Never Forget...
Krieg
Posts: 5,188 ✭✭✭
I'm not going to go into a big thing about remembering 9/11, we all know what it means...instead, I'm just going to post this:
"Long ashes my friends."
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I cancelled all days off and called in all my officers. Even though they were worried about their own families, not one complained and all responded immediately. We worked like that for a week and even though there was no real threat, people in the city said they felt more secure seeing all the officers around the city.
The thing you have to keep in mind is that mistakes will be made and in no war has there been a zero civilian casualty rate. Not only that, there have been many terrorist plots thwarted with Al-Qaeda operatives coming in through Mexico and Canada. Does CNN report this? Never. They just report "Hey, insurgents wiped out half a village, but we're sure our soldiers, marines, Bush, and Palin are responsible."
However since 9-11 we have passed a huge piece of legislation that takes a lot of our freedoms as Americans and puts them on hold, AKA the PATRIOT act, a huge new agency called HOMELAND SECURITY, along with hundreds if not thousands of contractors that listen to our phone calls, can look at our computer messages and ip traffic, a huge surge in private military companies which is very costly and is also tarnishing the US's name, invading a country which had no proof of involvement and lied about, invaded another country to get bin laden which was a FAIL from the get go as the CIA and DOD let him escape, trillions of dollars spent (borrowed) to fuel these wars along with all the private contractors who are building (stealing) over there, mass divide among our citizens, and countless lives.. There are more but this is just some of the stuff which is due to the outlandish, and ill thought out response to 9-11. I'm not even going to begin to talk about the F'ing airport ***. All of this due to a network of people who do terrorism through out the world.
That's sort of the crappy thing about sending in the most powerful military on earth on a bug hunt for a small group of people who are almost all decimated. However in doing this massive civilian casualties (man of who are killed indirectly) cause a problem, protest and cause the populous to turn. And in this case we (the US) are being touted as being something which we are not, and Empire at war with the Muslim world.
Thus is why I have a problem with the post 9-11 US. This has lasted longer than WW2 and there is no end in sight. Also FEAR has been used to promote safety and thus has put more and more stipulations on OUR rights and has caused multiple foreign relation issues as well as take our money out of our treasury. Bottom line, terrorism happens and there isn't anything to stop it completely unless we lose ourselves as a Nation of Freedom and turn it into something you see in Equilibrium/V for Vendetta or any other film that shows a world of military rule and no freedoms. No we as a country Failed in the shadows of 9-11, we gave into FEAR and overreacted so much that we allowed "one" man to pretty much turn us into an empire at war.
9-11 is something we can all agree on, and the way we felt that day (last time I was in a church I do believe as well). HOWEVER, 9-11 and the spirit of unity from that day is something we have lost...as well as holding those accountable who are the "masters of war" in this country and the chaos our soldiers are faced with because of them.
I think Krieg had the right idea.
The men and women who live and die daily as a direct result of that day are owed a genuine discussion of our path and how we got there. We also owe it to them to engage in a critical analysis of what has gone on to see no more people have to die as a result of lies or failures in the chain of command. That isnt a low blow, thats showing respect to the memory of all who have died on 9-11 and after it "defending freedom", and not dying in vain because no one wanted to speak up when they should have...whatever the title of a post may be.
And a big AMEN to that!!
Marty
You make very good comments to hit at emotions and rally people to the flag flying proudly, but those do not always take into account a rational or critical perspective on actions that we owe it to everyone to make.