On historical context

Washington is absolutely committed to the proposition that 9/11 came out of the blue. There’s no historical context. Because if you insist that there ought to be some historical explanation for 9/11 — which is different from saying that there is a justification for 9/11; there cannot be a justification — and you look for the historical roots of that heinous act, then you necessarily confront questions about U.S. policy in the Islamic world.

That’s one of a few things that jumped out at me from an interview with retired colonel and military historian Andrew Bacevich in Guernica.

Bacevich is the author of Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War.