Chronicling America's 9/11 Descent

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/38362/chronicling-americas-9-11-descent

In retaliation for the terror attacks on Sept. 11, George W. Bush is vowing to strike at a shadowy network of international terrorists reaching into 60 countries. He has called this coming war a "crusade" and has led his friends to believe that he views his new duty as a mission from God.

"I think, in frame, this is what God has asked him to do," a close acquaintance told the New York Times. "It offers him enormous clarity." According to this acquaintance, Bush believes "he has encountered his reason for being, a conviction informed and shaped by the president's own strain of Christianity," the Times reported.

Few Americans would disagree that violent retribution should be inflicted on the masterminds of the mass murders at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - and on those who aided and abetted this crime that killed thousands of people. The unsettling question, which so far few have been willing to voice, is whether Bush is up to this delicate, complex and dangerous job.

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks, it appears that Bush still has little grasp of the long history of frustration that has met previous anti-terrorism campaigns. It’s also unclear whether he recognizes the risks in the geopolitical tradeoffs involved in building an international coalition and the potential costs of an open-ended war.

More at the link --