We need more than a day to reflect on 9/11

Posted By David Rothkopf Friday, September 10, 2010 - 4:12 PM

Update, 9/12/10: In the following post due to a mistake regarding which draft I submitted to be posted, a couple of key words were dropped that have been noted by several commenters. They refer to the paragraph regarding the mosque project in Lower Manhattan. What I intended to write (and had actually written in the draft that I mistakenly did not submit) was not "It is odious..." but instead "It may seem odious to some, but if our freedoms..." I appreciate those who noted the incongruity of the remark given that I was early and strongly on the record supporting the right of those supporting the Islamic Cultural Center to build it wherever they wanted to. As should be clear to anyone who reads this blog, I find the objections and efforts to block the cultural center to be what is really odious and that is the point that I would have made here were it not for my typo. Apologies.

A week ago, Fareed Zakaria wrote a piece for Newsweek entitled "What America Has Lost." It was subtitled "It's clear we overreacted to 9/11." As is typical for Zakaria, it is exceptionally thoughtful and well-argued. Its timely focus is on the enormous costs associated with building up the massive U.S. security apparatus that targeted a terrorist threat that was and is clearly overstated. Zakaria makes reference to the landmark Washington Post "Top Secret America" series that outlined how, in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks, the United States has "created or reconfigured at least 263 organizations to tackle some aspect of the war on terror. The amount of money spent on intelligence has risen by 250 percent to $75 billion (and that's the public number, which is a gross underestimate.) That's more than the rest of the world spends put together."

Even today, nine years after 9/11, it took considerable courage for Zakaria to argue that we overreacted to the horrific events of that day. Given their scope and visceral impact on every American, it seemed in the days after the blows were struck that overreaction was impossible. But in the years that followed, the feelings seem hardly to have ebbed at all, and critiques of our national reaction are, with the exception of the near consensus that invading Iraq was wrong, considered almost unpatriotic -- nearly sacrilegious, in fact.

Yet I believe that Zakaria's column understates the problem. I attribute this to its appropriately limited focus rather than any narrowness of his perspective. It was, after all, just a single column in which he focused on making an important point about America's security priorities and the opportunity costs associated with our strategic overreaction. That said, the damage done by letting emotion and adrenaline get the best of us in the months and years after the attacks extends far beyond the distortion of foreign policy priorities or the impact on the U.S. federal budget.

Read on

Mario Tama/Gettty Images

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When an issue separates the majority from the truth ...

Posted By David Rothkopf Tuesday, June 8, 2010 - 4:32 PM

Today is yet another primary day in America. Some of the biggest decisions the country faces will be left to the tiny handful of voters who show up to vote. And once again the results will remind us of one of the enduring truths of democracy: The majority is often wrong.

This fact is as true today on global issues as it is on domestic ones. Blame it on ignorance. Blame it on the distorting lens of the media. Blame it on the spinmeisters and snake oil salesmen. But the reality is that more often than we care to admit, the people are dopes.

I know this will outrage some. But they are among the dopes. And as usual, a careful analysis of the facts undercuts their position. (But facts are to these people as my advice is to my cats -- just ambient noise that they ignore on their way to a sunny spot on which they can curl up and sleep. Which is why, as Soren Kierkegaard put it, the "public is everything and nothing...the most dangerous of all powers and the most insignificant.")

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that contrary to the populist liturgy the world would be an even bigger mess than it is if public opinion guided every major decision. And that's saying something.

For example, in July 1941, polls indicated only 17 percent of Americans supported the idea of intervening in the war in Europe. Or consider that 68 percent of Americans believe that "angels and demons are active in the world." (If you are one of them, please stop reading this. We could get to some big words later and the rest of this is just going to make your head hurt.) Or that George W. Bush was elected not once but twice to be president of the United States.

Now, we shouldn't be surprised. The reality is that the majority of the people haven't the slightest idea as to what they are taking about most of the time. In a 2007 poll it was found that more than two-thirds of Americans couldn't name the president of Russia and eight out of ten couldn't name the Secretary of Defense (while almost two thirds could identify Beyonce Knowles). In 2006 only just over a third of Americans between 18 and 24 could find Iraq on a map and fewer than three in 10 thought it was important to know the location of countries in the news.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion. But not everyone deserves to have their opinion garner the same amount of respect. If you don't know anything about a subject, why should your viewpoint matter? It's why the founders of the republic opted for representative democracy -- the people should have a voice ... which would allow them to pick professionals who would study the issues to make their decisions for them. It's a better idea than the alternatives but you have to admit, even it hasn't worked out so well if our elected officials are the metric we're going to use to judge.

There are plenty of issues in the news right now where it is absolutely clear the public and the truth are on different sides of the argument. Take just these five:

U.S. Immigration Law
America was built by immigrants. Vast swaths of the economy depend on labor by illegal immigrants. The influx of (often young) legal and illegal aliens to the United States actually has helped make us the only major developed economy that is not suffering the burdens of a population whose average age is dramatically rising. And there are plenty of ways to deal with real problems associated with illegal immigrants that do not actually involve the constitutionally dubious practice of letting police stop people based on the (entirely racially motivated) "suspicion" they are immigrants. Yet, 60 percent of all Americans currently favor letting police stop and verify immigration status and a majority of Americans who have heard of the Arizona immigration law support it. Two thirds of all American believe U.S. military should be deployed to the border to prevent illegal immigration. Better there, I suppose, than Afghanistan but two exercises in futility do not make a right.

Off-shore Drilling
Something like a third of U.S. energy comes from offshore drilling. Something like 80 percent of that comes from deep water drilling. Much of the most important new sources of off-shore oil are in deep water. A moratorium on new off-shore and deep off-shore will cost billions (almost three billion next year if the current hold on activities is kept in place.) What's more much of that money goes to regimes that don't much like America increasing our dependence on a bunch of bad guys. Further, despite this year's catastrophe, off-shore drilling has a great track record (and would have a better one if we had better regulatory enforcement...as opposed to a shutdown.) Still 51 percent of Americans now feel off-shore drilling is too risky (a big swing from two years ago when 70 percent supported it).

Anything That Has to do with Israel
A majority of Americans believe Israel should allow an international investigation of the flotilla fiasco. Well, that seems reasonable...unless you take into consideration that a 2007 BBC poll of 27 countries showed 56 percent of respondents believing Israel was a negative influence. Or that within that poll, Israel was regarded unfavorably in 23 countries, worse than Iran which was seen as unfavorable in 21 and North Korea which is seen as unfavorable in 20. Think Israel-the only democratic, successfully non-resource-based economy in the region -- could get a fair hearing on this planet? (Viz. the Goldstone report, a deeply flawed and biased analysis from a guy with a very dubious background.) Seems unlikely...but a change of venue is beyond our technological capabilities at the moment. (I noted The Economist critiqued Israel's "siege mentality" in the current issue. But I think the critique overlooks the fact that Israel is actually under siege and has been since its founding. Doesn't that excuse something?)

Global Warming
While the vast majority of the world's scientists believe that man made global warming is a major and imminent threat and despite the data they cite on rising global temperatures, accelerating polar ice and glacial melting and changing weather patterns...and while 73 percent of people surveyed worldwide want their governments to prioritize climate change, only a minority (44 percent) of Americans felt this way. Further, percentages of those who believe global warming has begun are dwindling and the number who see it as a serious problem has slipped to 35 percent from 44 percent. Almost half of all Americans, 48 percent, believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated.

Women's Rights
According to a Pew poll, the majority of those polled in Mali (65 percent), the Palestinian Territories (64 percent), Kuwait (62 percent), Pakistan (54 percent) and Ethiopia (51 percent) said that men make better political leaders than women. Which is something considering the history each of these countries has had under male leadership. Further in Jordan, Nigeria and Russia almost equal numbers says men are better leaders as who say men and women make equally good leaders. A different perspective: almost 8 out of 10 American women say that we still don't have equal pay for equal work while only just over half of men feel that way. (The facts say we don't.)

The list goes on and on, a poll this month showed that only 37 percent of Americans favor more government regulation of the financial system despite all obvious evidence to the contrary. And a poll last month showed that 53 percent of Americans believe same sex marriages should not be recognized.

Why raise this? Because people too often confuse majority opinions with what is right and too often suggest that it is the responsibilities of leaders to heed the majority. It clearly is not. In fact, often what has distinguished great leaders is their ability to actually lead people away from the problems to which they, left to their own devices, might have been heading.

Finally, is this an argument for elites? Heck, no. (Unless you mean should people with the education and experience to make decisions actually be listened to more carefully than say, I don't know, radio talk show hosts or movie directors who don't know the slightest thing about geology?) Elites get it wrong as often as the majorities do. For years they thought Pluto was a planet. Few predicted the fall of the USSR. Few predicted the market collapse of a couple years ago. Heck financial markets assume that half the elite will be on the opposite side of any deal from the other half. No, this is just an argument for giving the facts and the experts a bit of a listen when it comes to really important decisions because believe what you may about angels, it is generally not a good idea to make plans based on their intervention.

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COMMENTS (10)

EXPLORE:GLOBAL WARMING, ISRAEL/PALESTINE, MIGRATION/IMMIGRATION, OIL, WOMEN

10 reasons why our Obama is not Eurobama

Posted By David Rothkopf Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - 6:35 PM

If you believe the American press, this is going to be the best week of Barack Obama's life. Not because his G20 and NATO meetings are predicted to be easy but because he is going to be in the land of his intellectual and spiritual roots, Europe. Here, among like-minded brie-loving, chardonnay-sipping, socialist fellow-travelers, he will be able to laugh at American gun-owners and Glenn Beck watchers with impunity. Perhaps, if the worst stories are to be believed, he will secretly fall into French during conversations, showing other leaders how he is more like them than he is like Sarah Palin by sharing a Gitane out in the alley behind his hotel (so Michelle doesn't see) or by giving them a glimpse of his non-U.S. birth certificate or reminding the Brits that his father and other ancestors were born (and beaten) in the Commonwealth.

Of course, not only is all this the province of snarky rumors being produced in the basement of the summer house Roger Ailes shares with his long-time secret lover Karl Rove, but also virtually all of it is untrue. (I can't speak to what types of cheese the President likes or whether he, in a tip of the hat to European depravity, prefers his cheeses warm and crawling with bacteria.) But, there are plenty of ways the Europeans will be able to tell Barack Obama is not one of them.

Here are 10:

Americans don't let their car companies go belly up. Instead, they commit the U.S. government to switch their full faith and credit guarantees away from something that is now dubious, like U.S. Treasuries, to something that needs to be rock solid, like warranties on Chevy Suburbans.

Americans stimulate. Europeans simulate. I speak of responses to the economic crisis, of course.

Americans may create enormous global problems, but then we actually feel some obligation to try to help solve them. Whereas Europeans, who used to create most of the world's problems, don't even do that anymore...and when it comes to solving problems, c'est pour les Americains, non?

Americans actually have a foreign policy.

Americans rock. Europeans technopop. We produce the music of this era, the continent of Mozart produces the elevator music of this era. (Johnny Depp's love of Vanessa Paradis notwithstanding.) Check out the playlist on Air Force One if you don't believe me.

Americans don't actually eat snails and rabbits and Swiss chard. Which is why Obama has brought his own chef and his own supply of organic arugula and free-range tofu. We also don't drive small cars or tolerate being condescended to by Euro waiters. Which is why the President is bringing his own car and his own waiters. (This is how every American would travel if they could.)

Americans don't let friends' banks go belly up. That's why the Treasury funneled so much money to European banks through AIG. You don't see European governments rushing to bailout Citigroup do you?

Americans love immigrants (see how we are even open to changing our minds about those whose asylum claims we once rejected...like Obama's Kenyan aunt, currently residing in public housing in Boston). Well, okay, we used to love immigrants (see all those stories about sending troops to the Mexican border). About the only thing the Europeans can agree on anymore is their long-standing hatred of immigrants. Oh and their hatred of carbon. But we hate carbon too, now. Which is a good thing. Although it does raise the whole specter of the self-hating carbon life form thing.

Americans don't actually speak other languages. We only speak American languages like English and Spanish.

Americans don't threaten to walk out of summit meetings before they have even begun...Mr. Sarkozy. But then, we wouldn't have left Carla home alone either. How do we avoid such walkouts? Well, generally, at meetings we just don't pay that much attention to what others are saying. It helps us stay "on message" as they say here in Washington.

Oh yes, and also, as we have mentioned before, he is a member of a racial minority group who has actually had the opportunity to reach the top in our society. Which would never ever happen in Europe.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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EXPLORE:BRITAIN, FINANCIAL CRISIS, FOOD/AGRICULTURE, MIGRATION/IMMIGRATION, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY