With the death of Osama bin Laden, can America now face threats to our future more dangerous than al Qaeda — peak oil and climate change?
After the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush called for the American people to show our unity with each other and our defiance of terrorists who would target the American way of life by going shopping. “Get down to Disney World in Florida,” he said. “Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”
This time, no shopping
Last night, President Obama celebrated the kind of unity we experienced as a nation in the wake of 9/11. But thankfully, in his speech Obama didn’t say anything about shopping.
The War on Terror has been dangerous not only to bin Laden and al Qaeda. It has been a drain on the US budget when we can least afford it. And this unending war against enemies foreign and domestic has had a chilling effect on civil liberties and freedom of expression, spawning such abominations as the USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress reauthorized last year under Obama’s watch, as well as no-fly lists and the horror show of Guantanamo Bay.
Yet, reassuringly, last night Obama focused less on security than on making sensible distinctions between friend and enemy. He reaffirmed that the US has not been running a war against Islam, since “bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed al Qaeda slaughtered many scores of Muslims in countries including our own.”
After the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush called for the American people to show our unity with each other and our defiance of terrorists who would target the American way of life by going shopping. “Get down to Disney World in Florida,” he said. “Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.”
This time, no shopping
Last night, President Obama celebrated the kind of unity we experienced as a nation in the wake of 9/11. But thankfully, in his speech Obama didn’t say anything about shopping.
The War on Terror has been dangerous not only to bin Laden and al Qaeda. It has been a drain on the US budget when we can least afford it. And this unending war against enemies foreign and domestic has had a chilling effect on civil liberties and freedom of expression, spawning such abominations as the USA PATRIOT Act, which Congress reauthorized last year under Obama’s watch, as well as no-fly lists and the horror show of Guantanamo Bay.
Yet, reassuringly, last night Obama focused less on security than on making sensible distinctions between friend and enemy. He reaffirmed that the US has not been running a war against Islam, since “bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed al Qaeda slaughtered many scores of Muslims in countries including our own.”
