Last night on David Letterman, Barack Obama had one of his best interviews in recent weeks, and made a point that’s been resonating in my mind all day: that 9/11 was a missed opportunity for America to change its ways.

In the wave of fear and goodwill that followed President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson was able to force through two of the most important policy decisions in American history: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the start of the Vietnam War. Both of these policies were sold to the American people as honoring the legacy of John F Kennedy and continuing the work he had begun - as a result, they were quickly accepted and widely supported. 

 

After the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the American people were open to anything, and the international community stood ready to support our country in whatever endeavor it felt was necessary in response. America needed leadership, answers, and comfort, but more than anything, they wanted to know what it would take to make sure that such an attack would never happen again.

President Bush told them to go shopping. Rudy Giuliani told New Yorkers to go to Broadway and take in a show. 

President Bush used that goodwill to send troops into Afghanistan, and attempted to parlay that incursion into an invasion of Iraq. 

Imagine how much more we could have done. 

“If we had instead said, ‘You know what, we are going to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil,’ or, you know, ‘We are going to create the kinds of energy-efficient economy that will allow us to weaken the forces of terror,’ that could have made an incredible difference and I think you could have mobilized the American people around bold plans on energy that would make sure that we weren’t continuing to be in the situation we’re in today.” - Barack Obama, 9/10/08

Imagine if we had used the American peoples’ openness and readiness to pursue fuel efficient cars and alternative energy industries. Imagine if we had used our global goodwill to build new energy alliances and markets for clean fuels. Imagine if we had used our industriousness and ingenuity to sever our dependence on the Middle East. 

Imagine how the world would view our leadership now, how our transportation industry would have innovated by now, how strong our economy would be because of new technologies now, how cheap our renewable fuels would be right now…

Imagine what we could have done with better leadership. In the seven years after Pearl Harbor, the United States became a global leader in transportation, energy, and scientific technologies. In the seven years after 9/11, we’re stuck in an unwinnable war, our fuel is more expensive than ever, our industries have been outsourced to the third world, and our scientific technologies are paltry when compared to Japan. 

9/11 could have shown America it was time for change and propelled us to the leadership of a new global energy regime. 

Honor the people who died that day by learning more about alternative energy and making plans to break your own dependence on oil.

photo by hive

Related posts:

1. Al Gore pushes for renewable energy “The survival of the United States of America as...
2. Obama: “Drilling is a stop-gap, not a solution” You wanted to know if Obama sold-out on offshore drilling? At...
3. Presidential Energy Project Over the next few weeks, I’ll be running a Presidential...
4. Bush accepts global warming, announces programs President Bush held a press conference today to announce...
5. Why Environmental Groups Aren’t Excited About Obama There’s a lot of buzz about the election in...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you enjoyed this post, why not or subscribe! for updates on more political and environmental coverage like this.