The Years of Shame-KRUGMAN: 9/11 made Bush, Giuliani etc ‘fake heroes - Who Cashed In On Horror'

[kpete]

September 11, 2011, 8:41 AM
The Years of Shame
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?

Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. 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.

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?

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 going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/the-years-of-shame/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/11/krugman-911-made-bush-giuliani-become-fake-heroes/

[90-percent]

1. My pat answer:

OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH GREEDY AND CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS

In my opinion, well over half of all Americans know this.

We are sheep.

-90% jimmy

[edhopper]

2. "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?"

He's taling to you Thomas Friedman!

[russspeakeasy]

28. they didn't turn a" blind eye." their 20/20 vision was on their ..

:evilgrin: blooming bank accounts and investments..

[Kolesar]

3. Krugman should have hundreds of recommendations...eom

[mod mom]

25. and he should be an advisor to the Obama Administration!

If only they had listened to him. :mad:

[Greybnk48]

4. I agree 100%. n/t

[iemitsu]

5. kpete, i'm glad that it wasn't you who isn't going to allow comments

but it is obvious why krugman wouldn't want to allow them.
this is the sort of honest observation that convinces american readers to discredit the author.
the comments would likely reveal that krugman's readers would understand this musing as an admission that he had been beamed aboard a space ship and probed by aliens.
the sane voice is easily muffled by the din in the asylum.

[Romulox]

6. We're STILL warring on the Mid East. Didn't end with Bush. nt

[spanone]

7. k&r...

[Stargleamer]

8. Why Bush's Approval rating went up to 90% afterwards. . .

I could never understand. All he did was give the obligatory speech into a bullhorn, something any politician would have done.

And then later he said of Osama, "frankly, I'm not that concerned with him", after denying he said anything like that in his debate with Kerry. Why Kerry didn't repeatedly show him lying in subsequent ads, I'll never understand either.

[gulliver]

9. Yup, I was a proud 10%-er.

Bush's security team dropped the ball, and they were rewarded, not blamed. Then, you're right, Bush said he was just not that concerned about Bin Laden when Bin Laden was a source of blame. But after President Obama's team caught Bin Laden, Bush and his team suddenly became concerned and remembered how concerned they had always been.

[sabrina 1]

16. I was part of the 10% also. I just knew they would use it to

start killing people somewhere. I remember a beautiful Afghan woman writing an article pleading for peace, not to add to the tragedy, but of course she was ignored.

I was posting on a rightwing dominated board at the time, and believe it or not, they were not pushing for war, not until they were told to. For a few weeks we actually had relatively rational discussions about what to do about it. But then, you could not oppose the wars without being called a traitor. It was amazing to see how easily the propaganda (which the spent millions on we learned later, re the Rendon Group) worked.

I wonder though, if a Democrat had been in the WH and done the same thing, how many Liberals who opposed it under Bush, would have opposed it under a Democrat?

[renate]

29. I was a 10%-er, too, though not because I was as perceptive as you were

Well, I guess I realized they'd start killing some people somewhere, but I was okay with the idea of going after the Taliban and didn't think there'd be any civilian deaths.

For me, the reason I was part of the 10% is that I hadn't liked Bush before 9/11, and I didn't think that he suddenly became awesome just because someone attacked our country--one of these things has nothing to do with the other. :shrug: Just that simple, and I didn't understand people, especially Democrats, who in a moment of extreme patriotism confused the United States with its president.

[barbtries]

24. i put a poll on my blog

because i could not believe that number. most of the people i spoke with knew better than to say the man was doing a good job, at least to me.

[pa28]

10. Maybe that's the real reason I wanted to avoid 911 coverage today.

You can't think about the event without thinking the disaster that followed. The war, the conversion of mass media to state TV, the use of "united we stand" as a political vehicle and, of course, the people who would say "Thank god Al Gore lost! Could you imagine!"

:mad:

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. Exactly

And to be honest many, many people far less famous or infamous were so willingly duped into reacting, behaving and thinking so very badly. I would only hope that if such an event should happen again - which is all too probable sooner or later - people at all levels would be a bit more skeptical a bit more rational and react a bit less emotional.

[texpatriot2004]

12. Thanks so much for posting this article. I think Krugman is

correct. I was in the minority during those times. I was anti-B*sh from before 2000. It was a repulsive thing for me to watch all that glad-handing and jingoism. Thank God for DU especially during those years.

[jannyk]

13. K&R!

[JI7]

14. Giuliani especially, but it makes me happy that fucker went down in the Republican Primary

but the reason he went down was because he was too pro gay , pro abortion etc. not because he was a 9/11 exploiting whore.

[Auntie Bush]

18. And the asshole is thinking about running again!

I'm glad the TV didn't make him a hero today. Thank goodness he hardly got any press.

[leftstreet]

15. K&R

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. knr

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. kick and recommend

[Hart2008]

20. And the man who predicted it all gets ignored.

See related discussion:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1918231

[Raster]

21. This editorial by Krugman is simple, to the point and right on the money.

The USA changed with 9/11, and not in a good way. We need to go back ten years and re-examine EVERY ASPECT AND DETAIL concerning 9/11, irregardless where the details may lead.

[Supersedeas]

22. the memory of 9/11 is colored by the tinge of August 6, 2011

[Broderick]

23. The ghoul

Giuliani, most definitely profited off this thing, cashed in so to speak. I don't know if he is capable of talking about anything else.

[Rex]

26. Actually, the M$M made them heroes. Not 9/11.

9/11 was the 'Pear Harbor' PNAC needed so badly to start their global domination of the worlds energy markets. They new it was cavalier to ride into Iraq without a credible reason, but they did it anyway. I think that caused a lot of tarnish on those shiny hero badges. The fact that we are still there 8 years later doesn't help. The M$M gets paid large amounts of money to prop up the petty and evil.

[woo me with science]

27. K&R