Normally agree with Paul Krugman but not here. He's flat-out wrong.

[Drunken Irishman]

Link to tweet

There was nothing calm about America's response to 9/11. It was an era of false patriotism, attacks on Muslims, profiling, the expansion of civil rights eroding legislation and the outright demonization of anyone who dared criticize Bush.

I still will never forget what the likes of Rick Wilson did to Max Cleland because he had the audacity to oppose parts of the Patriot Act.

America post-9/11 laid the groundwork for the Trump presidency, as it's conditioned us to accept authoritative rule.

Yes, great, Americans were great for the first week after 9/11 and we all loved each other and united. But the next week? The next year? The next decade?

9/11 and the jingoism that it laid bare has done more to divide this nation than any event since the Civil War.

[Claustrum]

1. LOL... was he around the years after 9/11 and the constant news about attacks on Muslims?

For me, I remember them vividly. It isn't until this few years that it seems to have subsided.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Bush did make statements defending Muslims that Trump is incapable of making

Which is the main point of that tweet.

[SunSeeker]

23. I think that cost him with his racist base.

His approval rating subsequently plummeted to the low 20s, exacerbated by a recession, revelation of no MWDs in Iraq, and Katrina.

[BeyondGeography]

26. I agree...and therein lies the final descent of the GOP

JMHO, but we saw it later with McCain refusing to go full racist with Obama while covering his right flank with Palin, followed by the tepid response of the base to Romney and the rejection of comparatively moderate alternatives to Trump.

Keep in mind that Bush was making these statements right after 9/11. Impossible to imagine a Republican President doing something remotely similar 20 years later and/or post-Trump.

[walkingman]

3. "W" is not deserving of any praise at all. He is responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent

people being killed because of his lies and the patriot act is possibly the worst legislation ever passed. That says nothing about the tax cuts while at war and the Great Recession. Bush and his cronies are indirectly responsible for creating this cult of morons that we continue to have in government.

Forgot to mention that "W" is also responsible for giving us Texans Rick Perry and that band of hucksters we continue to have remnants of since 1994.

[Le Roi de Pot]

4. Obama praised Bush on his health initiatives in Africa

Credit where Credit is due.


On Iraq .. He was an Idiot and got suckered by Cheney/ Rumsfeld

He realized that and marginalized them 2nd term.

[walkingman]

16. Tell that to the thousands of families whose loved ones were killed, both US and Iraqi lives.

The President does not get a pass on bad decisions that he is responsible for. There should be people sitting in prison for his actions. IT is just an example of our two different justice systems we have in America. If you have influence you are given a pass if not you suffer.

Maybe if there we real repercussions these needless and neverending wars would never start.

If you do a thousand things wrong and then do one good thing that does not excuse your actions.

[CaptainTruth]

19. If only our press had reported on the PNAC & their agenda...

Millions of other Americans would have known what I knew at the time & saw their lies for what they were.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. This is an irresponsibly bad take.

[Dem2]

6. Comparatively speaking...

He's making a somewhat reasonable point; but in absolute terms he's missing the mark.

[betsuni]

7. "Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly."

WTF NO.

[KG]

8. it unleashed an endless war on the rest of the world, killing or displacing millions

[BannonsLiver]

9. He's flat out wrong on the anti Muslim sentiment

It was thick and I remember it well. He is however reasonably close to the mark about Bush.

[Mordred]

10. Tell that to Balbir Singh Sodhi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Balbir_Singh_Sodhi

[coti]

11. The Iraq invasion, in particular, was allowed because of post-9/11 prejudices

and was an absolute travesty.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. He is absolutely wrong.

9/11 became that line in the sand where racist White Americans began to show their disgust for anyone who was dark skinned.

I remember being in a Piano bar in Central Florida that attracted military and hardcore conservatives. They would bang out patriotic music and fighting songs, and I remember more than a few sneers and looks of disgust directed my way.

It was the moment I realized that I couldn't even enjoy the only upside of being marginalized: becoming invisible.

[BlueWavePsych]

13. I won't forget ...

I won't forget Dubya's Orange Alerts to terrify people for political gain.

I won't forget Dubya's Coalition of the Willing that demonized the UN (with Bolton at the helm).

I won't forget the fabricated WMD intelligence to attack Iraq and needlessly puts our troops in Vietnam 2.0.

I won't forget all of the above giving birth to the Arab Spring and ISIS.

I won't forget how he and his neocons generally made the world a less safer place for our children .

... and so much more!

[Evolve Dammit]

18. Me neither. Colin Powell's testimony, Tom Ridge and his plastic sheeting, Ken Lay's desk at the WH..

Blew up the Middle East and didn't "own it" as Powell foretold. Attacked the wrong fucking country deliberately, displacing millions for a country that Rummy sold weapons to when they were useful against Iran. How about the facts fixed around the policy (Downing Street memo)? JHC.

[CaptainTruth]

21. I won't forget what the PNAC crew wrote back in 2000...

... that they needed "some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor" as an excuse to invade Iraq & begin carrying out their goal of "transforming the Middle East" via military force, & then they ignored all warnings that the 9/11 attack was coming. They (PNAC members Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, etc) needed their "new Pearl Harbor" ... so they ignored the warnings & let it happen, on purpose (LIHOP).

Our press was asleep at the wheel & failed to report on the PNAC, what they wrote & did (2 letters to Bill Clinton trying to convince him to invade Iraq), how they filled the GW Bush administration, & how the PNAC agenda became the Bush administration agenda.

[Tom Traubert]

14. It's all relative

The attacks on Muslims and persons of color have been far worse under the Trump regime, and the proliferation of white supremacist domestic terrorist organizations that are actively incited by Trump make me long for the days of the Dubya Presidency. I don’t think Krugman is wrong. But neither period was great.

[aidbo]

15. Krugman is the main character on twitter today.

Link to tweet

[crickets]

17. Bless his heart. nt

[BigDemVoter]

20. Oh Yes.

I CLEARLY remember the absolute and utter lies made by Cheney, GWB, Rumsfeld and company. . . Non-stop fabrication. . . It was disgusting.

[Ohioboy]

22. Hate radio didn't waste any time falsely blaming the attacks on liberal policies

911 was a boon to hate radio, and a big reason we are divided today. For weeks people tuned in to hear news about attacks and got the likes of Limbaugh, Beck and the rest opining incessantly about how Democrats and Liberals were to blame. I heard them. For many it was probably the first time they had been exposed to right-wing bullshit, and under the circumstances they were willing to swallow the narrative.

[lunatica]

24. There are some great responses in this thread

I agree with them then and now.

[bucolic_frolic]

25. The world is more nuanced than black and white

Krugman has a bit of a halcyon view on 9-11, at least in that post. But he does explain further.

[Nitram]

27. Drunken, I agree. Conservatives, egged on by Fox, became very anti-Muslim, and decided

we were in a war with Islam. The Bush administration arrested Muslims all over the place. The no-fly list was over-populated, and they constantly made mistakes with air travelers. They sent us into a Code Red terrorist alert every time Democrats got an advantage. There was ridiculous talk, again egged on by Fox, that communities were instituting Sharia Law. Communities denied permits to build mosques. Conservatives started displaying American flags everywhere. The term "flag wavers" used to be pejorative, now it was proof of patriotism.

Krugman is great on economics, but he has this 100% wrong. Probably selective memory and a tendency to forget about the bad stuff.

[drmeow]

28. I lived in a civil war zone

For about 9 months. The first major event in the capital during that civil war occurred right across the street from the apartment I was living in.

Americans FREAKED OUT over 9/11 because we've always been able to take our wars elsewhere. We have no real understanding of what war is like which is part of why we're so eager to wage it. When someone brought a tiny piece of war to us, we lost our fucking minds.