Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen


20 Years after 9/11: Are We Any Smarter?

September 02, 2021

Have we learned that the military is not necessarily the best tool for the job? On this show New Republic journalist Jordan Michael Smith talks about the self imposed failures, squandering America’s power.  Right after the attack, the world was with us but by going it alone, other countries also facing jihadists were left out. Acting as the world’s bully has alienated former allies and  proved remarkably counterproductive. Sure the non-state attackers trained in Afghanistan, but they also trained in Florida.  We never addressed the root causes. Smith says of the four approaches taken by presidents, Trump’s was Jacksonian: all non-whites are savages.  By Biden deciding not to kick the can down the road, he is standing up to the war-fixated foreign policy establishment. Perhaps we have finally learned from history.