9/11 Forced Us Back To Reality

02 Oct, 2002 by John Hawkins

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9/11 Forced Us Back To Reality: For the most part, the eighties and nineties were a time of peace and prosperity for the United States. Reagan repaired the damage Carter did the economy and got us moving in the right direction again. Bush won an almost ‘bloodless’ Gulf War and presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union (although Reagan did the real work). Clinton coasted and lied his way through another prosperous eight years and life was good.

But as Herbert Spencer said, “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”

All of our success did indeed “fill the world with fools” and their foolish ideas — until 9/11 happened and changed everything. Here are some of the fallacies that were taking root pre-9/11 in America…

Before 9/11 — People were pushing multiculturalism and telling us that the all cultures were equal.

After 9/11 — Americans for the first time in recent memory started paying attention to other cultures and came to the conclusion that no, they’re not all equal. Cultures that produce Pakistani tribesmen who sentence women to be gangraped and oppressive thugs who force women to wear burqas are not our equal.

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Before 9/11 — The United States and Europe were strong allies who might squabble but would ultimately cooperate in crisis

After 9/11 — Europe (other than Britain) are no longer reliable allies now that the Soviet Union has collapsed.

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Before 9/11 — We needed to pay attention to the UN and try to work with them on any sort of military action.

After 9/11 — The UN is no more relevant than the League of Nations was. Their opinion really doesn’t matter that much anymore.

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Before 9/11 — Nations like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt were our friends

After 9/11 — The US has no nations that are friendly to us run by dictators. In fact, it’s in our interests to see every nation in the Middle East become a Democracy.

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Before 9/11 — After the Gulf War, Somalia, Kosovo, and Bosnia the Democrats have shaken their “it’s going to be another Vietnam” reaction to every crisis requiring the use of the military…

After 9/11 Between Al Gore’s flip-flop on Iraq, Daschle’s hysterical shrieking on the Senate floor, and David Bonoir and Jim McDermott giving ‘aid and comfort’ to the enemy in Baghdad, Democrats have revealed themselves to be just as untrustworthy on national defense as they ever were.

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Fallacies like these die slowly but they are dying and they will continue to fade away until they’re gone.