I was sitting in a hospital bed twenty years ago when I saw the second plane fly into the WTC and then watched in horror as the events of that day continued to unfold. People literally jumping to their deaths rather than die by fire. They had no choice that they would die. That was already made up for them. And the passengers of Flight 93 that chose their most certain death to be sure another horrific image like in Washington and NYC did not occur. Nearly 3,000 people died that day and countless more after as a result of actions taken to combat radical Islamic terrorism, and yet here we are as if none of it ever happened. Conspiracies remain by those that need them and those same people that harbored the terrorists, supported them in various ways and cheered them on remain all over the Middle East, most especially in Afghanistan.
Here at home, we're back to the fights that were ongoing for years in the lead up to that day. Abortion? You bet. That always plays. Congressional spending that just gets higher and higher every single year? We're just fighting over the right way to get it done. It doesn't matter what the national debt is anymore. No one gives a shit apparently. And for all those people that thought George W. Bush was BushChimpHitler and thought Trump was sucking off Putin every night while establishing a dictatorship seem to have little issue whatsoever with "I've got a phone and a pen" and "Governors just need to get out of the way." After all, when their guy is grabbing power and control it's all just perfectly fine so stop whining!
The real truth is, we have no principle anymore as a nation. No actual guiding light in which we can at least agree upon as citizens when we look at ourselves as opposed to the rest of the world. At our founding as a country, we were the most liberal country in the world...a classical liberal idea...a powerful message contained within it that a free peoples could govern themselves because our rights were ordained by God and not government. And yet, little by little, we have allowed government, tiny cut by tiny cut, take those rights back...away. That is how freedom dies. The old saw about the frog in the pot of boiling water is not quite true, but it remains an old saw for a reason. It has happened elsewhere and people noticed it. George Orwell noticed it. Vaclav Havel noticed it. And those of you with a brain are noticing it now.
The War on Terror began on September 11, 2001. Our first response? Develop an entirely new and additional government administration. Somehow this was to assist in sharing of information between the CIA, FBI and Defense Department. Notoriously unable to work with one another...because why would they? They don't think they work for us. They think they work for themselves and power is the ultimate desire, if not aphrodisiac. So how's that Homeland Security Department going? Do you enjoy having to take your shoes off every time you get on a plane? Because it's possible that a little old lady might have a bomb in their orthopedics.But no...we're going to get serious about this now after years of looking the other way.
So then we invade Afghanistan, which I supported. We followed that with the invasion of Iraq, which I also supported. There were different reasons for my support and I'll briefly outline them here: Afghanistan had been harboring terrorists and given them safe haven. We took that away from them. Iraq was an unfinished conflict, frankly. Bush pere should have finished the job in the 90's but instead left a dictator in power so he could pay off suicide bombers in Israel. He boasted about it. So Bush fils finished the job. And yet again...what happened? State can't agree with Defense which can't agree with National Security which can't agree with Homeland Security and we end up in a nation building exercise doomed to fail. That's at least four agencies that are supposed to work for us, but instead work for themselves. Yet again.
I'm not a military planner, but I am a student of history. We had won both of these conflicts as far as our limited military goals were concerned. But we had to throw on yet another level (which was poorly understood and defined) and ended up staying for years longer than needed. And then when we tried to get out when the numbskulls finally realized this, they did it...both times..ass backwards! Abandoning Iraq (because it was supposedly the bad war) under Obama led to the rise of ISIS and destabilized an already unstable Middle East. Abandoning Afghanistan will lead to a similar situation because we've seen this play before. We saw it in the 80's and 90's. We've seen it since and will continue to see it because these people that we have willingly elected to office to work for us only work for themselves.
From Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump to the ghost of Biden that we see trotted out from time to time when his meds are working, we are treated to worthless politicians that only care about power. Gaining power, keeping power, using that power to better their own lots but not ours. And yet...they still work for us!!! That is, if it remains important to anyone, if the Constitution still holds any sway. And on that, I am having my doubts. Executive actions by the Presidency have been out of bounds and overused for far too long. And Congress seems to have no desire to take back that power they rightfully hold unless they are in the opposition party to the President. And the Supreme Court just wants to be liked.
So here we are, twenty years later, and nothing has really changed. The Taliban are ruling in Afghanistan. Strongmen continue to rule in the Middle East from Turkey to Iran and all parts in between. We're over here arguing the same old talking points about abortion, race, and guns while seeming to look the other way as the federal government takes on more and more power for themselves at the expense of states and individual citizens. The debt keeps rising. The bureaucracy continues to grow. And if anyone remembers 9/11 now, it's just this sad state of history. Someday those memorials and statues will come down too, I guess. It's disgusting.
For me, I pray for all of those families that still grieve their fallen loved ones either on that day and since that day. I pray for this country. And I pray that at least some of you do actually care about things like federalism and the Constitution, personal rights and freedom, the country itself and what we've stood for all these years since our founding and for a future that is not preordained. We still run this country...if we are willing. Are we? Think about that next time your hard built business is looted. When you get fired for not putting something into your body that you find undesirable. Or when some snotty pseudo-intellectual tries to shout you down when you just want to share your well earned opinion. Most of all...think about that the next time you have the opportunity to vote.
That is all.
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