Abstract

She's a hero, you see.She's not like us.-Rupert Giles, "The Gift"1 On questions of foreign policy (and sometimes domestic policy as well) the Bush administration since 9/11 has conveyed to the American public -and often brandished to the broader international community -one central underlying message: moral certainty.In the face of the shattering uncertainty produced by the tragic, graphic, and profound attacks on American soil, the need for clarity, for black and white distinctions, grew paramount.In addition to the shock, fear, and sadness elicited by watching the events of 9/11, almost all Americans, along with large numbers of people throughout the world, truly felt a specific sort of moral clarity: that the tragedies of 9/11 were wrong.