Sunday, September 11, 2011

The Lies of 9/11

Ten years on and and the 9/11 casualties continue to pile up. As the disease stricken first responders waste away and die, their medical bills remain unpaid and the facts about their illnesses hidden and denied. The shame of our nation is written on their faces, and the deceit of our "indebtedness to them" will be their epitaph.

The orgy of memorials to the fallen and the lost is coming to an end tonight, and hopefully everyone has been cheered by the platitudes to honor and patriotism and national unity. Since the truth won't make anyone feel good, the lies will have to suffice.

The 3000 odd victims of  the September 11th attacks were't the only deaths to be tallied on that day. The dignity and values of our nation died that day as well.

All the way from our unelected and improperly appointed and oafish and cowardly President, to the craven and  sheepish Congress that cobbled together the nauseatingly named Patriot Act which did away with many of our citizen's constitutional rights, the absence of national leadership condemned this country to a dark decade that we show no signs of coming out of.

The response to these terror attacks was a misadventure in Iraq that continues to this day. Untold numbers of dead and maimed having nothing whatsoever to do with those 9/11 attacks were the result of a "War on Terror" that also served to crush dissent in this country, all in the name of "patriotism". The armed forces of our great nation, populated by mostly poor and lower middle class are a volunteer force,for as our economy exports the last jobs that might support a middle class leaves little choice for the "volunteers" looking for extra bucks or college credits. the multiple tours of duty forced upon these soldiers is and has been a disgrace, and is so unfair as to be criminal in its abuses.

Unchecked xenophobia and blatant racism have become the unashamed norm for what passes for political discourse. Terror and torture, black sites and rendition have become the unchallenged modus operandi for the United States of America, the leader of the free world. Dark skinned American citizens are forced to carry identification papers, lest they be arrested as undesirable immigrants.  Illegal wiretaps, detentions, and illegal searches of person and property are now what passes for "homeland security".

And what of the people? Is this country not more politically fractured than at any time since the Civil War? Is national unity served by denying any group the right to freedom of worship? Is there anything more repugnant than justifying racism and scapegoating any group in the name of the innocent dead from those 9/11 attacks? There can be no more effective dishonoring of our losses than to justify a turning away from American ideals in the name of  a fascistic and false "national unity", but alas, that is what we have.

Ten years on and we don't have the freedoms we had prior to those attacks. We don't have security in our travel, and in our daily lives. We are caught in a morass of unending conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The geopolitical relationships we have with the brutal dictators of the Middle East for the oil we still are addicted to, that continue to give rise to terrorist groups that hate both their oppressors and us, their enablers, are unchanged.

We are unworthy of  the heroism shown by the dead of Shanksville. We are unworthy of the sacrifices of the heros at the piles of rubble in Manhattan and the Pentagon. We are flag waving cretins that think nothing of sacrificing the soldiers that volunteer for the armed forces and are committing suicide at unprecedented rates. We are unworthy of the constitutional guarantees we have as a nation turned away from.

We still have our lies though. We'll take them out again next September 11th.



2 comments:

  1. Well, as much as I'd like to argue with you (and you know I would), I agree. Just to clarify, the oafish, unelected prez would be W, not O, right?

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  2. Yes, W is the oaf. But now O is playing politics with a new threat of military force in Syria, based on intelligence that the world distrusts. Is nothing ever learned?

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