Now that the 20-year anniversary of 9/11 is upon us, let us remember why those 19 men did what they did – while remembering the brave men and women (some of whom were not American themselves) who went into the buildings to save people, and who died because of the attack.
On this front, our corporate media has absolutely failed us all. If our for-profit driven media cared about the cold, hard facts, rather than maintaining a cozy relationship with those in power and profit by any means necessary every American would have long understood the history of the turmoil in the Middle East was almost exclusively America’s own fault at the behest of the greedy interests of the humans who run big oil/gas and the war profiteers of the military industrial complex.
For the record, the weapons of mass destruction we all heard Saddam had, had been given to him by America, not to mention many of the people within the Pentagon and State Department who were screaming about Saddam in the 90s were there in the 70s when they authorized giving Saddam those weapons. War criminals like Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney come to mind:
Then there is Afghanistan, which was and still is one of the poorest nations on Earth. Afghanistan is also a country that has never had a truly centralized government and consists mainly of several tribes-states. Those in positions of power used the ignorance of such details against We the People to sell to us that nation and Iraq were behind the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps we should focus our anger on Saudi Arabia and possibly even Israel instead?
In my mind, the most honorable way to remember 9/11 and all the victims of that day, is to learn and accept why 9/11 happened in the first place and to rein in your hate of the Muslim world and refocus it where it belongs; on those who continually meddle in the affairs of and exploit other nations for personal profit. The most dishonorable way of remembering 9/11 is to keep your mind closed and continue to hate Muslims or Islam over the actions of 19 among them or say nothing as our nation continues to invade poor nations, while right here at home our own infrastructure continues to crumble, millions are drowning in medical and college loan debt, and income inequality is worse today than just before the Great Depression.
This kind of self-hate only serves to reinforce one’s ignorance about why things happen the way they do. It causes a person to become blinded by fanatical ideas of uber-patriotism and a nationalist belief that their nation can do no wrong or is righteous in its decisions. Nothing good comes of this attitude, and if it is allowed to gain more political power here in America, I fear we may find ourselves even more hated around the world than we already are.
