Let's say you are an American, you are fifty, and you don't travel much.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Your impressions of Middle Eastern nations are formed by the following events:

- when you were 7, Black September (a wing of the PLO) massacred athletes at the 1972 Olympics
- when you were 8, a whole bunch of Arab nations invaded Israel
- then, a whole bunch of Arab nations stopped selling us oil, causing the price of gas to skyrocket
- when you were 14, the Iranians (who are not Arabs, but most Americans don't realize this) took the American embassy hostage, and didn't release the hostages until the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated
- when you were 18, Islamic Jihad drove truck bombs into barracks housing, among others, 220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 Army soldiers. As an aside, I note that the Democrats did not spend the remainder of the Reagan years holding hearings on this -- I now realize what a mistake that was.
- when you were 19, Islamic Jihad killed William Buckley. Throughout the '80s, many westerners were held hostage in Lebanon -- leading to the Iran/Contra scandal.
- when you were 20, the Palestinian Liberation Front seized the Achille Lauro and murdered Leon Klinghoffer.
- when you were 23, a group later linked to Libya blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

- when you were 25, Iraq invaded Kuwait. We sent troops, and decimated the Iraqi army.
- When you were 33, Al Qaida bombed our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya
- when you were 35, Al Qaida bombed the USS Cole.
- when you were 36, Al Qaida destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and severely damaged the Pentagon. Additionally, a plane thought to be bound for Washington, DC crashed in Shanksville, PA.

OK.. I'm going to stop here. We won't mention that: Turkey (a predominantly Muslim nation) has been a stalwart ally since the Cold War; that Albania (a predominantly Muslim nation) has been an ally since the end of communist rule; Egypt made peace with Israel (later, so did Jordan); we sent troops to defend Balkan Muslims from slaughter at the hands of the Serbs; Iran might not have been quite so ticked off if we hadn't been so effective in training Savak in torture; we armed Iraq in their war with Iran (and sold them weapons of mass destruction); we traded missiles for hostages with Iran during their war with Iraq (at the same time we were arming Iraq); that Osama Bin Laden is from a prominent Saudi Arabian family, and was once a CIA ally in Afghanistan; and that - until last February - Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owned 6 1/2 % of FOX News (I believe that he still holds 1%). Why don't I mention these things? The MSM sure doesn't remind us, so why should I? I also won't bother to remind anyone of Ahmad Rashad, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, or Muhammad Ali.

- In your later thirties, we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. We are still in Afghanistan, and you are fifty now -- let that sink in for a moment. We defeated the regime of Saddam Hussein with relative ease, but became mired in a bloody Iraqi civil war. Many analysts agree that this war was the womb from which ISIS was born -- a combination of unemployed Iraqi soldiers, Sunni extremists, and disenfranchised Baath party members with a flair for social media.

OK.. I'm going to stop here. We won't mention: Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, or Guantanamo Bay. Why don't I mention these things? If you are a DUer, a liberal, a progressive, you are appalled by these events and want to forget them. On the other hand, if you are many Americans who are fifty (or thereabouts), you probably publicly or privately applauded these events.

So the refugees that are running from ISIS? Hmmm - no - sorry. They aren't coming in . Those governors that are refusing to let them in have no legal standing, but they have the support of a whole bunch of forty and fifty somethings that have nothing good to say about the would-be immigrants. They also force a President to either a) back down or b) let the refugees in and then accept the blame for the next terrorist attack (whether it is their fault or not). In fact, I'm waiting for a Republican politician to bring up this great idea brought to us by no less than FDR:

Two and a half months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the secretary of war and military commanders the authority "to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded."3 This order gave the U.S. Army the authority to forcibly evacuate the Japanese American population from the designated military areas along the Pacific Coast between the latter part of March and May 1942.4

The Japanese Americans could bring only what they could carry—clothes, plates, cups, utensils, linens, toiletry items, and mementos—to the designated collection points. With less than a week to sell their businesses, houses, and valuables, they had no time to get things in order. The evacuees were moved to 16 assembly centers. Many of the assembly centers were located on fairgrounds and racetracks, where the living conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary.

Beginning in May 1942, the War Department transferred the Japanese Americans to 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) relocation centers: Central Utah (Utah), Colorado River (Arizona), Gila River (Arizona), Granada (Colorado), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Jerome (Arkansas), Manzanar (California), Minidoka (Idaho), Rohwer (Arkansas), and Tule Lake (California). Under guard and surrounded by barbed-wire fences, the internees lived in cramped barracks sharing communal toilets, showers, and mess halls. Privacy was nonexistent. The relocation centers mirrored small communities with churches, hospitals, libraries, post offices, and schools. The WRA allowed some internees to leave for temporary seasonal agricultural work. Others attended college, served in the military, or obtained outside employment. Some of the internees remained in the WRA relocation centers until they closed in 1946.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2009/winter/wra.html

The 2008 election was about hope and change in the wake of years of ill-conceived war. My current sense is that the 2016 election may well be a referendum on xenophobia and doubling down on the horrid military policies of the Bush years. Here's hoping I'm wrong.

[enough]

1. Actually, I think the "referendum on xenophobia and doubling down on the horrid military policies of

the Bush years" is the most optimistic scenario. The other possibility is that it won't be a referendum, but finally a rush from all sides to double down as hard as they can.

I'm an American a lot older than 50.

Thanks for putting together a lot of interesting history, Algernon.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

2. Thanks for reading it

It was among my lengthier posts.

[WiffenPoof]

3. Excellent Read

Thank you for posting and writing a very eye opening post. Everyone here should read this post. Excellent.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

4. Thanks

The converse factor that should also be mentioned: while a fifty year old has the perspective I mentioned, first time 18-21 year old voters in 2016 will have this perspective:

- most will have hazy to no memory of the actual day September 11, 2001. They will have heard about it in history books, but those under 5 that day might not remember too much, if anything. There will, of course be exceptions.
- on the other hand, all have grown up in the shadow of 9-11, and have no memory of life prior to the age of terror.
- many can't remember the prosperity of the 90's. most will have clear memories of at least some aspect of the great recession.
- they've grown up with the US fighting somewhere in the Middle East for most of their lives.
- they have no memory of the Clinton years. They know Bill Clinton from his appearances on talk shows; his political speeches; and many "Monica" jokes they've heard throughout their lives.
- they spent their mid to late teens seeing the most sustained racial unrest we've had since the bussing riots and protests of the 70s. I don't say "since the the Rodney King riots" or "the McDuffie or Lozano riots in Miami" because they were flash points rather than part off a sustained period of unrest.

[redruddyred]

5. I was barely in double digits on 9/11, but I remember it clearly

it's not something you easily forget.
most 18-21 year olds also see themselves as part of that racial unrest movement: I personally grew up in a very diverse place and we see the inequalities clearly. I would argue (and maybe this is my white privilege speaking) that the problems of race and economic inequality are too closely entwined to examine entirely on their own. for example I think there's a lot more economics than the blm folk wish to admit, but a degree of racism that oldschool socialists from vermont might not be aware of.

was something of a self-hating white person in my very early 20s but moving around I've come to see the better side of my own race. the finer specimens seem to congregate up north for some reason.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

6. You'd definitely be expected to remember 9-11 at 10 years old

..but you bring up an excellent point, because that first event of political significance can really shape your views going forward. I am 50. I have vague memories of Vietnam and when the POWs were released. However I was too young to remember the assassinations of RFK and MLK. The first political event I remember was Watergate -- the endless hearings and the eventual resignation of Nixon. I always had the sense that the Republicans were crooked after that. However, most of my peer group became politically aware during the Iranian hostage crisis, and didn't like the way he handled it. Most of the(probably because of their parents) supported Reagan and are now Tea Partiers (as an aside several found religion -- in a few cases, I suspect it was during rehab).

I was 7 years old when bussing came to PG County in Maryland. I remember a lot of friends vanished that year. Some went to "private school" (usually Catholic). Others "moved to Howard County" -- some to the exurbs, and others to the booming planned city of "Columbia" which had no bussing and had a reputation for solid schools. In elementary school in Palmer Park Maryland, I went to school with a lot of blacks, and -- with some minor exceptions -- there were not many racial problems that I personally encountered, and I was exposed to much better music Nevertheless, George Wallace was very popular in Maryland, and was shot during a campaign stop there. Eventually, we ended up in Columbia -- my parents being no different than others in wanting to get their kid into the best school that they could. It was still diverse -- but much whiter than Palmer Park. I was bullied by kids because I wore the wrong brand of shoes and the wrong brand of jeans and watched the wrong TV shows. I'm not crying the blues about that, but in looking back, it is fascinating to think back on how much conformity suburban white kids demanded from one another, and how obsessed they were with appearances over substance.

Race is complicated by economics, and by issues of conformity. Are white Republicans outraged over all Latinos? Certainly not.-They like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. They like Ben Carson and liked Herman Cain. But they are outraged over anyone that won't assimilate and conform to what their vision of society is.They dislike the guy from Chicago with the funny name who was a "community organizer" before becoming a Senator. They dislike the option of pressing ocho para Espanol --everyone should speak English. Piyush should change his name to Bobby. Love who you want - but stay in the closet. They value appearances and conformity. They like Ben Carson for his stalwart conservatism and his fundamentalist views -- and the fact that he is soft spoken (think about that). They like Trump because he is brash, offensive, aggressive, and ostentatious with his wealth -- quintessentially American. They love Ronald Reagan -- who frequently said idiotic things during press conferences and who nodded off in meetings -- because he looked and sounded like what Americans think a President should look and sound like. Appearance and conformity.

Anyway, I'm rambling at this point. Thanks for your response.

[justiceischeap]

7. Did you forget about the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center?

I mean, if you're going to list all the major attacks that terrorists made in the USA, this should be included.

For me, the two terror events that stick out most in my memory are the truck bomb in Oklahoma (domestic terrorism) and 9/11. I was too young to really understand Iran/Contra, the gas prices during Jimmy Carter's presidency (though I do remember waiting in line with my parents) and I do vaguely recall the Iran hostage situation.

I do often wonder how our foreign policy has affected the rise in terrorism and was actually surprised that it took so long for it to reach our shores (because of our foreign policies). It's ironic that after 9/11 we look at all people of ME descent with some suspicion but we don't run for our lives from white rednecks that spout their bullshit hate when we have proof they are equally capable of creating the kind of havoc that radical terrorists do.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

9. Truth - I did forget to mention that one. Very sorry.

I forgot many other ME/ME inspiref terror incidents as well, like Entebbe.

Christian terrorism is often forgotten, or becomes the subject of victim blaming. The Branch Davidian standoff leaps to mind. Federal agents were murdered serving a lawful warrant, yet somehow it all beame Janet Reno's fault. OKC.was certainly a horrific event.

[Rex]

8. ANd in that time period you've also watched your country turn into a plutocracy

Your pension that was a promise until you die...gone thanks to shady banksters. Your quality of lifestyle is now just paycheck to payckeck. But yeah. Focus on what matters.

I think HRC is going to win with a large amount of votes in 2016.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

10. It started with Reagan

People started accepting the idea that poverty was one's own fault, and that unions and benefits like pensions were killing American business. As Michael Moore documented - it's when towns like Flint Michigan were destroyed in the name of GM profits.

[Rex]

11. Agree 100%

It started with Reagan.

[Yorktown]

12. This hypothetical American doesn't travel and doesn't read much

1974 Munich was about land and politics (Palestinian-Israeli conflict)

The game changed after 1979 and the Iranian revolution and the 1989 Afghanistan win by the talibans = the apparition of militant, political Islam different from land politics.

The game changed all the more since the Saudis got scared stiff from both events and bought their stay in (corrupt) power by pumping tons of dollar to export wahhabi Islam.

So the game has changed, and an offensive, political Islam was on the rise. It has been infuriated by the senseless invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent implosion of Iraq.

These are new times, and radical Islam is a new enemy of democracy.