Five years - 9/11

Today is the fifth anniversary of one of the most brutal and devastating attacks in the annals of history.  But that is only the first chapter of the story.  Many lives have been drastically altered, some have remained untouched, and others have been been put on hold.  

Like everyone else in the world on that day, I was mesmerized and revolted by the images that were pouring out of the television.  My day began early.  I was doing a ride along with a fellow employee of the uniform delivery company where I worked.  We were going through one of the outlying towns around Fort Wayne, IN and I was talking about how happy my wife and I were about discovering she was pregnant.  We stopped at the town hall in this little burg, and noticed that the little office was crowded with people watching a tiny TV set.  One of them told us that a passenger jet had "accidentally" slammed into one of the twin towers in New York.  It was only a few mere seconds after we set eyes on the screen that a second jet came roaring into the second tower.

Thus began a day of uncertainty for everyone in the world, but on a personal level for most of us.  We became introspective - I became introspective.  Thoughts and questions were racing through my mind.  Who was responsible for this heinous attack?  What would this mean for my family?  We were bringing a child into a world that had seemingly become a much more dangerous place to live.

On a personal level, I was able to overcome many of the fears that were permeating throughout much of society.  I decided to raise my child to think for himself.  My wife and I even had another child.  We decided not to let the terrorist attacks change our lives in a negative way.  Like Roosevelt had said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." 

The men who pulled the trigger on the attacks of 9/11 have all gone to meet their maker.  The man behind the attacks is still on the loose.  Why is this?  Didn't our president promise to take this man down?  Let's take a look at the rhetoric George W. Bush has spewed on our airwaves since 9/11.  At first Bush told us that finding bin Laden was the most important item on our agenda.

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." - September 13, 2001

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive'." - September 17, 2001

It didn't take long for this to start changing.

"Secondly, he is not escaping us. This is a guy, who, three months ago, was in control of a country. Now he's maybe in control of a cave. He's on the run. Listen, a while ago I said to the American people, our objective is more than bin Laden. But one of the things for certain is we're going to get him running and keep him running, and bring him to justice. And that's what's happening. He's on the run, if he's running at all. So we don't know whether he's in cave with the door shut, or a cave with the door open -- we just don't know." - December 28, 2001

And soon after this, we learned that Bush honestly didn't care about bin Laden.

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority . . . I am truly not that concerned about him." - March 13 - 2002

Of course later during one of the debates with John Kerry, Bush claimed he never said that.  I suppose when you lie all the time, you forget what the truth actually is.

But what led our "fearless leader" to change direction from going after the people responsible for 9/11 to not being concerned about them?  This will be for history to answer completely, but a lot of us have a pretty good idea.  George W. Bush decided he would use the attacks of 9/11 to further the Neocon agenda of Right Wing supremacy around the globe.  And what better way to further this agenda than using the fear that came naturally after 9/11.  He and others in his administration would imply that Iraq was involved in 9/11. And to sell people on war with Iraq, he would use words like "mushroom cloud" and "weapons of mass destruction".  I hate to admit it, but his misdirection of the American people worked brilliantly to instill even more fear in an already fearful nation. 

But why Iraq?  Why Saddam Hussein?  A glimpse into that part of Bush's psyche may provide an answer.  In the book "Hubris" by political reporter David Corn and Newsweek investigative journalist, Michael Isikoff we learn that . . .

President Bush was driven by a visceral hatred of Saddam Hussein, which he privately demonstrated in expletive-laden tirades against the Iraqi dictator. In May 2002 - months before he asked Congress for authority to attack Saddam - Bush bluntly revealed his ultimate game plan in a candid moment with two aides.  When told that reporter Helen Thomas was questioning the need to oust Saddam by force, Bush snapped: "Did you tell her I intend to kick his sorry mother-f**king ass all over the Mideast?" In a meeting with congressional leaders, the President angrily thrust his middle finger inches in front of the face of Senator Tom Daschle to illustrate Saddam's attitude toward the United States.

But this had nothing to do with 9/11.  A point driven home last week by a Senate report that tore apart the administrations claims - especially those of Dick Cheney - that Iraq was a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Today, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks that ended in tragedy in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, we need to remember those who died, we need to remove ourselves from the disaster of Iraq, and we need to focus on bringing the actual culprits of 9/11 to justice.  Chasing after the imaginary boogie man of an Iraq threat only serves to dishonor the dead of 9/11.  Very shortly, the number of dead US servicemen and women in Iraq will match and exceed the number of dead from 9/11.  And that, my friends is a travesty of justice.