Pippy,
I have no disagreement that the reaction to the events was completely out of hand. I agree with you that the basis for the Iraq war was illegal (although I think bringing down Saddam has done only good). However there is a difference between the position of "the 9/11 event was planned by the government / is being covered up by the government" and the position of "the way the government handled 9/11 was wrong".
Yes, America put all the blame on the wrong people, but there are two ways of looking at it:
1) Either America set 9/11 in motion, attacking their own country, killing their own citizens (or even just allowing it to happen, which is worse IMO) to attack foreign countries like Afghanistan & Iraq.
2) 9/11 happened because terrorists planned it and executed it without the government's knowledge. Once it happened, the government saw the "silver lining"; that with such a devastating attack, the people of America would support any invasion of foreign soil, because it looked like retribution.
It is far more likely, in my opinion, that the government were caught off guard for various reasons (the CIA and FBI are not omniscient after all), and that they saw how to turn such an attack into a reason to go to war to take down old enemies.
I have no disagreement that the reaction to the events was completely out of hand. I agree with you that the basis for the Iraq war was illegal (although I think bringing down Saddam has done only good). However there is a difference between the position of "the 9/11 event was planned by the government / is being covered up by the government" and the position of "the way the government handled 9/11 was wrong".
Yes, America put all the blame on the wrong people, but there are two ways of looking at it:
1) Either America set 9/11 in motion, attacking their own country, killing their own citizens (or even just allowing it to happen, which is worse IMO) to attack foreign countries like Afghanistan & Iraq.
2) 9/11 happened because terrorists planned it and executed it without the government's knowledge. Once it happened, the government saw the "silver lining"; that with such a devastating attack, the people of America would support any invasion of foreign soil, because it looked like retribution.
It is far more likely, in my opinion, that the government were caught off guard for various reasons (the CIA and FBI are not omniscient after all), and that they saw how to turn such an attack into a reason to go to war to take down old enemies.
