“What caused all of this to happen?”
By “all of this,” I am referring to market distortions, great recessions, housing crises, military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, a debt problem that is getting more indebted, inflation, and the European crisis.__Here is the answer in short order:
9-11.
But first, a little background.__Defined by President Clinton's Oval Office infidelities and dot.com prosperity, the secure decade of the 1990s was distracted by a preliminary victory in Iraq (Desert Storm) followed by skirmishes in Bosnia and Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks in Africa. Unaware, the United States had a confused paramilitary community, with the FBI and the CIA not talking to each other. This complacency came to a jarring halt with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. About 3,000 people died on that day, September 2001, and the ball started rolling._
No Problem Obtaining Credit
How did our leaders interpret this attack? They determined that the terrorists instigated a violent attempt to stifle the American Dream of Peace and Prosperity. In reaction to the closed markets and the massive sell-off following the attack, the federal government brought interest rates to an all-time low to restore spending to an all-time high. For the next five years, the Bush administration would advance a policy in which every American could own his own home. A home speaks of security and legacy, both of which were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The government wanted to allay fears and stifle any future shocks to this country's identity._Bush's domestic policy would provide ample credit for purchasing to assuage any fears, but the vague yet vast foreign threat also needed to be neutralized.
A nation caught napping for one decade entered into a decade of perpetual fighting, the “War on Terror.” This state of hyper-vigilance sent troops into Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires, and then back to Iraq to finish what Operation Desert Storm had started. _Bush II seemed outmatched and overwhelmed by the role of governing. Resentment abounded that Bush had “stolen” the election. The waning electorate still was whining about the Florida recount. The disputed leadership, the disputed allocation of votes, and then 9-11: A latent fear of disorder manifested in this country._Rather than responding to a culture conscious of fear and insecurity, Bush overreacted, sending an overblown message to the world: “Don’t mess with us!” (or perhaps: “Don’t mess with me!”)
Root of Our Panic Lies in Bush
His policies, sadly, have messed with us greatly, and the effects linger even now. Two wars in the Middle East, with growing anti-American sentiment and tribal rivalries tearing up the region, and the ongoing quagmire in Afghanistan, have made us less safe, followed by the Housing Crisis to Great Recession to Anemic Recovery, which have made us less secure._ The panic mode instigated by Bush and the political class resembled the fight-of-flight impulse lingering in trauma victims. Our bodies have a horrid tendency to condemn us over one trauma, so that every likely subsequent encounter triggers this impulse to tussle or take off. A stable identity in something stronger, greater, than ourselves, a commitment to a cultural polity which withstands our thoughts, our feelings, or the winds and waves of public opinion is called for. George W. Bush went with his gut, and the nation got punched in the gut with poor economic and foreign policies.__Brute cowboy force never was the way to go. Republicans and conservatives cringed as “Big Government got Bigger” under George W. Bush. Two statist platforms in the 2004 election left the nation choosing four more years of the same: “How can 50,000,000 be wrong?!” one British newspaper screamed in its headline when Bush won reelection.
Government Wrong Place to Look
The people in this country saw a slightly better scenario in extending the administration of a President who “kept us safe.”__Bush's policies created a presence of security. But it did not last, nor could the 43rd President ever have hoped to promote it long term. Government cannot minister to individuals a spirit of security. This stability rests in our views, our values, our faith. Ironically, faith in government reached a golden-calf status under Bush II. President Obama just added more metal to the idol.___
Another 9-11, the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya, has reinforced the disillusion of the past decades’ failed policies to secure us. But 9-11-01 set the ball rolling for what’s happening now. Now the United States is learning that even force, even the state, has its limits, and now needs care and protection as much as we had sought in the previous decade. Easy credit, world wars, the idealized foreign policy which depended on the proliferation of “democracy” where tyranny reigned unchecked: All of this attempted to prevent the plunging economy, the growing debt, and a foreign policy that currently impoverishes the United States and endangers us at the same time._
Mr. Schaper of Torrance, a teacher turned writer “on all topics timely and timeless,” may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com
