Winding Up for 9-11

This week is the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. The Washington Post is all over it. So is the Guardian. I suspect the broadcast media will be over the top with specials and a great deal of patriotic jingoism and 9-11 24/7. That aside, it is important to remember and understand what came of those events.

The Post certainly gets it right when it describes America accepting endless war and the dismissal of peace as a naive and impossible goal. That's all too true, a reality that's well presented in an article that also seems to fully accept the "enduring nature" of the threats and the dangerous world that require all manner of military mayhem.

The article tells me that military engagement and use of force is the default policy of the United States. Not surprising, but definitely worrisome and saddening. Worrisome in that extended military hegemony is costly and inevitably unsustainable as rivals will seek to weaken that hegemony.

The sad part is that America engaged in endless war betrays its fundamental ideals and loses the opportunity to build rather than destroy.

Chalk it up as a 9-11 casualty.