I was born and raised in New York, and witness to both attacks on the Twin Towers. The first one during the 90's I viewed on the news. But on September 11th 2001, I stood with many of my co workers on the top floor of a high rise on 119 street, watching the black smoke pour from the Towers. We stood in silence or whisper as if in a church. Deep down inside of us, we knew what had happened, we were attacked. We knew this well before the media announced this. The question was who, and why.
Standing there watching you felt anger and frustration of not being able to help the people you knew had to be in those buildings. Hoping that everyone got out, you knew that wasn't true. Later we would learn that it was over a thousand. No matter their physical home, they were citizens of our country, even those not born here, not naturalized, those visiting, those here illegally , they belong to us that morning.
I'm not forgetting those in Washington or at the field in Pennsylvania....that only made it worse. Bad enough what happened here in New Yorker, but now the tally grew. And like most humans you hold out hope, even though ever fiber of your body is telling you, there is none. You suddenly realize this in not a movie, there is no rescue at the end, the guy doesn't always get the girl and no hero rushes in to save the day.
But the day did have hero's. many of them who knew this could be their last day on this earth. Who knew the hug, the kiss, the smile they saw last night or this morning might be the last they ever saw. Still they did there job. Some did more than there job would ever require, and some decided, that their is somethings however in-tangible, worth dying for.
The people who died that day, some are hero's, some are just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some were good people in life, some may have been terrible people in life, but they didn't deserve to die, not like that, not for that.
The memorial will be for the for future generations, those of us who were there will never forget.
But what followed, I hope we will also never forget, because the world did not deserve the waste, the cost in lives lost, damaged, ruined. Money better used else where, the stupidity of what followed. Should not be forgotten by any of us. Maybe we should build a memorial to that, so future generations do not forget.
I'm a civilian, I'm allowed to have a visceral response wanting to strike out at any one, everyone. Its up to our leaders to bring sanity to the front, and direct the response. Hell, it was the complete opposite.
At first it seemed like the leaders of our country, actually had control of the situation. They reminded us, not to strike out like angry beast at a Religion or culture,or people because it visually reminded us of murderers . And for one brief oh so very brief moment the United States and its leadership shined. We showed restraint, we spoke of justice and rebuilding. We spoke of showing our defiance against a "horrible simple minded group of people" far dumber than the 85 percenters. It was a proud moment for our nation.
I don't know if we will ever learn the truth, I have my own theory but its just that a theory. Washington D.C our leaders, lost there ability to think rationally and showed that they were far dumber than the 85 percent who are dumber than a box of rocks.
Attacking the country of Afghanistan was bad, but worst still was switching to invade Iraq.
I do not know which side of the political fence you the readers are, but Afghanistan was a waste of time, hitting the terror camps and breaking up the Taliban took a few weeks. I call it a waste of time because once started, we didn't finish, with the rebuilding and bringing these people into the 21 century.
You might not want to "nation build" but if you go in a break what existed, however much you didn't like it, the job falls to you to make it better. WE stopped doing that. ( 10 years later doesn't count )
But attacking Iraq, was the height of stupidity in a already dysfunctional government.
The attack on a specific location ( Pentagon and World Trade Center ) and the date of 9/11 was the surprise, but that something big was going to happen and soon was NOT. The republican like to tell us " it was a total surprise, that's why the response was so confused, so sporadic, "
You might ask why would the republicans admit something so bad as to admit to be caught unaware and unprepared. The republicans know only too well the psychology of asking forgiveness is easier than asking permission. Or "Its easier to say sorry than explain how you messed up"
Far better to have Americans think their government were asleep than to think they were incompetent.
And well you might ask, how could they hope to keep something like that secret ? Well they can not, they did not. The information is out there in blogs, reports , books, congressional hearings, mass media, but again the Republicans know the minds of the electorate only to well. Most of us are in denial. its just easier to say the elected and appointed were caught unaware than it is to say they are incompititant, because that means we are stuck with incompetence for many years.
Iraq the war our country went to fight, for a different reason ever month. This war cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. The Iraq war became the rally point for the dis enfranchised to join the terror movement. The lives lost by Americans, our Allies and the civilians that our government stated we were helping and the damage done to a generations bodies and minds, was and is a disgrace.
You have already read what went wrong. But did you know what went right, before President Bush , lost his mind completely.
First, I suggest you pick up two books....one an easy read... Carlie Wilsons War by George Crile and not so easy but very good, Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. The importance of these two books are the amount of information regarding terrorism and the structure of their organization that was know before 9/11.
Following the attacks on 9/11 the government organizations CIA. FBI....police, and there foreign counterparts were doing a fantastic job of fighting the war the 21 century way. These agencies across the globe were finding the money (which is the life blood of any organization), tracing the money , finding the leadership. This was the way to fight a new war, cut off the funds, identify the participants, than let smaller scale operations "take care " of the participants. Arrest-or-killthem. I prefer kill them but I can live with arrest. These agencies ( the intelligence and justice ) were doing a good job, working with world agencies, building up trust and developing a working relationship. The ground war was done for political glitz. Use of the Military should have been extremely limited. But it wasn't . Additionally, the people directing our Military tried to warn the leadership that first, the war was a bad idea, but, if order to fight, they needed more. So our intelligence community was ignored, our military was ignored, the majority of the world governments were ignored. George Bush and his team of theocratic ego maniac misfits knew better than everyone else.
OK water under the bridge; was it really necessary to attack Iraq when we did? "With the army that we had" as per Mr Rumsfield. Including inferior equipment ( for a large portion of the ground troops) , poor logistics. Could the attack not have waited for the proper night optics, ammo, armored transport etc. The post war, no game plan ?
This is the worse insult to our military, our citizens and the citizens of Iraq and the world !!! There was a detailed plan for what to do after the military victory or what ever you want to call it. The plan was done in detail prior to launch of the war, and it was requested by the George Bush White House. It was done and delivered months before the ground war started and included the infrastructure, how to treat the people, who to use to continue a government of Iraq,, on and on.... it was created, distributed and shelved. Again ignored by the Bush White House. George Bush and his team tried to wage war on the cheap. I say tried, because we know , war should be the last resort, and it ain't cheap. But starting cheap, only ends up costing more. And had George or any of the Morons he listened to, paid attention in class rather than whoring or snorting coke they would have known. You get what you pay for , and it always cost more to fix something than to do it right the first time. For all the fine speeches, and the fine talk coming out of the Bush White House, its not so fine if its lies. Remember dear reader, the Bush team was among the first to cut back on GI benefits including medical care. Lets not discuss what he and Rumsfield shorted them on, in basic material need to wage the war.
I will always believe that every department, and service stepped up to the plate, after 9/11 Above and beyond what was called for, except for the Congress, the Office of the President, and his staff. Who's action border on gross negligent and dare I say possible treason.
What we must remember is the sacrifice of ordinary people. That Americans are capable of selfless sacrifice for purely humanitarian causes. And regardless of what other nations might say, we do this every day.
But we must also remember it is the citizens duty to hold the elected people accountable for the actions of these officials. It is the duty of every citizen to search for the truth ( as best we can) It is our duty to let them know when they are not doing the job we hired them for, to prove what they say. And it is our duty to make decisions that help our society grow and remain strong so that future generation might also enjoy America We do not force our way of life on any one, but stand ready to help any one who ask. This is America.
There are many lessons from the attack of 9/11 . We should not forget any of them
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