National Geographic’s 9/11 Documentary
I watched the first part of National Geographic’s two part documentary on 9/11 last night (the second part will air tonight at 9pm), and it was a very thorough and objective look at the hijackers and events that led to 9/11, and I highly recommend watching tonight’s conclusion.
The filmmakers genuinely seemed to try to be as objective as possible. The majority of the content dealt with the history and creation of al Qaeda and their motives and movements in the years leading up to 9/11. For the most part, the documentary doesn’t have a political agenda, but since it does relay unbiased facts, there are political conclusions that can be drawn. And, the more and more one understands the facts of the case then the more and more it becomes painfully obvious how the Bush administration’s post 9/11 policies are wrong.
The first part of the documentary doesn’t hold Bush responsible for 9/11 nor does it delve too deeply into the post 9/11 American foreign policy that was launched by the Bush administration. I assume they’ll get into the post 9/11 aftermath, however, in part II. But, in its realistic reporting on Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda the viewer must recognize that Bush’s policies are playing right into al Qaeda’s hands.
The most important things I took away from the documentary are first the ingeniousness, brains and efficiency of al Qaeda (without any connotation that they’re good or evil) and the undeniable difference between the Bush administration’s rhetoric compared to the real facts of the case. In short, our govt. - and both the Clinton and Bush administrations are guilty of this - completely underestimated and failed to understand the threat posed by Bin Laden and al Qaeda. And, after 9/11 the Bush administration continued to get things wrong. Either they still failed to understand the true nature of them or they flat out denied their true nature and then lied to the American people about it.
I can understand why the average American was duped. They don’t have access to the top intelligence and top specialists on these subjects, nor do they understand all the history and complexities involved in American foreign policy, and to top it off their leaders just don’t tell them the truth. However, none of these are reasons for the administration to not understand the threat or the strategy of al Qaeda, so there is no excuse for their incompetence. The top Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda experts realize that his true goal on 9/11 was to provoke America into a middle east conflict. He knew he could not wage a war against America on our turf, so he set it up so we would fight him on his turf, and he predicted a defeat for America under those circumstances. Something that seems more and more likely as time goes on.
Our invasion of Iraq was a dream come true to al Qaeda. George Bush couldn’t have helped Bin Laden more if he tried. These are not the opinions of partisan Democrats bent on tearing down George Bush. These are the opinions of the experts in the intelligence community who know the nature of Bin Laden and al Qaeda. How do they know this: because it is what Osama Bin Laden told people prior to 9/11. And, considering the nature of the man, and what has happened since 9/11, there is no reason to doubt this. It actually makes perfect sense and it is a smart strategy on his part considering what he is after.
But, from an American perspective it should be inexcusable that we have so played into his hands and that we may be giving him the victory that he desires. And, this victory is probably greater than he could’ve anticipated because he could never have planned on Bush bungling America’s post 9/11 strategy so greatly. Bin Laden was hoping for America to use our military against the Middle East in some way, but in his wildest dreams he couldn’t have planned for America to get caught lying to the whole world about Iraq’s WMD’s, and then for us to preemptively invade a sovereign nation without a true coalition. He couldn’t have assumed that Bush would effectively turn most of the world against America and waste the post 9/11 sympathy that was pouring into us. He couldn’t have imagined how badly we bungled the military strategies in Iraq, and he couldn’t have counted on Donald Rumsfeld - on these last points he just got lucky.
The filmmakers genuinely seemed to try to be as objective as possible. The majority of the content dealt with the history and creation of al Qaeda and their motives and movements in the years leading up to 9/11. For the most part, the documentary doesn’t have a political agenda, but since it does relay unbiased facts, there are political conclusions that can be drawn. And, the more and more one understands the facts of the case then the more and more it becomes painfully obvious how the Bush administration’s post 9/11 policies are wrong.
The first part of the documentary doesn’t hold Bush responsible for 9/11 nor does it delve too deeply into the post 9/11 American foreign policy that was launched by the Bush administration. I assume they’ll get into the post 9/11 aftermath, however, in part II. But, in its realistic reporting on Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda the viewer must recognize that Bush’s policies are playing right into al Qaeda’s hands.
The most important things I took away from the documentary are first the ingeniousness, brains and efficiency of al Qaeda (without any connotation that they’re good or evil) and the undeniable difference between the Bush administration’s rhetoric compared to the real facts of the case. In short, our govt. - and both the Clinton and Bush administrations are guilty of this - completely underestimated and failed to understand the threat posed by Bin Laden and al Qaeda. And, after 9/11 the Bush administration continued to get things wrong. Either they still failed to understand the true nature of them or they flat out denied their true nature and then lied to the American people about it.
I can understand why the average American was duped. They don’t have access to the top intelligence and top specialists on these subjects, nor do they understand all the history and complexities involved in American foreign policy, and to top it off their leaders just don’t tell them the truth. However, none of these are reasons for the administration to not understand the threat or the strategy of al Qaeda, so there is no excuse for their incompetence. The top Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda experts realize that his true goal on 9/11 was to provoke America into a middle east conflict. He knew he could not wage a war against America on our turf, so he set it up so we would fight him on his turf, and he predicted a defeat for America under those circumstances. Something that seems more and more likely as time goes on.
Our invasion of Iraq was a dream come true to al Qaeda. George Bush couldn’t have helped Bin Laden more if he tried. These are not the opinions of partisan Democrats bent on tearing down George Bush. These are the opinions of the experts in the intelligence community who know the nature of Bin Laden and al Qaeda. How do they know this: because it is what Osama Bin Laden told people prior to 9/11. And, considering the nature of the man, and what has happened since 9/11, there is no reason to doubt this. It actually makes perfect sense and it is a smart strategy on his part considering what he is after.
But, from an American perspective it should be inexcusable that we have so played into his hands and that we may be giving him the victory that he desires. And, this victory is probably greater than he could’ve anticipated because he could never have planned on Bush bungling America’s post 9/11 strategy so greatly. Bin Laden was hoping for America to use our military against the Middle East in some way, but in his wildest dreams he couldn’t have planned for America to get caught lying to the whole world about Iraq’s WMD’s, and then for us to preemptively invade a sovereign nation without a true coalition. He couldn’t have assumed that Bush would effectively turn most of the world against America and waste the post 9/11 sympathy that was pouring into us. He couldn’t have imagined how badly we bungled the military strategies in Iraq, and he couldn’t have counted on Donald Rumsfeld - on these last points he just got lucky.
posted by The Animal | 3:36 PM
1 Comments:
Comparing the two, I think Bin Laden is far brighter, dedicated and more cunning then a failed businessman/town drunk who skipped out on the national guard.
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