The cleverest lie of the last ten years

The cleverest lie of the last ten years….

And what a surprise, it came from the mouth of Dubya again and again. And due to a slightly egocentric view it all seemed so clear. “The world changed on 9/11”

And it was the best lie because it is literally true. The world did change. (the world changes every day but a little more than usual on 9/11)… what made it a lie? Well Dubya always said “The world changed on 9/11” with the connotation that the world was very much more dangerous on the 12th of September than it was on the 10th. It certainly appeared to Americans that suddenly Al-Queda had gathered enormous power. The ability to kill thousands and take down famous American landmarks.
But appearances are not reality. In reality the capability that Al-Queda had, they had before 9/11 and not after it. Al-Queda itself was in no way more powerful after 9/11 than before. They had lost 20 dedicated fighters and they had become the most reviled organization in the world. In terms of suddenly being a threat that they had never been before, nothing. Not a grain of truth.
Nearly all Bush Administration policies were based on the falsehood that America faced a new threat. (the threat was there all along. Clinton faced that threat and knew it, and warned Dubya about it.) Because of the new threat we needed a new Megasecurity Agency, Homeland Security. Because of the new threat, we needed biometric IDs. Because of the new threat, we needed spy cameras all over every city. Because of the new threat, old civil rights, laws and traditions protecting Americans' privacy had to be scrapped. Because of the new threat, we had to start torturing our enemies, we had to deny suspects lawyers, deny them any semblance of a fair trial. Because of the new threat we even had to embrace the novel idea of pre-emptive war as justified and necessary. All of the mess of the Bush years was based on the false idea that “The world changed on 9/11” and therefore all of Dubya's critics were out of touch, stuck in old-thinking. “The world changed on 9/11” was a truly believable myth that surely helped an incompetent president win reelection. “The world changed on 9/11” was the myth that clouded the waters and kept us from seeing the simple fact that none of those megacontracts in Homeland Security were really needed. The simple fact is that if the CIA or FBI or Airport Security had been doing their jobs properly 9/11 never could have happened. The main thing that changed on 9/11 was that because of the tragedy, because of the dramatic pictures on TV, the American people became willing to do, say, or believe anything that might prevent it from happening again. Dubya was quick to take advantage of this. Dubya was absolutely willing to sow fear to help his political agenda. Remember “in the form of a mushroom cloud”. The only thing that really changed on 9/11 was the way Americans perceive the world, and unfortunately, the new perception was less rational, less practical and less helpful than the old perception. It is a shame that we fell for the cleverest lie in such huge numbers. Maybe this is a bit of history that we can learn from.