ruins of 9/11 by Elvert Barnes
It's been twelve years since 9/11 occurred, cutting away at
the naà ¯ve trust that was a baseline of our system and replacing it with fear,
including Islamophobia. I've gotten used to airport ordeals, new forms of
hatred, conspiracy theories and greedily grabbed for that life preserver, hope,
offered to us by Barack Obama during campaign 2008.
Is it any
coincidence that 9/11 occurred soon after G. W. Bush took office? What darkness
he had already cast over society. How glumly the twenty-first century commenced
once the president born in Hope, Arkansas stepped down, warning of the threat
posed by Al Qaeda and recommending that it be prioritized instead of thrown to
the bottom of the barrel, as it was by the ascending administration. Al Qaeda
became an issue for the new administration at the beginning of September 2001, around
the time that the visiting Mexican president Vicente Fox was treated to a
nocturnal fireworks display that woke up disgruntled residents of Georgetown,
among others. Scarcely a week later the whole world was paralyzed by 9/11.
"Attack on
America," the first reference to that holocaust, wasn't catchy enough for the
press, so 9/11, a reference to the numbers we dial for emergency, took over and
stuck. "Attack" referenced what had happened. 9/11 warned of its results as the
Earth sank and we all struggled for balance.
I joined the
conspiracy theorists. There were just too many coincidences coalescing on that hideous
day.
Most authorities
agree that since 1998 members of the Carlyle Group and other hawks wanted to
invade Iraq and, at the least, seized upon 9/11 as a window of opportunity for
their goal.
But first came
the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. Two years later, founded on a
transparent heap of lies, the Iraq invasion followed. The Iraq war was ended
with the country still in shambles and the president promises that all troops
will be removed from Afghanistan, locus of this country's longest war in
history, by next year.
And so, with the
Syria crisis looming, I couldn't help but reflect on my theory that our economy
depends on war and another one was needed to keep our weapons industry afloat. Then
Vladimir Putin, of all people, rescued our Nobel Peace prize laureate with a
solution that I hope will stick: remove all chemical WMD from Syria, pretext
for the next war that may not happen.
So what happens
next? What will we fear next? Where's the red line? Right here. We are so
educationally challenged compared to other developed countries. Beggars of
every description line our streets while the money goes overseas to fight
useless wars.
We can keep our
huge military as teeth if need be, and continue to research new ways to destroy
the world, and still have billions left over to be spent at home for a change
if we abstain from war. All that funding devoured by NSA could be put to far
better use. All that wealth spent on multiple residences in fashionable resorts
could instead go far to improve things for everybody, something that the one
percent can't get through their damaged brains. The countries that fare the
best in this world boast thriving middle classes and often free higher
education. They tax and spend.
*****
After 9/11 we feared
going to events that involved crowded space. I still feel 9/11's shadow each
time I board public transportation or a plane. Extremist threats target sites
abroad, but I inhabit one of 9/11's two targets, Washington, DC. We also learned from 9/11 that no one
anywhere is safe. The happiest people, according to a recent study, inhabit
Scandinavia and Switzerland--how can they be so happy, the Scands, when they are
forced to spend at least half of each year in the dark, freezing to death?
Because they've avoided war?
Switzerland,
consistently neutral, is really safe as the terrorists' piggy bank, people say.
I was just there and experienced the joy of safety and exquisite otherworldliness.
Despite
hijackings, we felt that safe, I recall, before 9/11. It was a joyous,
cloudless day. Lower Manhattan was its usual milling jumble of middle-class
routines bathed in early-morning, cloudless sunlight.
I remember that
black smoke being sucked into that azure sky that wouldn't cloud. I remember
being phoned by my daughter, a sophomore at Columbia, asking what she should
do. Her boyfriend stood atop a building somewhere between West 30th
and 40th Streets watching the holocaust, people choosing death by
falling scores of stories to violent collisions with cement, over burning alive.
Who really stood
to gain from 9/11? Al Qaeda? Bin Laden? The Carlyle Group that included one of
bin Laden's relatives?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
