Happy New Year’s! For me, today marks the last day of what was, for all intents and purposes, the first full decade of my life. I know this is also the case for many of our readers.
I encourage you all to look back on the personal events of the last decade that have had and will continue to have the greatest impact on your lives. On a national level, these are the events of the past decade have most dramatically impacted the lives of Americans, shaped the course of American foreign and domestic policy, and will continue to have a lasting impact on our lives in decades to come.
1) September 11, 2001. “We have slain a large dragon. But we live now in a jungle filled with a bewildering variety of poisonous snakes. And in many ways, the dragon was easier to keep track of.” So spoke former CIA Director James Woolsey in the early 1990’s after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War. The reality of this treacherous post-Cold War jungle arrived on a peaceful September morning in 2001. I don’t think anyone will ever forget exactly where they were when they heard that two jumbo jets had hit the World Trade Center, that the Pentagon was in flames, and that there was fear of more planes heading towards Washington. Our world changed on 9/11, and it will never be the same.
2) Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. War became a constant in the 2000’s. It has become so much of a norm in our daily lives that most people would be shocked when reminded that American military operations in Afghanistan are entering their eighth year, with no clear end in sight.
3) Election of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States. My fellow conservatives and I do not feel that the 2008 election represented a significant realignment of American politics or a unique popular mobilization of American voters. We view the election of Obama as a consequence of eight years of an unpopular administration and a weak Republican nominee in John McCain. But even though we disagree with his positions and policies, we would be wrong not to underscore the tremendous significance of his election on American politics.
4) Internet Growth. While the 1990’s may have witnessed the PC explosion and the nascent stages of the internet, the 2000’s will be remembered as a decade of unprecedented internet growth. Can you even imagine what your life would be like without Facebook, Youtube, Google, or even this wonderful blog?
5) Hurricane Katrina. The worst natural disaster of this decade devastated many Gulf states, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and sparked many debates on the failures of bureaucracy and growing societal inequality.
well said