I really didn't want to write this. In fact, I wanted to avoid blogging about this at all - which is why earlier I posted that very humorous YouTube clip of Matt Leinart getting Punk'd.
But, I believe the dis-service I would be doing by not posting, would be greater than if I did post, thus I am taking the time to write a couple thoughts about 9/11 and were we are as a country, five years after.
I'll be honest, when 9/11 first happened, I thought it was a joke - at best, a new movie opening up in theaters nationwide soon. At worst, it was someone sick imagination. I was in an Accounting class in school, when I happened to overhear a couple high-level details about what happened that day. The professor came in the class and announce (with little sadness) that "the events in New York are tragic, but we still have a class to go through".
At first, I didn't think it was a big deal - some moron flew their Cessna into the WTC. I had no idea about the Pentagon, or United 93. I thought that Osama bin Laden was dessert dwelling bedouin, who had nothing better to do with his time other than to make empty threats of war against Westerners.
And then I saw the damage. The people jumping 80 floors and more in a hope to avoid their fate. I saw fear. It was the first time in my life that I looked at another citizen in this country and could tell they were scared.
We all know what has happened since then. The saddest thing (and in my opinion, the scariest thing) is that five years later, we are by far no safer today than we were than. Sure, we really don't have to worry about terrorist taking over planes and crashing them into buildings (honestly, Al Qaeda isn't likely to pull that one again, though 'copycats' will surely try). But the fear persists in this country and in others.
Buy why are we here, why are we not safer. That's not an easy question to answer, but I think the answer clearly starts at the top. I understand that in order to move on from tragedy, it's not efficient to sit around pointing fingers, but in this case, I don't think there's anything else we can do.
In the days after 9/11, President Bush seemed like a real leader (it should be noted that in those days, I was a bleeding heart Republican, I digress). He was going to get the people that did this to us. He was going to deliver Osama's head to the American people on a silver platter, if need be. In the words of Senator Orrin Hatch, we were going to get the bastards that did this to us.
Now, five years later, let's measure our results:
- Osama bin Laden still roams free in Pakistan and criss-crosses the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with relative ease. He and his henchmen frequently release videotapes taunting us of our failure to capture or kill him.
- Al Qaeda is still alive and well. Thanks to the contstant disrespect offered up by this and other countries, it takes little more than a telephone call to a disenfranchised young Muslim to get them to join the group.
-The United States and Britian are heavily involved in an Iraqi Civil War. In 2003, after deposing of Saddam Hussein, the US dropped the ball on how to maintain basic law and order in a country and as a result growing tension between different Muslim sects grew out of control.
- Iran learned that they can mess with the head of top political leaders by threatening them with mythical nuclear weapons. In the past, the US would have simply cut them off, econimically, and the situation would be resolved. However, with Oil at record prices and the military busy babysitting next door, the adminstration has its hands tied.
- Most civil liberties in the United States are essentially gone. The government regularly requests private records of ordinary citizens from the Web Searches to a list of telephone calls the make from phone companies. Cameras are everywhere- on traffic lights, in ATM's, Library entrances, and in police cars. Hell, I don't even trust the camera in my macbook.
I won't go through all of the things that changed, as I believe the list above will suffice. However, I would like to share an article that I came across today in Newsweek. It basically presents a scenario of the world that would have happened had our goverment done what it should have done in a post-9/11 world.
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