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Edited on Fri Sep-11-09 05:40 PM by Mythsaje
Mere minutes after the 9/11 attacks, we were united. We were Americans together, facing a common enemy. The whole world reached out to us in sympathy. It didn't take long for that unity to fracture. Conservatives wanted to punish. Punish someone. Anyone. The liberals were heard asking "Why? Why did this happen?"
No, we didn't want to give the hijackers counseling (hard to do anyway, since they were DEAD), as someone suggested. We wanted to understand their motivations so we might take steps to prevent it from happening again. (That might be too nuanced for the conservative mind, but there you have it).
When we brought up the things that may have led to such a drastic action on their part, we were called the "Blame America First" contingent. The conservatives, led by the Bush (mis)administration and pop-eyed pundits, became the "Blame Everybody Else" faction. America could take NO responsibility for it and, as a matter of fact, the reason for it was that the terrorists "hated our freedoms." They do to some extent, but given that we're not the only country WITH such freedoms, and in many ways there are Northern European countries that are more culturally free (our claim to fame seems to revolve around economic freedom, which as anyone with any sense could tell you is illusory anyway)it falls a little flat.
Given that the United States trained and financed Osama Bin Laden for his fight against the Soviets when THEY invaded Afghanistan (one of the things, one might argue, that ultimately led to their downfall), there is some merit to suggesting our covert intelligence community DIRECTLY contributed to what came of it.
Whoops.
To make matters even worse, yet another former friend to the intelligence community of the United States (the guy we financed and supplied through his incredibly brutal war with Iran) was determined to be a threat (by what means we still cannot ascertain) and a second war (or a second front to the SAME war) was sold to the American people by a great many truly questionable methods. (Wasn't opening up a second front one of the things that defeated Hitler during WWII?)
We heard a veritable mantra (Nine-Eleven, Nine-Eleven, Nine-Eleven, Nine-Eleven, etc...ad nauseum), as the justification for everything they wanted to do. So what if 17 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia? So what if Osama Bin Laden was a disgruntled member of the Saudi royal family? "Let's get Saddam!"
To this day I'm almost positive the reason we went after him was because the administration KNEW they could take him. And back in 1999, George W. Bush told his biographer that, if given the chance, he'd do what his father didn't. He'd go after Iran, kick Saddam's ass, and earn himself the second term his father didn't get. In 1999. Gotta give him credit for determination. He did EXACTLY what he said he would.
So, yeah, I'd like to take a moment to look back and remember all the CITIZENS who were killed on 9/11, and the families they left behind. And the wives that Ann Coulter insulted by calling "Harpies" who "probably wished their husbands dead anyway."
Yeah. Classy, eh?
If nothing else (and it was PLENTY else) the events of 9/11/2001 brought home a very important lesson to the United States. Our relative seclusion and separation from the Old World could no longer be counted on to protect us. And we were given a choice. We could either play the swaggering bully (arguably one of the reasons we were attacked in the first place) or we could try to be the kind of nation we like to think we are.
Bush played it one way. Barrack Obama, thankfully, is capable of playing it another way.
Personally, I'd like to remember and commemorate this day by working to ensure nothing like it every happens again.
Who's with me?
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