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Posted: September 11, 2007 5:29 PM
Gravel Lays Out Six Lessons of Sept. 11
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Six years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, former Alaska Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel outlined The Real Lessons of 9/11 on the liberal blog the Huffington Post. In it, Gravel stressed the need to “dispel the myths which the Bush administration and a compliant media have been feeding us” so as not to “repeat the same mistakes and suffer similar consequences.”

The lessons Gravel said Sept. 11 has inspired include an argument against the idea that “they hate us because we are free” and the labeling of nations in absolutes such as “good vs. evil.” He went on to criticize the Washington power structure and bureaucracy. Although denying any notion of a government conspiracy, Gravel did assert that “Our government was partly at fault by engaging in polices that inspired it, failing to take aggressive steps to stop it, and sacrificing the liberty and safety of our citizens after it.”

On Sunday, Gravel participated in Univision’s Democratic debate meant to target the channel’s Spanish-speaking audience. During the debate, Gravel reminded the audience that his parents were immigrants and that English was his second language while growing up in his French-Canadian family. When questioned about his desire for immigration reform, Gravel remarked that the national immigration debate is a scapegoat for much larger problems facing America: “We have our failures in education, we have our failures in health care, in all aspects we want to blame someone.”

In other news, Gravel was the subject of a cover story in “the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, titled Running on Empty. The article probed why the Gravel candidacy perseveres when “he is rock bottom in fund raising and the presidential polls, [and] best known for comparing himself to a potted plant.”