The second greatest generation
Yes, this is exactly right.
The culture wars of the nineties and the divided election of 2000 were signs of a country so dysfunctional and divided that we couldn't even properly elect a president. For many, the attacks of September 11, 2001 were a blessing in disguise. That day left a grieving, wounded nation, but one with unity of purpose. To heal. And to rip out the means by which terrorists came to be piloting four jetliners with deadly purpose.
George W. Bush, several days after the fact, could stand atop the still smoking wreckage of The World Trade Center and heroically respond, "I can hear you" to firefighters demanding revenge. And the country rallied.
It was our Greatest Generation moment. After the last decade of strife and purposeless cultural clashes, we had something to do. On Monday, September 10, 2001, the Bush administration was drifting, unable to build any momentum on its domestic agenda. On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, he too had something to do.
We wanted to give blood, but there wasn't anyone to give it to. We wanted to sacrifice, but raising taxes might have shaken further a shaky economy. We wanted to be like our Moms and Dads, our Grandparents, with Victory Gardens and rationing cards, etc.
So, when all we got was Afghanistan and a call to go shopping it was something of a letdown. "The War on Terror" sounded impressive and all, but the reality of going after "Arab Afghans" in the caves of Tora Bora was not quite the stage many of us imagined when we wondered how we'd act on the beaches of Normandy or just keeping the home fires burning for our boys "over there."
We needed a more formidable -- or at least more tangible -- enemy. We needed our own dictators to fight for world domination. So we got our Axis. Our Czechoslovakia.
Iraq was supposed to be that. We would be making the world safe for Democracy, bringing down a dictator, and erasing the blight of Vietnam and the dissatisfaction of the first Gulf War, all in front of our very own embedded Ernie Pyles.
I think that's why the momentum for the invasion seemed so unstoppable at the time. Too many politicians bought into a fantasy that this was their chance to emulate the politicians who in the 1940s reshaped America's role in the world by single-handedly saving it (or so they think). Their collective enthusiasm for this, supported by an administration packaging uncertain intelligence with lies about Iraq and al Qaeda, and spurred on by a press corps aroused by the idea of "wartime Washington" and combat school for journalists, made getting an American public onboard easy. So many of us were already eager for a national purpose, for destiny, so the basic ingredients were already there.
What this disastrous war in Iraq is going to do to our national psyche will be something to behold. To think that there are many -- some even elected to national office -- for whom the shame of Vietnam never went away, still stung for having had other priorities than serving at the time, or feeling betrayed by the politicians or the hippies or whatever that "lost" that war. What Iraq will do to those who saw this as their chance to take the mantle from The Greatest Generation is something I shudder to think about.
It's no wonder George W. Bush is so adamant about keeping his delusions intact. I would too. His natural defenses know that the psychic damage otherwise would be too great. What idiots like Russert use as an excuse, I have no idea.
This is what Barnicle and Russert call wisdom --- Thomas Kincaide kitch in which sacrifice is not having any nylons or condiments on the dinner table. I think they are fairly typical of the ruling class in this country who really believed that this could be their WWII. There would be no messy counter culture this time, no rebellion, no complaints. Their biggest disappointment isn't that it's become a bloody meatgrinder and a foreign policy disaster. It's that people aren't coming together to sing "Hut Sut Ralston On The Rillaragh" and painting lines down the back of their legs so people would think they are wearing seamed stockings. It just seems like that was such good fun. The more than 60 million dead were a small price to pay for such togetherness. And maybe, when the new war is over, everyone will get oscars instead of medals.
The culture wars of the nineties and the divided election of 2000 were signs of a country so dysfunctional and divided that we couldn't even properly elect a president. For many, the attacks of September 11, 2001 were a blessing in disguise. That day left a grieving, wounded nation, but one with unity of purpose. To heal. And to rip out the means by which terrorists came to be piloting four jetliners with deadly purpose.
George W. Bush, several days after the fact, could stand atop the still smoking wreckage of The World Trade Center and heroically respond, "I can hear you" to firefighters demanding revenge. And the country rallied.
It was our Greatest Generation moment. After the last decade of strife and purposeless cultural clashes, we had something to do. On Monday, September 10, 2001, the Bush administration was drifting, unable to build any momentum on its domestic agenda. On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, he too had something to do.
We wanted to give blood, but there wasn't anyone to give it to. We wanted to sacrifice, but raising taxes might have shaken further a shaky economy. We wanted to be like our Moms and Dads, our Grandparents, with Victory Gardens and rationing cards, etc.
So, when all we got was Afghanistan and a call to go shopping it was something of a letdown. "The War on Terror" sounded impressive and all, but the reality of going after "Arab Afghans" in the caves of Tora Bora was not quite the stage many of us imagined when we wondered how we'd act on the beaches of Normandy or just keeping the home fires burning for our boys "over there."
We needed a more formidable -- or at least more tangible -- enemy. We needed our own dictators to fight for world domination. So we got our Axis. Our Czechoslovakia.
Iraq was supposed to be that. We would be making the world safe for Democracy, bringing down a dictator, and erasing the blight of Vietnam and the dissatisfaction of the first Gulf War, all in front of our very own embedded Ernie Pyles.
I think that's why the momentum for the invasion seemed so unstoppable at the time. Too many politicians bought into a fantasy that this was their chance to emulate the politicians who in the 1940s reshaped America's role in the world by single-handedly saving it (or so they think). Their collective enthusiasm for this, supported by an administration packaging uncertain intelligence with lies about Iraq and al Qaeda, and spurred on by a press corps aroused by the idea of "wartime Washington" and combat school for journalists, made getting an American public onboard easy. So many of us were already eager for a national purpose, for destiny, so the basic ingredients were already there.
What this disastrous war in Iraq is going to do to our national psyche will be something to behold. To think that there are many -- some even elected to national office -- for whom the shame of Vietnam never went away, still stung for having had other priorities than serving at the time, or feeling betrayed by the politicians or the hippies or whatever that "lost" that war. What Iraq will do to those who saw this as their chance to take the mantle from The Greatest Generation is something I shudder to think about.
It's no wonder George W. Bush is so adamant about keeping his delusions intact. I would too. His natural defenses know that the psychic damage otherwise would be too great. What idiots like Russert use as an excuse, I have no idea.
posted by John at 5:29 PM
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