[sneak]

It seemed like overreactions to me at the time, and it seems like overreactions to me now.

I was 18 at the time and I was already old enough to know that you don't make big decisions when tired, angry, or stressed.

What's the point of checks and balances and the rule of law if they all go out of the window as soon as an adversary does something bad enough to make enough of us sufficiently angry? Those aren't laws and rules or balances (or values) if they get tossed aside simply because of a spike in anger or fear or both.

[ilaksh]

The reasons we engaged in those extensive Middle East campaigns were strategic, just like they have always been for hundreds of years.

The events of that day were (coincidentally) the perfect motivation for the campaigns.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game

[bufordtwain]

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." -Mike Tyson

[sneak]

Call me crazy, but if our entire machinery of government can't function well enough to control itself internally to preserve human rights better than Mike Tyson, maybe we should toss the whole thing out and start over.

[shepherdjerred]

The purpose of a government has not historically been to preserve human rights

[seanw444]

We literally wrote a document explaining what the government is not allowed to do, for that reason. Yet they still do those things anyways. Not enough people care, either.