I married an American and I've been here 8 years - green card dude.
On September 11 2001 I was working at a small company in Eden Prairie, MN.
Word got around that something crazy was going on.
Someone ran home and brought back a portable black & white TV.
We all stood around in the meeting room and watched.
In 1985 my 5-year-old niece was killed by a nailbomb planted by the IRA in a pedestrian mall in a garbage can. She was beautiful and torn apart.
I lived in London in the 90's and was evacuated many times from subways and buildings by bomb scares.
And we stood in the meeting room and watched the WTC burn and fall.
I can't remember the exact moment, but this is what I said.
Welcome to the real world.
They heard me, but there was no response.
I was surprised. I thought someone would whack me around the head with an American flag. But it didn't happen. The American people are not stupid.
Later in 2001, Colin Powell sent an aide to inform Jerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, that America was declaring war on all terrorists. The definition was any organization that killed civilians. Like my 5-year-old niece. Britain rejoiced. Five years later, the IRA has laid down its arms and we have a peace. The British people supported America unconditionally in 2001. And there was a huge opportunity to change the world for the better.
Then everything started going horribly wrong. You don't need me to relate again the shocking litany of mistakes, greed, imperialism and lies.
The response to the WTC tragedy by the Bush administration has been to create even more tragedy.
They have failed in every possible measure.
It is amazing to me how this once-great country, America, can fall so fast. Six years! I was once happy to raise my son here. No longer.
If they attack Iran, you, the American people, are responsible. You have let this happen.
Because, when the poor black Americans in Iraq are left to rot, just like N.O., when helicopters are on the rooftops again, when China and Russia retaliate, when they call in the nine trillion dollars in T-notes you owe them and impose sanctions, when that pair of blue jeans costs you fifty bucks, when you're paying $2000 a month for your $200,000 house, when unemployment hits 30% and your kid's accounting degree means nothing because all the jobs are outsourced to Bangalore, when America becomes the very dangerous Third-World nuclear nation you're all currently warned about by Fox News.
Maybe you'll get off your asses and do something.
But it will be too late.