Sept.
11 Remembered: Six Years Later
David Phillips is a
Vietnam Era Veteran, he is a Democrat Party Activist, and is also the Publisher
and Editor of the online political magazine YodasWorld.org. E-Mail Questions or Comments:
oneyoda@aol.com
This past Tuesday
marked the sixth anniversary of the attacks by Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda
terror organization. The attacks killed 2,976 people in New York, The Pentagon
and in a field near Shanksville, Pa.
Sept. 11, 2001, will be
a day that is etched into the memories of all Americans. It will also be
remembered as the day that all American lives were changed, for better or
worse.
On Sept. 14, 2001,
President Bush while standing atop part of the rubble that once was the World
Trade Center Towers said, “As we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens,”
a male voice from the crowd that had gathered around the rumble yelled out,
“President Bush, we can’t hear you!” and Bush replied to the voice, “I can hear
you...I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you. And the people...And the
people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
This was truly
President Bush’s finest hour; his words galvanized a nation and most of the
free world. All of America was ready to stand with our president, and all were
eager for retribution.
On Sept. 20, 2001
President Bush Addressed a Joint Session of Congress and the American People.
President Bush said,
“In the normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on
the state of the union. Tonight, no such report is needed. It has already been
delivered by the American people.”
“We have seen the state
of our union in the endurance of rescuers, working past exhaustion. We have
seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood and
the saying of prayers -- in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. We have seen the
decency of a loving and giving people, who have made the grief of strangers
their own.”
“My fellow citizens,
for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our
union, and it is strong.”
“Tonight we are a
country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned
to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or
bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.”
Again President Bush
looked strong and provided guidance and leadership, while receiving applause from
a united Congress. Those that were in attendance and all who watched his
address on TV that night, were united, there were no Democrats, there were no
Republicans, there were only Americans.
During this address
President Bush went on to say that it was al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin
Laden who were responsible for the attacks and that they were located in
Afghanistan and protected by the Taliban, who had taken control of the country.
Americans were ready,
we knew who attacked us, and we knew where to find them. President Bush gave
the Taliban the opportunity to turn Bin Laden over to us to avoid a full scale
attack. The Taliban refused to turn over Bin Laden and any of his al-Qaeda
group, and so we gathered our forces and when all the pieces were in place we
attacked, we went into Afghanistan and we were not going to stop until we had
captured or killed Osama Bin Laden and all of his al-Qaeda organization.
Or
so we thought.
In December 2001 our forces had Osama Bin Laden
cornered in the Tora Bora mountain range between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then out of the clear blue sky, President Bush
recalls most of our troops, tells them to pack up their bags, because we are
going to Iraq.
“The most important
thing is for us to find Osama Bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we
will not rest until we find him,” said George W. Bush Sept. 13, 2001.
“I don’t know where he
is. I have no idea and it’s not that important. It’s not our priority,” George
W. Bush March 13, 2002.
Why the sudden change
in
just six months?
Iraq had NOTHING to do
with the attacks on Sept. 11. It is a country that was neutered with U.S.
forces controlling both the northern and southern borders with a No Fly Zone,
ever since Bush Sr. kicked Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991.
President George W.
Bush said that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States because he had
weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s). Well, we later learned that that was not
the case, and about every six months Bush gives a different reason for his
folly into Iraq. Bush has tried to link Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks
here, and at one point 79 percent of the country in a Gallup poll said that
they thought Saddam was responsible for the attacks on Sept. 11.
Bush eventually went on
record saying that Saddam had nothing to do with the attacks here in the United
States. But Bush still tries to link the two together in almost every speech.
The CIA and the Pentagon are both on record saying that there were no al-Qaeda
terrorists in Iraq prior to our invasion.
But now al-Qaeda is in
Iraq because of Bush’s folly and he’s again trying to link the al-Qaeda that is
now in Iraq because of his war, to the al-Qaeda that attacked us on Sept. 11.
And because of the
so-called War on Terror, we here in the United States have seen many of our
civil liberties erode. Such as:
•
The government can now legally torture people
•
The government can now
kidnap people
•
The government can now have
secret prisons
•
The government can now wiretap
without warrants
•
The government can now search
homes and businesses without
warrants
•
The government can now data mine
e-mails without warrants
•
The government can now legally open
and read U.S. mail without warrants
•
The government can now legally track
financial records
without warrants
•
The government can now legally
read someone’s health records without
warrants
•
The government can now legally data
mine millions of telephone records
without warrants
All of these are now legal, some through the
Patriot Act, some through the Military Commissions Act and others by Bush
declaring he has the right through executive privilege (which he does not).
So while Sept. 11, 2001 will be etched into
our minds forever, the actions by our government that followed will also have a
lasting effect on every American for years to come — for better or worse.