Krugman's Right; These Have Been Bad Years for Us

Paul Krugman, the economic darling of much of the left, is being castigated today for his blog post giving an opinion about the days since Sept. 11, 2001 as being less than exemplary in American history. Let me unequivocally agree with Krugman that these have been years when George Bush's influence on our collective psyche have been at their most tragic.

We have become a nation of cowering, timid citizens eager to surrender their individual rights to the Patriot Act. We have stripped brown people of their civil rights because brown people--a couple dozen brown people--perpetrated the atrocity on 9/11. We have elected morons to Congress (see Morgan Griffith, et al) because they scream that level-headed people like Rick Boucher and Tom Perriello--two of the best representatives of recent decades--are liberals who are soft on terrorism. We have identified terrorism as an opponent and not a tactic and have become cowards in the face of the few people involved in it internationally.


We have spent more than a trillion dollars on wars that can't be won (I'm not sure that any war is ever "won," including the good war, World War II) and blamed a president who had nothing to do with it because our budget is out of whack. We have lost nearly 4,500 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilian lives for vengance, giving little thought to a diplomatic settlement. We allowed a loose cannon in the White House to lie to us in order to start a war, then did not prosecute him nor his war criminal vice president for their war crimes.

We have asked young men and women to go into war zones ill equipped and then cheated them out of medical care and benefits upon their return. We have cared little for their families and, frankly, other than the drum of "I support the troops," have done little to support the troops except talk about it. We continue to fight an enemy we have no chance of understanding (many of the people who could speak the languages of that enemy had to leave the service because they are gay and our bigotry would not tolerate their considerable contribution to saving our kids' lives) and less interest in talking to.

These have not been shining years for the citizens of the United States, nor have they been much good for the government representing those huddled, shivering masses. It's sad to watch a once proud country brought to its knees in every sense by a few box cutters wielded by religious fanatics. And it's just as sad to watch our own Christian nutjobs--the ones we used to laugh at as snake handlers--taking control of our entire government.

And to think that on Sept. 12, 2001, we had one of the most significant opportunities ever presented the leaders of this country to not only bring our divided people together, but to lead the world in practicing sanity.

(Photo: timesunion.com)