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9/11
Went to the Sox game last night and I was struck by something that really really bugs me about 9/11. All the 'patriot's day' material was military related, tributes to the troops, etc. 9/11 has NOTHING to do with the armed forces. or at least nothing legitimate. Sure, we used 9/11 as an excuse to invade two Islamic countries and topple their governments, but those attacks were not 9/11. The military already has two holidays, can't we make 9/11 a day to thank emergency responders, those who run towards danger?
My basic point is this. Our military actions in 'response' to 9/11 have been shameful. Thousands dead, two governments toppled, two regions destabilized, one on completely falsified evidence, millions of dollars flushed down the drain. What do we have to show for it? Did we stomp out global terrorism? No. We have at least as many enemies in the world now.
If we need to make 9/11 about heroes, lets make it about emergency responders, police, fire, EMTs, who went into danger to save those they could. On 9/11 they didn't enter the towers out of revenge, out of hate, out of globo-political ambition, they entered the towers out of a pure heroic love. And that should be celebrated, shouted to the very echo.
Instead, we have another celebration of the military industrial complex, ad that saddens me.
Cross-Posted from Facebook.
My basic point is this. Our military actions in 'response' to 9/11 have been shameful. Thousands dead, two governments toppled, two regions destabilized, one on completely falsified evidence, millions of dollars flushed down the drain. What do we have to show for it? Did we stomp out global terrorism? No. We have at least as many enemies in the world now.
If we need to make 9/11 about heroes, lets make it about emergency responders, police, fire, EMTs, who went into danger to save those they could. On 9/11 they didn't enter the towers out of revenge, out of hate, out of globo-political ambition, they entered the towers out of a pure heroic love. And that should be celebrated, shouted to the very echo.
Instead, we have another celebration of the military industrial complex, ad that saddens me.
Cross-Posted from Facebook.
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Afganistan was a fairly liberal and well-educated country until, I gather, the US and the USSR used them as pawns for a hot outbreak of the cold war... and when we were done using their country and factions as a game board, the taliban took over.
From Frontline:
"Taliban government banned most forms of entertainment, from music to television to kite flying, and dealt with crime via public executions, stonings and amputations. Government officials in the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice monitored the streets. Women were forced to wear full-body burqas in public and were prohibited from working, attending school past the age of eight or visiting male doctors without a male chaperone [and much worse atrocities, as I recall]... In 1999, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan to force the Taliban to hand over Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden, who stood accused of orchestrating the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. The Taliban refused, calling Bin Laden "a guest" in Afghanistan. "
The idiocy is that we didn't put all our resources into cleaning up our old mess in Afganistan, getting them stable and pulling out the crazies, in the first place. Instead... Iraq? Seriously? WTF. And just like an infection with under-powered antibiotics, picking at it ineffectually just made it worse... made it easier for the crazies to keep recruiting people from all around europe, kept things unstable. etc. And now, the taliban has recovered happily and keeps getting within arms reach of taking over pakistan... which has nuclear weapons.
We've screwed them both up yes. But they're very different problems.
I agree with you about the emergency responders, though.
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A correction...
Further, the reich wing (the consolidated Republicans/Tea Baggers/Paultards/Randian sociopaths) in this country voted against benefits for these first responders. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20012217-503544.html