After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

by Ben Rhodes

In the spring of 2019, I taught a class in presidential speechwriting and U.S. foreign policy at UCLA. One of the speeches we studied was George W. Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress a few days after 9/11, in which he seized control of American politics and—for a time—global events. In it, he defined the heroes and villains of our new epoch. On one side: first responders, Rudy Giuliani, the members of Congress who sang “God Bless America,” faithful Tony Blair, the soon-to-be-created Department of Homeland Security, the law enforcement personnel and intelligence professionals who would be handed the authorities of the PATRIOT Act, the military preparing to once again fight and win wars, a great nation stirred to action. On the other side: al-Qaeda, a name most Americans were hearing for the first time. “Why do they hate us?” he declared. “They hate what we see right here in this chamber—a democratically elected government.”

untrue. they hated our bold, naked greed in the form of untethered capitalism