This passage jumped out at me from Fareed Zakaria’s most recent Washington Post column:
The president is right: The United States made a series of disastrous decisions after 9/11 for which it is still paying a price. It rushed to build a new bureaucracy for “homeland security†comprising hundreds of thousands of people and two dozen organizations. It expanded executive power dramatically, trampling on individual rights, adding to governmental secrecy and sanctioning what many would describe as torture.
Washington’s military strategy was also flawed from the start. Rather than focusing narrowly on the people who planned and executed 9/11, it adopted a vast and ambitious approach that, in President George W. Bush’s words, made “no distinction†between terrorists and “those who harbor them.†So the country went to war not just against al-Qaeda but also against the Taliban, trying to ensure that the latter would never again rule Afghanistan, a goal that entailed a 20-year war that the United States lost. And, of course, it also went to war against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Washington’s response to 9/11 — the wars, the bureaucracy and more — has had a price tag, by one estimate, of $8 trillion.
Since I opposed all of those measures, that naturally caught my attention. IIRC President Biden was serving in the Senate in that period and voted in favor of all of those measures. What were Mr. Zakaria’s views at the time?
He continues:
The point of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. The best response to it is not to lose your head.
Did the U. S. overreact? Or did it misreact? I don’t believe we overreacted to 9/11. We misreacted.
Here’s his advice to President Biden:
In addition to his counsel of caution, Biden should press the Israeli government to provide some political pathway for Palestinian aspirations. For decades, the United States — under both Republican and Democratic administrations — was seen as an effective broker between the two sides. Palestinian officials trusted American diplomats such as Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross and Edward Djerejian because they worked tirelessly to find a negotiated path to a Palestinian state. The United States pressed the PLO to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel, but it also pressed the Israelis to stop building settlements.
All those efforts have petered out as Palestinian leadership proved feckless and Israel has been ruled by a series of right-wing governments that do not believe in a two-state solution, have increased settlements and turned a blind eye to the condition of Palestinians. These are ideal conditions for Hamas, which argues that there is no nonviolent, negotiated solution and that acts of terrorism are the only option.
This is a tall order for American diplomacy. But the alternative is to let this crisis fester, which could easily result in violence that is even worse than what we are seeing now.
to which I can only repeat that the most recent polling information from both Israel and Palestine before Hamas’s attack is that majorities of both believe that the “two state solution” is unworkable. Does Hamas’s attack suggest that majorities now think it’s workable?
Our problem was mission creep – quickly transitioning from destroying the Taliban and AQ to nation-building.
Iraq is similar – the idea that we could create a “beacon of democracy” in the region through force of arms.
I do not think Israel believes in that kind of foolish nonsense.
I tend to think their goals are primarily punitive and restoring strategic deterrence. I don’t think Israel has any interest in occupying Gaza and trying to rule it or transform it. What I think is likely to happen is that Israel will wreck Hamas as much as it can, leave, and then build a bigger wall around Gaza.
Dave Schuler: I don’t believe we overreacted to 9/11. We misreacted.
Invading Iraq in response to 9-11 was clearly an overreaction. Of course the American people were enraged by the attacks. It was up to the leadership to channel that passion into constructive means, which meant bringing the perpetrators to justice. Instead, the Bush administration amplified the rage and diverted it for their own purposes.