Thursday, September 11, 2008

September 11th, Never Forget

Today is September 11th 2008. It was 7 years ago today I stood in front of a TV at work and watched the greatest tragedy of my time take place. Being from Manhattan, I knew several people who could have been in the twin towers that day. None were.

As A boy I watched the towers take shape, slowly rising floor by floor over the Manhattan skyline to finally dominate the Southern tip of the Island.
I had been to the observation deck several times and once, stood on the roof the South Tower and marveled at the 360 degree view of my beloved home town.
When the Towers collapsed and the planes crashed on the fateful day, the world seemed to stop for a moment. The horror, the terror of that day, had here to for been unimaginable. We lost our innocence that day and we stand to loose allot more.

The United States gained the world’s sympathy, and received a large amount of good will and political capitol that could have been used to unite the world. Instead the administration and the powers behind it chose to use it to put forward a draconian ideological agenda directly at odds with the interests of the American People.

Iraq had nothing to do with AlKeida. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The Administration used Intelligence “Cherry Picking" to make their case that Saddam Hussein was an immediate threat to the security of the United States, and made it seem, like he was buddies with Bin Laden. Today as Colin Powell himself admited we know that nothing could have been further from the truth. The US went against the UN, NATO and the world when they attacked a sovereign nation with a “preemptive attack”. This is a dangerous concept. It effectively gives us the right to attack any nation we think might be a threat to us in the future. This is a subjective concept. What is really going on here? It all becomes clear when we examine one of the basic tenets of the Neo Conservative foreign policy, that is to enforce their economic policy with military power.

The Administration used 911 to push forward a decisive Neocon agenda that had been waiting on the drawing board for years. The Patriot act was a thinly disguised tool for expanding the powers of the White House and the Neocons so that they might remain in power to fulfill their agenda. Domestic Surveillance, the activation of the Propaganda Machine and the Colored alert system that is used to control the climate of fear in this country. It seems to remain perpetually at orange which is only one step away from the highest level of alert which is red.

If not for the US constitution and the relative independence of our judicial system, we would now be living in a police state. I think the clearest piece of evidence supporting this theory is that The FBI under direct instructions from the administration and acting under the Patriot Act has attempted and succeeded in some cases to subpoena library records of ordinary citizens. For what other reason than to find out what we are thinking. This is akin to the FBI surveillance of Martin Luther King and other Civil rights leaders in the 60s on a much much larger scale. Thank goodness most libraries have refused to comply with these Orwellian subpoenas which clearly violate our 4th amendment rights.

So Today on 911, I am remembering the Victims and the tragedy of that day, but I am also remembering what George Bush and the Neocons have done to us.
  • Limited our freedoms under the constitution.
  • Spied on us.
  • Involved us in a perpetual War without due cause.
  • Lied to us again and again to fulfill their hidden agendas.
Don’t forget. Never Forget.

BBM