of make-work and convoluted confusion that would be comical if it weren't so life-and-death serious. In actual military work, we let Bin Laden get away and we've gotten bogged down in a jihadist's wet dream of a fiasco in Iraq, bleeding untold quantities of blood and treasure for an impossible goal. We've managed to piss off most of the world, and have put up with war-like curtailments on civil liberties at home for a war that is undeclared and with no forseeeable end. Yet the political leadership demands no other sacrifice from our citizens and in fact has passed increasing largesse upon the richest Americans. Any ephemeral unity that developed immediately after the attacks was quickly replaced with partisan divisions as the far left ("Jews") and far right ("gays") found easier enemies to attack right here at home. And preventative security? Somewhere between "Gitmo" and being forced to dump your soft drink before boarding a flight there are good ideas somewhere, but the skittish, reactive farce now passing for security is not it.
So, it's five years later. Gas is considered "cheap" if it drops below $2.50 a gallon. Events in the Middle East have played out according to both radical Islmaic and fundamentalist Christian doctine (kinda ironic that it is one and the same in those areas!) The latest news out of Afghanistan (one of the war's early success stories) is that the infamous Society for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue is back in business -- at the invitation of the 'democratic' government we helped install. The one event since 9/11 where the Federal Government was called upon to aid thousands of citizens in need (Katrina), they failed miderably. We've been told to prepare...by a simplistic and often inaccurate web site filled with advice about duct-taping windows. And in New York City, the spot where the World Trade Center stood is still a hole in the ground. No new tower has risen majestically to announce to the world that we are back.
And yet, five years later, one strange fact stands out:
We have not been attacked again.
Maybe there's some real effective hidden security and police work going on behind the scenes that we have no idea about. Or maybe we've had the luck of a drunk man and it will change tomorrow. Maybe Jack Bauer will save us again and again.
But for now, we have stayed safe for 5 full years. And for that I thank Lady Luck, I thank Providence. If he had anything to do with it, I'll even thank President Bush.
It is better to be lucky then good.
posted by Mike at
8:07 AM
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