The Years of Shame

.
Paul Krugman's column in the NYTimes is reproduced below for your convenience.

September 11, 2011, 8:41 am

The Years of Shame

"Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?

Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons."

End of Krugman's piece.


Comments will be allowed on Yellowarmadillos.

I will go first.

I think that the value of most of the liberal criticism of Bush's handling of 9-11 things can be summed up in two facts.

One: Obama promised that he would close Guantanamo Bay Prison within one year.
Two: He did not close it in 32 months and, apparently, will not close it all.

These and the column above lead to two observations:

1. Governing is harder than campaigning.
2. Obama can be taught and Krugman cannot.
.