After 9-11, what should have happened?

Question

I think we can all now admit that the War in Iraq was a bad idea and that the War in Afghanistan may be a lost cause.

Now before you start in with all of the “Hindsight is 20/20”, and “Monday morning quarterbacking”…, let me tell you we study the past so that we can deal with the future. So as the Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and historian David McCullough said, “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are”. Or more simply put by Thucydides, “History is Philosophy teaching by examples”.

So what examples should be taken from the post 9-11 tragedies that lead towards our failed campaigns? What should have been done differently or not at all? And what can we do to instill this knowledge into future generations?

Answer 1

We responded correctly after 9/11 and went after the Taliban and Osama bin Ladin. We should have confined our efforts to Afghanistan. Not expanding to include some neo-con revenge plot to "redeem the honor of the United States" against a foe that posed no threat to us.

That wasn't even the case though. The people involved lusted after control of the Iraqi oil. They used the neo-cons to their own objective.

They did not learn the lessons of history. You cannot impose a political system foreign to the culture of a people. Democracy and capitalism is not the pinnacle of political development. It is merely one system among many others.

We tried the same thing in Vietnam and failed. Hitler tried it in Europe. If we hadn't the organization and cooperation of the authorities in Japan we would have most assuredly failed. A bitter lesson we are re-learning yet again in Iraq today.

Answer 2

I can't say what should have happened, but I have some thoughts.
For me, a confusing factor was that we were not attacked by a nation, but by another kind of organization. Nothing like this had happened to the US before.
(The WTC had been attacked before, but since the damage was not devastating, and the perp was not a nation, not much was made of it. There was Oklahoma City, but the perp seemed to be a US kook.)
The result was that the population (including the media) didn't know how to react. Were we at war or not? Did our country have an enemy or not? Is it a law enforcement problem?
We have no history with this kind of conflict.
I am not even certain that the actions the US has taken were that much mistaken. It may be simply that the job is harder than people hoped, and we don't know how to evaluate our results.
It's an unfamiliar kind of conflict

Answer 3

The biggest mistake was that a crime was treated as an act of war. When civilians attack civilians, that's crime, not war. We have efficient police agencies to deal successfully with crime, to seek out and apprehend the miscreants and bring them to trial. But Bush reacted to 9/11 by calling it "war" and appointing himself a "wartime president" with all kinds of new powers to control the American people. Last time I read the Constitution it was up to Congress, not the president, to declare war.

The next major mistake was invading Iraq. The attackers of 9/11 were not Iraqis; they were Saudi Arabians. If Osama Bin Laden is responsible for 9/11, as he claims but which cannot be considered proven until there is a trial, then why not go after Osama as a criminal? He seems to be safely in Pakistan.

If there is indeed evidence for Osama's responsibility, as he claims, then it is a disgrace that he is still at large while vast expense and effort is dedicated to beating up on Iraq as if Iraq had attacked us which it never did.

Osama Bin Laden is Saudi Arabian, and the Bush family once had extensive business dealings with the Bin Laden family. Is Bush now protecting Osama Bin Laden and going after Iraq as a distraction? Why is Bush pussyfooting around the fact that Osama is in Pakistan, not Iraq, and that Pakistan is ruled by a dictatorship, not a democracy? If building democracy in the region is a worthy goal, why do it in Iraq instead of Pakistan?

Answer 4

Excellent question! On a side note, David McCullough is a brilliant author & his books give great insight & objectivity into historical events.
As for an answer, I think the lesson that should be learned is to restrict our political & military roles in world affairs. The events that lead up to 9/11 & continue to happen can be directly linked to U.S. foreign policy over the past 40 years. Teddy Roosevelt's policy of isolationism no longer seems like such a bad idea . We are trying to "Globalize" at such a rapid pace, that culture & ideologies are clashing more frequently than before. In my opinion this is creating undue tensions & misunderstanding, as can be seen currently with Iran.
Do we really learn, from history & our mistakes?
The parallels between Iraq & Vietnam are scary!
The Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a former professor of History at Stanford, & judging from her statements & policy it doesn't appear that historical reference plays much of a role in her judgment.
With that said I have faith that America is strong & cooler heads will eventually previal.

Answer 5

Personally I don't think of Afiganistan as a failed campaign, the country is responding and working mostly on its own and its people are out from under a foreign influence- not perfect, but nothing ever is. I do think we jumped the gun in Iraq and now have to deal with the consequence of splitting up the country due to the fighting, cut and run, or stay and level it out (the workings) till a abused and needing people can run it on their own. With many educated and worthy Iraqis out there, one must also see the populace as a group of mentally and physically dominated people who lost a generation or more to Saddams rule of fear and death squads.
Our communications amid our own security and military secters is lacking, though we easily have one of the strongest elite military forces in the world, we must use it to defend and protect and I think keep it a little closer to home.
Our government needs to work its job as leaders and patriots and stop the stupid politics that are wasting our funds, time and killing the belief of the American People. We need to be the greatest example on earth of strength but also understanding, and use our vast, public resources (ie;computer tech,security,modern inventions etc) to benefit and protect us, instead of the arcaic junk the government has.
This also should be used to help immigrants proceed LEGALLY and faster-and prevent illegals.
Most of all- our most profitable source of security against global terror and its harsh roots is KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATION.
PS-Excellent question by the way-

Answer 6

9-11 - the U. S. emergency amenities quantity. The perpetrators of the incident had a extraordinary humorousness. even with the actuality that the term 9-11 is used in the process the international in terms of the terrorist attack on that day, maximum countries truthfully positioned their date any different way around what's September 1st to human beings would be mentioned and written as 1st September in maximum countries which contains uk, Europe and Caribbean

Answer 7

Well for one thing, Giuliani was not a hero of 9/11 and didn't handle the situation. All he did was spend months appearing on tv shows all over the place and talking about the situation. S o anyone who believes he's a hero or handled it in a magnificent way is seriously misled. The real heroes are the families who are brave enough to go on, the police, firemen, first responders, and search and rescue dogs.

Answer 8

Dear Sir
the events of 11\9 is a movie performed by CIA so that when US army invaded what they call the new middle east no american citizen will ask them why because the terror is their at the middle east
the real reason of middle east invasion is to built US military bases in it these bases are very important to USA so that it can provided them with nuclear missiles directed towards CHINA
USA government knew that CHINA is growing faster than USA(economically)so USA take precautions now to prevent CHINA to be a dominant country in the world after say 20 or 30 years
this is the point of view of middle east people which is compeletly different from USA people point of view

Answer 9

I don't agree that these are failed campaigns. Just because a war isn't going well doesn't mean its lost cause. Wars turn around and take time. One strategy doesn't work then you change plans its not a perfect science.

Answer 10

We should have gone into Afghanistan as we did, but we should still be there looking for Osama Bin Laden. He's not in Iraq.