it is September 11th 2013 it is of course the twelfth anniversary
above the 9/11 attacks just blocks from our current studio in lower Manhattan
Lewis and this this anniversary is very different for me
as all have been every single anniversary has been slightly different
this one is particularly different
because yesterday after we finished taping the show
in preparation in thinking about today's 9/11 anniversary show I decided to walk
over to ground 0 Lewis and see what it was like over there
it is less than a five minute walk from the studio and
you know I was thinking that if you didn't know
how recent what happened there is
you might not feel that the spaces that different than many other memorials
around the world you've got a there is a memorial kinda like a little tour you
can walk through
there is the new towering but skyscraper that has been built the New World Trade
Center so to speak
and with every year Lewis I feel like the position
the the feeling above being in the United States
in relation to both those attacks and foreign policy
has changed I don't know if you would agree that it feels very different today
than it did on the first fifth or seventh anniversary
I'm I i certainly he would say
it does yes but then there are some in some ways
it feels very similar to you I don't know
to shortly after the incident on on 9/11
well it's interesting you say that because you know i watch as I walked
around
a around the blocks there near Ground Zero I thought back to the day
9/11/2001 I was sitting in junior high school
I actually no senior as a senior in high school
psychology class a kid got up to go to the bathroom
he came back and said we're under attack and I remember the teacher Lewis and
have told the story before saying
you listen you've wasted enough my time today please sit down
I'm sure everything is fine let me get back to teaching my class
and of course fifteen minutes later when we went to that kinda
break between periods people started finding out about what was going on I
ended up going home in just watching TV the rest in the day
and to say that people were feeling terror
in that moment in that day in the weeks and months that followed would
definitely be
an understatement in addition to many other feelings terror and fear
were very strong feelings that people held and
the question is I think today what did 9/11 lead to
and also has it changed the way Americans and people around the world
view
events politics terror the the here
love violence I we know about the Iraq war
we know about the connections that were made between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein in
Iraq
that did not exist and we now know that the entire war was based on false
information in part kind of a trumped-up case
specifically designed to make people conflate 911
and weapons of mass destruction and saddam and iraq and it led to wholesale
approval
for a time into going into iraq did we catch Osama bin Laden we did it was our
current president who
oversaw that not George W Bush who of course was
a initially the beneficiary I've
strong support over eighty percent approval rating right after 9/11
and that of course deteriorating with decision after subsequent
boneheaded decision that was made um
are we happy overall with the surveillance and lack of privacy that
seems so logical to so many people after 9/11
not according to polls not at all according to polls if you look at data
right now
do people feel safer today I don't know
I mean as I walked around I was just downstairs for lunch here in lower
Manhattan just blocks from Ground Zero like I said
a very strong police presence everything from
individual a security private security that is around
a security hired by the city and of course New York Police Department just
downstairs from our building there was a group
love 20 or 25 New York Fire Department
a firefighters who were just kind of hanging out making their presence felt
um but I don't know do I really feel safer do I really feel like
a larger scale attack is less likely I'm not sure I would like to think it is
less likely
but then the question gets us to up if we look at
the poll numbers today a lot has changed
since 9/11 that's the reality if we look at the poll numbers onto things
surveillance and Syria it abundantly clear Louis
that on on on broad speaking broadly
Americans don't particularly trust the security state
and surveillance aspect above the government and Americans
are very reluctant to start another military conflict this time in serious
so
is it safe to say that opinions really have changed and evolved
when it comes to this in the United States or
is it only because there is not the immediate memory
above the terror and fear 911 that emotions have combed
Inouye that the poll numbers are now different
I think for a lot of people I think a lot of people understand that yes there
was this
ac but when was the last attack before 9/11
and and I know we haven't had one sense but
I the surveillance has not been
this a profound %ah
the entire time after the attack no it hasn't it certainly built in there have
been a number of different legal situations that have led to it but also
to say there has not been another attack their head it really depends on how we
define an attack some hesitant to say there simply hasn't been an attack
because
we've seen different attacks on American allies we've seen attacks on Americans
in different part of the parts of the world
we've seen any number of attempts I mean to say there has there has not been
something on the scale of 9/11
that's absolutely true but when you ask people is it specifically because
up what has been done since 9/11 I don't think
that you have an overwhelming majority thinking that that's the case
now I don't think so either I it's it's tough to say you know
it fear is a funny thing because it I think there's a chance that if we did
not have any of this surveillance in any of this
I'm I don't know mentality
that people might be less afraid just buy it not
existing there is no question that the entire
Global War on Terrorism %uh
mean that has spread to military action the military-industrial complex the
surveillance state and all these things
for whatever whatever benefit it provides in
in actuality it also has the side-effect
and for some people you would be would say that it is actually a been a
beneficial
and and a desired side-effect love making people afraid
which then allows many more things to happen and that that's an a whole other
thing
which we've discussed many many times send me your thoughts on the 12th
anniversary of 9/11