A Day of Mourning, Politics, and Conspiracy

It's now 9/12. It's been over 5 years since al-Qaeda launched the devastating attacks of 9-11-2001. On one hand our country still seems trying to cope with the issue. On the other it seems that both sides of the political aisle in Washington wish to play us all for fools.

I'll start with September 11th. Yes, I remember exactly where I was that day, I hope I never forget. I had just parked my car at Gainesville College and was getting ready to go to class, listening to the Neal Boortz radio show when the announcement came that a plane had struck the World Trade Center's North Tower. My first thought was that it was a small plane. I went to the library and pulled up pictures of it online and realized what was happening.

The librarian then turned on the TV in the audio/visual room just as the second plane hit the South Tower. My friend Matt, who is older and vastly more learned than I, especially at that time, said "bin Laden has screwed himself this time." I, of course, had never heard the name of Usama bin Laden. Moments later a report came in that the Pentagon had been hit, and shortly after that both Trade Center Towers collapsed.

It burns my heart to see the footage. To watch people choosing to jump to their deaths, knowing that rescue was impossible. To hear the flight recordings, as Muhammed Atta tells the passengers of American 11 that they are returning to the airport, blatantly lying, willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands. To hear the pilot of United 93 tell his passengers that there was a bomb on board and that they were returning to the airport to make their demands. To listen to a 911 call from an upper floor of the South Tower, hearing the fear in a man's voice, knowing that he will in all likelihood die very soon, and then hearing his screams as the Tower begins to fall. My blood begins to boil, and if you are able to listen to this and not feel anger over what happened, then I feel sorry for you.

September 11 marks a turning point for the world. I know that sounds trite, but the truth remains. Nothing as been the same since that day. Are we safer? I don't know. I do like the idea of getting these Islamic Radical Fascists in their own lands before they strike at us again, which is not a matter of if but when.

So yesterday, the five year anniversary of the most destructive terror attack ever, President Bush goes before the nation to discuss a number of issues. He started with a tribute to those lost on 9/11, but afterwards spent his speech discussing foreign policy. I tend to believe that Islamic terror is the key enemy on this earth. I've discussed this in previous posts, and will not re-hash my belief here.

So Bush discusses foreign policy. I'm okay with that. I understand the necessity of going into Iraq. Do I like war? No, anyone that does is mad. I understand that some wars have to be fought. I'm sick of a media machine that loves to focus all attention on the negative. Five years after the attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3000 people, the combined efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have claimed nearly as many American lives. The media will hammer this point into your impressionable head at every turn. They love to show how dangerous life is with the Iraqi insurgency and the attempted re-establishment of the Taliban. They will not, however, tell you of the 50 million or so people freed from tyrannical regimes. They will give you a 30-second sound bite about 12 million Iraqis voting in a truly democratic election, and then pound out about 15 minutes of coverage on a car bomb that blew up in Kirkuk.

The worst part is the far-left wing of the Democrat Party, the wing that has essentially co-opted the party away from it's moderate roots, the wing that has FDR spinning in his grave, will tell you that President Bush is at fault for everything. Perhaps not the members of the party, but at least the constituency will blame Bush for everything from a soldier's death at the hands of an improvised road-side bomb to the actual collapse of the Twin Towers.

There is a group called "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" who are dead-set in their argument that the Bush Administration planeted Thermite charges and various other cutter charges in the Twin Towers and in WTC Building 7 in order to launch a war in the Middle East to make their Big Oil buddies richer. Remember that this is the same President who 90% of the liberal component of this country say is the dumbest president ever. Apparently bush, who was in office for just about 8 months prior to the attack was able to orchestrate the planting of controlled charges, and then pay off about 19 Saudis to take over 4 airplanes and start crashing them into things. Yeah, that sounds plausible. Here are two of the worst arguments...

Argument 1: The collapse of the Twin Towers was far too controlled, including puffs of smoke coming from different floors at the building collapsed to have been totally related to the two 767's that struck them.
Answer: Absolutely. But it couldn't have anything to do with the fires generated by two 767's that were fueled up for cross-country flights, nor with the subsequent office and paper fires, nor with the structural damage produced from the attacks. As for the puffs of smoke, those counldn' tpossibly be related to the pancaking of the floors, or from the air being pushed down and blowing out the windows as around 50 million tons of steel comes crashing down. And why did the building fall into their own footprints? I keep hearing this argument and I almost wonder is these people are sad that more destruction wasn't unleashed in New York. The buildings collapsed straight down because that's how they were designed. Chief Architect Minoru Yamasaki planned for the building to fall straight down, in the event of a structural failure such as the one witnessed on 9/11.

Argument 2: Building 7 wasn't struck by an airplane, why did it collapse?
Answer: I've heard, from the conspiracy nuts, that WTC 7 had to be demolished because of a clandestine CIA operation based out of it. I'm thinking it may have more to do with damage suffered during the initial attacks that would have sparked fires and damaged the inner structure of the building. I could be wrong.

I'll close by saying this. I don't like war. I wish we had never been given a reason to go to war. But I would much rather stand up as Americans and take responsibility for the greatest issues and threats of our time, just like the World War II generation did, than to leave a problem unsolved for our children and their children to deal with.