Friday, July 31, 2015

The Consolation

     After 9/11 we snapped into paralysis. Americans from all walks of life acquiesced to a jingoist state of obedience with shocking speed. The journalists who were supposed to inform us did not. The leaders we elected to lead us looked to war profiteers for guidance. It was a dull, hard, pitiful 6 years to live through before people, much less the media, would tentatively return to openly criticizing the administration.

     The worst part? I knew that history wouldn't remember them as poachers and repo-men of liberty, but as its champions. Unlucky everymen who, in the face of terror, made some forgivable mistakes in the fight to defend us. Bush would be remembered as a foolish, but brave man who ushered America out of its cold dark night, instead of further into the void.
Our failure to restrain the war machine, and confront the exploitation of weaker states that is the true cause of terror, slyly excised from the record.

     Only in the past few years have I begun to think that this won't be the last word. I hear my friends scoffing, but it's true. It won't bring anyone back, or secure the future, but they will be remembered as failed imperialists and looters of the public. That's not much, but I haven't looked forward to that much in years.


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