Reflections on 9/11
It's been four years since 9/11 and a lot of water had passed under the bridge ever since. Today is a good day to see what it has brought to us.
At that time there was a president that had been elected in some cloudy transaction down in Florida and who got like half a million less votes than his opponent. In some parts of the world democracy refers to 'majority', perhaps here we have a more advanced form of the same concept that brought us George W. Bush to power -well, "advanced" if you know what I mean.
The buildings came down and the Pentagon caught fire, and certainly years and years of military spending, more money than any rational person could ever dream of in all kind of fancy weapons turned out to be completely useless. Thousands of nuclear weapons mounted on missiles that can travel the world in minutes proved ineffective on three airliners and good only to destroy ourselves many times over. State of the art fighter jets, Abrahams tanks, aircraft carriers, spy satellites, cruise missiles, nuclear submarines, assault rifles, RPGs, night vision goggles and hundreds of military bases scattered around the world prevented nothing. Doesn't it gives you the feeling that people taking decisions at the top don't know what's going on in this world? I do get that feeling.
The first war after 9/11 rained down all kind of destruction to an already destroyed country and the mastermind of the attacks wasn't found. Because that was the reason to go there in the first place, it was only four years ago but I still remember GWB giving an ultimatum on TV to hand over Osama "or else". Or maybe my English wasn't that good in those autumn days and I misunderstood the whole thing? But while NYC was still looking for people among the rubble I really don't think that anybody thought that it was such a perfect timing to bring democracy to Afghanistan once and for all. Com'on, seriously, did anybody mention democracy and liberty and freedom in those days? It was more on the neighborhood of "we don't care who did it, but who's gona pay for it!".
I've always found odd to refer to killings and destruction as success, but that little war was considered as one. The initial goal wasn't attained (to capture mr. mastermind) but other people were captured and killed and I don't really know what happened there, and the news services didn't know either and before we could find out what really happened there, another nice little war was on its way again.
Up to this point the whole world was sympathetic to the US, offering all kind of help and kind words and understanding and 'whatever I kind do for you, I'll do it' type of mentality in those days. Imagine if in January 2001 a fortune teller would've told you that that very same year due to a catastrophic event the whole world was going to be sympathetic to the US, even old enemies would rally around to support America, would've you believed it? And that a year later even the most traditional allies of the US were gona be at odds with uncle Sam due to the handling of things, would've you believed it? In other words, would've you believed that one of the biggest tragedies in US history, together with the worst diplomatic fiasco of our generation was going to unfold in the hands of GWB? Now we know that that was only the tip of the iceberg of the things to come.
I have a tremendous memory for daily life situations, details and faces; phone numbers and birthdays are certainly not my strongest point but it doesn't matter for what happened in Iraq.
After 9/11 our leaders freaked out and thought that these attacks were gona keep coming like hip hop records, one after the other; so GWB decided to make his move before the other side did. Turned out to be some kind of auto check mate with his own queen, bishops, horses and one tower (the pawns were already out on the battlefield). He decided that Iraq had the most dangerous weapons ever created by human beings and that they were going to use them against America. No kidding my friends, listen up: GWB thought that Iraq, a country that throughout the 1980's fought a very messy, expensive and bloody war with one of its neighbors, then was destroyed in 1991 in the "First Gulf War"; and for the next 10 years (all of the 1990's) had so many economic sanctions around it that even people were starving to dead, was thought to have enough time and resources to develop nuclear weapons. Don't laugh now, GWB said it and a hell of a lot of people believed him.
The country was -hard to believe- destroyed one more time and no atomic weapons where ever found. America committed billions of dollars in resources, man power, blood and severe ties with its more traditional and important allies for a mirage that never existed in real life, not even on intelligence reports, a dream that existed only in the minds of those taking the decisions in that little White House up in DC. Once again they said it was a success, celebrated with a mission accomplish banner and a nice speech aboard an aircraft carrier. I really can't imagine these people running a real world company having to explain to the board of directors or investors about their so called "success". But anyway, those two wars were a success in the sense of capturing and killing evildoers and whoever the fuck looked like one or was in the middle of it all (I also like to break shit every now and then so I kind of understand them).
But those two wars are really peanuts compared to something more important to us Americans. Anyway the people killed over there were soldiers, who are suppose to die for their elected official's mistakes, and the rest weren't Americans like us, so maybe they were guilty after all, and the less you know about that the better. But what terrifies and sadness me is that today the president of the US has the authority to detain, throw in jail and forget about any person including American citizens -people like you and me, my very dear and very few readers. He also has the authority to take those detainees to other countries to be tortured in order to extract information from them. There's no Miranda law or any silly thing like that, just pure brute force. Even if you check out a book from the local library that looks suspicious (Nicholas Sparks maybe?) you could be on your way to a paid vacation in Egypt for some questioning followed by a long time of missed summer blockbusters. If you're considered "dangerous" they can basically lock you in and throw away the key. God bless.
Besides the re-election of a president that was on his way out before he got elected the first time and two wars, 9/11 has brought the rule of man over the rule of law; the institutionalization of lies, half truths, misleads and lack of accountability for the government; and has brought the idea that there's always a military solution for everything. It has brought a one party rule where some of his members are blinded with power; it has brought the reduction of rights on regular people, woman and an expansion on religion on daily life; and it has brought the use of force against our own citizens.
It has made our government replicate with a ton of success the very same ideas of the people it vows to be fighting against. And it has brought to light the reality of the "Iron Triangle" in our society. In only four years my friends. . . and I'm afraid the best is yet to come.
At that time there was a president that had been elected in some cloudy transaction down in Florida and who got like half a million less votes than his opponent. In some parts of the world democracy refers to 'majority', perhaps here we have a more advanced form of the same concept that brought us George W. Bush to power -well, "advanced" if you know what I mean.
The buildings came down and the Pentagon caught fire, and certainly years and years of military spending, more money than any rational person could ever dream of in all kind of fancy weapons turned out to be completely useless. Thousands of nuclear weapons mounted on missiles that can travel the world in minutes proved ineffective on three airliners and good only to destroy ourselves many times over. State of the art fighter jets, Abrahams tanks, aircraft carriers, spy satellites, cruise missiles, nuclear submarines, assault rifles, RPGs, night vision goggles and hundreds of military bases scattered around the world prevented nothing. Doesn't it gives you the feeling that people taking decisions at the top don't know what's going on in this world? I do get that feeling.
The first war after 9/11 rained down all kind of destruction to an already destroyed country and the mastermind of the attacks wasn't found. Because that was the reason to go there in the first place, it was only four years ago but I still remember GWB giving an ultimatum on TV to hand over Osama "or else". Or maybe my English wasn't that good in those autumn days and I misunderstood the whole thing? But while NYC was still looking for people among the rubble I really don't think that anybody thought that it was such a perfect timing to bring democracy to Afghanistan once and for all. Com'on, seriously, did anybody mention democracy and liberty and freedom in those days? It was more on the neighborhood of "we don't care who did it, but who's gona pay for it!".
I've always found odd to refer to killings and destruction as success, but that little war was considered as one. The initial goal wasn't attained (to capture mr. mastermind) but other people were captured and killed and I don't really know what happened there, and the news services didn't know either and before we could find out what really happened there, another nice little war was on its way again.
Up to this point the whole world was sympathetic to the US, offering all kind of help and kind words and understanding and 'whatever I kind do for you, I'll do it' type of mentality in those days. Imagine if in January 2001 a fortune teller would've told you that that very same year due to a catastrophic event the whole world was going to be sympathetic to the US, even old enemies would rally around to support America, would've you believed it? And that a year later even the most traditional allies of the US were gona be at odds with uncle Sam due to the handling of things, would've you believed it? In other words, would've you believed that one of the biggest tragedies in US history, together with the worst diplomatic fiasco of our generation was going to unfold in the hands of GWB? Now we know that that was only the tip of the iceberg of the things to come.
I have a tremendous memory for daily life situations, details and faces; phone numbers and birthdays are certainly not my strongest point but it doesn't matter for what happened in Iraq.
After 9/11 our leaders freaked out and thought that these attacks were gona keep coming like hip hop records, one after the other; so GWB decided to make his move before the other side did. Turned out to be some kind of auto check mate with his own queen, bishops, horses and one tower (the pawns were already out on the battlefield). He decided that Iraq had the most dangerous weapons ever created by human beings and that they were going to use them against America. No kidding my friends, listen up: GWB thought that Iraq, a country that throughout the 1980's fought a very messy, expensive and bloody war with one of its neighbors, then was destroyed in 1991 in the "First Gulf War"; and for the next 10 years (all of the 1990's) had so many economic sanctions around it that even people were starving to dead, was thought to have enough time and resources to develop nuclear weapons. Don't laugh now, GWB said it and a hell of a lot of people believed him.
The country was -hard to believe- destroyed one more time and no atomic weapons where ever found. America committed billions of dollars in resources, man power, blood and severe ties with its more traditional and important allies for a mirage that never existed in real life, not even on intelligence reports, a dream that existed only in the minds of those taking the decisions in that little White House up in DC. Once again they said it was a success, celebrated with a mission accomplish banner and a nice speech aboard an aircraft carrier. I really can't imagine these people running a real world company having to explain to the board of directors or investors about their so called "success". But anyway, those two wars were a success in the sense of capturing and killing evildoers and whoever the fuck looked like one or was in the middle of it all (I also like to break shit every now and then so I kind of understand them).
But those two wars are really peanuts compared to something more important to us Americans. Anyway the people killed over there were soldiers, who are suppose to die for their elected official's mistakes, and the rest weren't Americans like us, so maybe they were guilty after all, and the less you know about that the better. But what terrifies and sadness me is that today the president of the US has the authority to detain, throw in jail and forget about any person including American citizens -people like you and me, my very dear and very few readers. He also has the authority to take those detainees to other countries to be tortured in order to extract information from them. There's no Miranda law or any silly thing like that, just pure brute force. Even if you check out a book from the local library that looks suspicious (Nicholas Sparks maybe?) you could be on your way to a paid vacation in Egypt for some questioning followed by a long time of missed summer blockbusters. If you're considered "dangerous" they can basically lock you in and throw away the key. God bless.
Besides the re-election of a president that was on his way out before he got elected the first time and two wars, 9/11 has brought the rule of man over the rule of law; the institutionalization of lies, half truths, misleads and lack of accountability for the government; and has brought the idea that there's always a military solution for everything. It has brought a one party rule where some of his members are blinded with power; it has brought the reduction of rights on regular people, woman and an expansion on religion on daily life; and it has brought the use of force against our own citizens.
It has made our government replicate with a ton of success the very same ideas of the people it vows to be fighting against. And it has brought to light the reality of the "Iron Triangle" in our society. In only four years my friends. . . and I'm afraid the best is yet to come.
Jean-Francois was drunk at 9:29 PM
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