A Very Bad Year

I believe there should exist an incremental measure of political time which
describes a sixteen year period.
In that way, professionals in politics could possibly study public policy
starts and stops in specific areas, in ways that might more easily lend
themseves to the big changes taking place during specific
"regime" changes.
Conversely, policy undergoing little or no change might be subject to more
cause and effect possibilities for changes in areas affecting daily lives most.
A sixteen year span could give a bird's eye view of two administrations at
once, and could show us more how the rest of the world might be prone to
react to what happens here.
World poliitcal climate seems to be changing more drastically during each
succeeding sixteen year period. It seems political thinking is contracting
so rapidly, globally, that it has become easier and easier to see extremes
as norms, and moderate thinking as uninvolved. Half-century analyses aren't
enough, while decade analysis is not politically precise in U.S. politics.
I would characterize 2001 as a year which continually took us by surprise
because we hadn't had a handle on how violently the rest of the world somewhat
secretly reacted to the U.S. apparently moving away form evolving into a
model of government President Clinton sponsored in order to keep the fragile
peace the world held its breath to preserve during Clinton's eight years.
President Clinton moved in a world he was leading into prosperity.
For the time being, so goes the nation here, so goes the world. This may
continue to be the case until at least mid-century if Americans get the
education and skill sets President Obama and President Clinton want to see
here.
When George Bush was elected in the year 2000, the entire world seemed to
gasp. Whereas we don't really vote to suit them, I think it would serve
us to know where we stand in areas of world panic so we can diffuse
whatever wrong-thinking reactions blossom suddenly as threats.
Bush had barely been sworn in when China shot down a technological marvel
of an American armed forces plane.
I cannot for the life of me ever think of that incident as an ordinary
international blip.
It happened on April Fool's Day, which has never seemed a coincidence to me.
The act was so aggressive because the Chinese knew for a fact we were no
threat to them. That is why I felt the timing was an unfunny joke.
The Chinese then refused to release the expertly-trained, highly skilled
crew for what seemed like months, because there was no reason to keep them
at all.
The Chinese authorities seemed to make things personal by insisting to
President Bush they were releasing no one until he apologized to THEM for
violating their air space - a thing it proved unclear we had done at all!
Finally, President Bush did apologize - under duress of course - to get that
air crew back. Still, they refused to send back that plane. By all accounts,
it was a powerful, state-of-the-art military jewel.
The next thing I knew, planes - yes, planes, were being flown through our own
airspace by amateurs...into the twin towers, into the Pentagon, encompassing
three other numbers well-established in American culture, and in the culture
of panic, 911.
Within days the FBI ran advertisements looking for people who spoke a Chinese
dialect.
I remain horrified.
I am very very thankful to the team who used American airpower to get into
the place where Osama Bin Laden hid, making certain he could plot no more.
I'm so grateful that same team blew up our helicopter in Pakistan.
Pakistan ought to thank us as well. There is no way they could have kept away
other hostile countries or jihadists, who'd have been constantly salivating
over it...even had they wanted to do so.









































model of government President Clinton sponsored in order to keep the peace.















































in a world he was leading into prosperity.
For the time being, so goes the nation here, so goes the world. This may
continue to be the case until at least mid-century if Americans get the
education and skill sets President Obama and President Clinton want to
see here.
When Gerge Bush was elected in the year 2000, the entire world seemed to
gasp. Whereas we don't really vote to suit them, I think it would serve
us to know where we stand in areas of world panic so we can diffuse
whatever wrong-thinking reactions blossom suddenly as threats.
Bush had barely been sworn in when China shot down a technological marvel
of an American plane. I cannot for the life of me ever think of that
incident as an ordinary international blip. It happened on April Fool's
day, which has never seemed incidental to me. The act was so aggressive
because the Chinese knew for a fact we were no threat to them whatsoever.
That's why I thought the timing was as unfunny joke.
They refused to release the expertly-trained, highly skilled crew for
what seemed like months because there was no reason to keep them.
The Chinese authorities were seemimgly making things personal by telling
President Bush they were releasing no one until he apologized for
violating their air space -a thing it proved to be unclear we did at all.
President Bush finally did apologize to get back the crew, but not that
aircraft. That plane, by all news accounts, was state-of-the-art.
The next thing I knew, planes were being flown into our own air space
by amateurs, and into the twin towers, encompassing three other numbers
well established in American culture of course - 911.
Within days the FBI ran advertisements looking for people who spoke a
Chinese dialect.
I remain horrified, and very, very thankful the team who killed Bin Laden
blew up our helicopter in Pakistan. Pakistan ought to thank us as well.
They could not have protected it from countries or from jihadists who'd have
been salivating over it - even if they'd wanted to do so.