While everyone is remembering the tenth anniversary of the horrible events that took place on this day in 2001, there is still one thing that seems to be overlooked. That is Why?
Here we are, ten years later and we are still having security alerts and looking over our shoulder for another terrorist attack.
Ten years of war, where we’ve responded to the death and destruction of 9/11 by sending more people to their deaths overseas and we are still hated by those who perpetrated the attacks. Maybe more so.
On this day of remembrance, we should take a long hard look into the mirror, as a nation, and see what it is that the terrorists see. Why they hate us. Why they would rather die than live in our world.
It’s a question I haven’t found an adequate answer for. The media doesn’t talk about it much. They’d rather take a self-indulgent look at the past, or show us the latest pictures of war.
It’s easy to say “Oh they hate us because they’re jealous of our prosperity.” or “They have a violent religion. It’s all they know.” Neither of which is true. Islam is not a religion of violence and our economy is on the brink of collapse.
You and I, individually, have done nothing to anyone in the rest of the world. Or at least, I hope you haven’t. But we are judged by what our country does. What it does on our behalf as we look the other way. That’s what has so offended many people in certain parts of the world. The USA has become a symbol the imperialistic country, meddling in the world for it’s own interests. And everything we’ve done since 9/11 has reinforced that image.
While we are spending this day looking back, feeling sorry for ourselves, the rest of the world is looking ahead to a time when the US isn’t a superpower. We’re not far away. We’re bankrupting our country fighting wars without any resolution. We’re spending money propping up other governments with no return for it. They’re our friends today, but when the money runs out and we need a friend, will they be there? We’re recovering from a series of natural disasters in our own country that cost huge amounts of money to repair and still sending aid to other countries for theirs.
Meanwhile, the big corporations are living in an international economy, hedging their bets and living above the law of any one country. They’re not investing in the US, not hiring more US workers. They see the handwriting on the wall and are insuring their own survival.
And our politicians continue on the same old path, insuring their own re-elections, printing more money to keep the whole thing afloat for four more years and avoiding really doing anything about it all. Congress has become a joke with more interest in following the party line and arguing for the cameras than actually doing anything. We can’t pass a simple law anymore. They have to be big, complex omnibus bills with pork thrown in to gain the support of key backers and fancy, double-speak names to shame the rest into not voting against them.
The collapse of the twin towers ten years ago was just the beginning. A bigger collapse of our own doing may be right around the corner. And much of the world will be there to gloat.