{"id":1330,"date":"2015-11-21T05:29:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T12:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2015-11-23T11:34:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T18:34:21","slug":"we-blew-it-after-911-were-blowing-it-again-after-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/?p=1330","title":{"rendered":"We blew it after 9\/11. We\u2019re blowing it again after Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Salon_website_logo\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

We had global goodwill after 9\/11 and squandered it in Iraq. Rage and vengeance is the wrong strategy post-Paris, too<\/h2>\n

BY\u00a0SANDY TOLAN<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sept. 14, 2001,\u00a0800 million Europeans in 43 countries<\/a>\u00a0observed three minutes of silence for the victims of 9\/11. From Europe and around the world came pleas that the U.S. not squander this global goodwill. I recall the\u00a0words of my brother John,\u00a0<\/a>a French-American Medieval scholar and co-author of \u201cEurope and Islam: Fifteen Centuries of History,\u201d who wrote then from France: \u201cThis massive unity of public opinion and political will provides the United States with a tremendous opportunity and risk: the chance to capitalize on this good will and the danger of taking action that will splinter the forces that stand with us now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>

George W. Bush and firefighter Bob Beckwith at the World Trade Center wreckage, Sept. 14, 2001; Donald Trump. (Credit: AP\/Doug Mills\/Carolyn Kaster\/Photo montage by Salon)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, we blew it, instead pursuing a foolhardy war under false pretense and prompting a 14-year ongoing nightmare:\u00a0half a million Iraqi civilians dead<\/a>, by\u00a0one estimate<\/a>, a deep and abiding rage against America and its occupation, and a mighty vacuum in the wake of Saddam Hussein that prompted the rise of ISIS and the\u00a0biggest global refugee crisis<\/a>\u00a0since World War II.<\/p>\n

Now, the fury has exploded, again: 129 people dead in Paris at the hands of a twisted ideology forged in a cauldron of rage, disenfranchisement, perverse religious interpretation and cool military calculation. And again, the West is faced with a choice: lash out in vengeance, stigmatize certain immigrants, and seal off the borders, or devise a more measured response in keeping with values that for centuries have led refugees to Western shores.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read the full SALON.com article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had global goodwill after 9\/11 and squandered it in Iraq. Rage and vengeance is the wrong strategy post-Paris, too BY\u00a0SANDY TOLAN On Sept. 14, 2001,\u00a0800 million Europeans in 43 countries\u00a0observed three minutes of silence for the victims of 9\/11. From Europe and around the world came pleas that the U.S. not squander this global more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1335,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions\/1335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramallahcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}