Apparently Paul Krugman is taking a lot of heat for words like these on 9/11:
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not saying that he couldn’t have said it more eloquently, and unfortunately I don’t think that for most “in its heart, the nation knows it,” however I still have to support Krugman on this one.
9/11 could have been a time of introspection, of shared grief, of unity. For a short time it was, however as Krugman says:
Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
and:
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
This is all entirely true. It was turned from something that should have mournful and sacred to a twisted mess of hubris and hate. From a source of common purpose, to a source of abject manipulation.
Surely no one could expect that revenge wouldn’t ultimately enter the picture, but America and it’s grief was used, and “used” is the right word, to achieve ends that went infinitely beyond “revenge”, into something far, far darker. Something that stains and perverts what it means to be American to this very day.
Americans, particularly those directly affected by 9/11 certainly have reason to mark the day, as all of us should. However something was lost, corrupted, stolen from them by those who perverted its meaning, turning it into something it should have never been.
So, don’t hate Krugman for giving bringing to the truth here, hate those who with their selfish actions profaned a sacred day.
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