TRITE THOUGHTS ON 911
To be honest, I don't really have much of an urge to talk about the 2-year anniversary. There's been so much demagoguery, from all directions, about how any particular citizen of America/Earth should feel about the events of that day.
The biggest disappointment in the two years since comes in knowing that this was our big chance. We were being given a level of international goodwill not seen in ages. It was our chance to make a serious, apolitical effort to rid ourselves of the moral tether that is our dependence on Saudi oil, and embark upon, as Tom Friedman put it, a "Manhattan Project for renewable energy".
Instead, we saw the Bush Administration push for and get an unjustified, unilateral war that had nothing to do with 9/11, Al Qaeda and the "war on terrah". Not only that, but we got that war with the added bonus of pissing off a great many of our allies (Chirac and Schroeder were among the first to visit NYC after the attacks), and denouncing the United Nations as "irrelevant". Meanwhile Osama still cannot be found, but you wont hear Bush mention that.
And we still don't have the truth on a number of important questions about 9/11.
There is no doubt that on that fateful morning two years ago, in Lower Manhattan, in the still-burning rubble of the Pentagon's south wall, and in the aisle (and perhaps, the cockpit) of Flight 93, we saw the very very best in human character. Men and women in uniform, covered head to toe in dust and soot (which we now know was toxic), risking their lives to help eachother, regardless of difference, regardless of any of the culture-war bullshit that sometimes pulls at the fabric of American society. Needless to say, their acts of sacrifice were not forged in the interest of giving some of our government a political opening to launch an unrelated, unjustified war of choice against a country that neither attacked, nor threatened us. But years from now, when the memory of 9/11 is committed to history, the memories of the day itself will find their way, first and foremost, to the brave souls who went above and beyond in unbelievable ways that morning.
To be honest, I don't really have much of an urge to talk about the 2-year anniversary. There's been so much demagoguery, from all directions, about how any particular citizen of America/Earth should feel about the events of that day.
The biggest disappointment in the two years since comes in knowing that this was our big chance. We were being given a level of international goodwill not seen in ages. It was our chance to make a serious, apolitical effort to rid ourselves of the moral tether that is our dependence on Saudi oil, and embark upon, as Tom Friedman put it, a "Manhattan Project for renewable energy".
Instead, we saw the Bush Administration push for and get an unjustified, unilateral war that had nothing to do with 9/11, Al Qaeda and the "war on terrah". Not only that, but we got that war with the added bonus of pissing off a great many of our allies (Chirac and Schroeder were among the first to visit NYC after the attacks), and denouncing the United Nations as "irrelevant". Meanwhile Osama still cannot be found, but you wont hear Bush mention that.
And we still don't have the truth on a number of important questions about 9/11.
There is no doubt that on that fateful morning two years ago, in Lower Manhattan, in the still-burning rubble of the Pentagon's south wall, and in the aisle (and perhaps, the cockpit) of Flight 93, we saw the very very best in human character. Men and women in uniform, covered head to toe in dust and soot (which we now know was toxic), risking their lives to help eachother, regardless of difference, regardless of any of the culture-war bullshit that sometimes pulls at the fabric of American society. Needless to say, their acts of sacrifice were not forged in the interest of giving some of our government a political opening to launch an unrelated, unjustified war of choice against a country that neither attacked, nor threatened us. But years from now, when the memory of 9/11 is committed to history, the memories of the day itself will find their way, first and foremost, to the brave souls who went above and beyond in unbelievable ways that morning.
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