Friday, September 11, 2009

We remember



Or, we should:
Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died.

We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot.


We've learned nothing.

Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of killing terrorists, we free them.

Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them.


Our enemies' work: Ground Zero a week after the terrorist attack.

Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and who counts among his mentors and friends those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Instead of insisting that freedom will not be infringed by terrorist threats, we censor works that might offend mass murderers. Radical Muslims around the world can indulge in viral lies about us, but we dare not even publish cartoons mocking them.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists. So we confiscate granny's shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid.

Instead of insisting that Islamist hatred and religious apartheid have no place in our country, we permit the Saudis to continue funding mosques and madrassahs where hating Jews and Christians is preached as essential to Islam.

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.

Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel.

Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

Instead of taking every effective measure to cull information from terrorists, the current administration threatens CIA agents with prosecution for keeping us safe.

Instead of proudly and promptly rebuilding on the site of the Twin Towers, we've committed ourselves to the hopeless, useless task of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Perhaps we should have built a mosque at Ground Zero -- the Saudis would've funded it.)

Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamist fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations -- as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons; sponsor terrorism; torture, imprison, rape and murder their own citizens -- and laugh at us.

Instead of insisting that Islam must become a religion of responsibility, our leaders in both parties continue to bleat that "Islam's a religion of peace," ignoring the curious absence of Baptist suicide bombers.

Instead of requiring new immigrants to integrate into our society and conform to its public values, we encourage and subsidize anti-American, woman-hating, freedom-denying bigotry in the name of toleration.

Instead of pursuing our enemies to the ends of the earth, we help them sue us.

We've dishonored our dead and whitewashed our enemies. A distinctly unholy alliance between fanatical Islamists abroad and a politically correct "elite" in the US has reduced 9/11 to the status of a non-event, a day for politicians to preen about how little they've done.

We've forgotten the shock and the patriotic fury Americans felt on that bright September morning eight years ago. We've forgotten our identification with fellow citizens leaping from doomed skyscrapers. We've forgotten the courage of airline passengers who would not surrender to terror.

We've forgotten the men and women who burned to death or suffocated in the Pentagon. We've forgotten our promises, our vows, our commitments.

We've forgotten what we owe our dead and what we owe our children. We've even forgotten who attacked us.

We have betrayed the memory of our dead. In doing so, we betrayed ourselves and our country. Our troops continue to fight -- when they're allowed to do so -- but our politicians have surrendered.

Are we willing to let the terrorists win?
NYPost Ralph Peters

47 comments:

  1. What a tragedy.And to think that it could have been prevented instead of being used as a tool to invade Afghanistan and to continue the relentless assault on Iraqi citizens.Sept 11th 2001,the day in which Bush administration officials stood by and allowed fanatics to kill thousands.

    ReplyDelete
  2. mresquan,

    And Roosevelt planned Pearl Harbor with the Japanese, children shouldn't be vaccinated, cell phone are cancerous and aliens abducted you when you were a child.

    E. R.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry, anon, but mresquan is right and you've let yourself become a tool of neo-cons who pulled one of the worst deceptions on Americans ever. Anyone who does the research beyond the Bush 9-11 "explainers" like Mechanics Illustrated, comes up with the unexplained fact that steel doesn't melt in temperatures caused by either airplane or kerosene fuel. Thermite used in controlled demolitions will melt steel. Anyone who sees videos of controlled demolitions and watched the 9-11 buildings come down sees the same controlled demolitions. Finally, there's never been ANY highrise demolished by any plane impact or explosion anywhere. Only controlled demolitions can do the damage seen in the Twin Towers and Building 7. And the Pentagon 757 impact? Another crock of baloney.

    Yes, terrorists were involved but someone here was waiting for them with coordinated plans to create the new Pearl Harbor event to scare Americans into another big war. With the enemies of Israel which is happening again with Israel, the rogue state armed with nukes that continually violates international law and refuses to allow international inspection of its nuclear facilities, along with it's puppet America. Both of these countries are invading and occupying other peoples lands and yet they want to stop Iran from having the weapons of terror that Israel and the USA possess.

    The more information that comes out the more we see an American foreign policy that has been taken over by a foreign government: Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. NOPE.

    Don't be blind. To buy into that argument is to bury your head in the sand and write your own obituary.

    For God's sake, Bin Laden took credit for his deeds, and his deeds are always characterized by multiple simultaneous strikes. pretending otherwise is foolish and dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hate to "Yank your Ankh" there, Stephen, but you have proven yourself truly moonbattish on this one......

    But, that's what's great about this Country.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I dare anyone to "explain" away how Building 7 collapsed in its own footprint just like the Twin Towers did, just like controlled demolition buildings do. Rent and watch the movie of images "KOYAANISQATSI" to see controlled demolition of high rises and they are exactly like the 9-11 photos of the Twin Towers and Building 7.

    No physical explanation is given how airplane fuel or storage fuel when buring can melt steel which it can't do yet thermite can which used in controlled demolitions. No explanation for multiple reports of explosions happening in the lower floors when the buildings came down. No explanation how a 757 can be squeezed into a hole that a much smaller plane would make in the Pentagon attack. Again, you can see what real airplane crash sites look like by looking at documentaries and even Spielberg's War of the Worlds where he recreated a 757 crash site.

    Americans got took royally by proven liar Bush and the neo-Cons whom history will record as America's worst mass murdering criminals. Believe the neo-con propaganda if you don't want to think for yourself and doing any research outside the 9-11 cover-up fodder.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "I dare anyone to "explain" away how Building 7 collapsed in its own footprint just like the Twin Towers did,"

    Popular Mechanics devoted an entire issue to explaining just that. It contained evidence from no less than 300 independently done studies.

    At this point your grand conspiracy theories are flat earth arguments. You might want to read a bit about how that video you mentioned was cooked up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. God bless the victims of this tragedy/act of war and God bless their families. Let none of you ever forget the price of freedom. Some men and women give their lives for freedom (flight 93), others have their lives taken away because of it (twin towers and pentagon)

    God bless and keep this free country.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Keep it free by keeping corporate greedos from teaming up with religious fanatics to drive Americans into a senseless war with Muslims. Middle East Muslims are REACTING to American invasion and support of Israel. They tell us this Continually but American ears only hear and respond to what they've been programmed to by years, decades of anti-Arab media portrayals from Hollywood.

    The outcry against Iran is being orchestrated by Israel to foment another war effort to defeat another enemy state of Israel like they got Americans to do for them with Iraq. The rogue nuclear power in the Middle East with a proven record of armed aggression and invasion of neighboring states wants us to forget about their nukes and history in order to provoke war with Iran. And Americans who fell for 9-11 will fall again for this blatant war-mongering despite attempts to steer them to think twice about committing young men to fight Israel's wars because Israelis want to be just like the rest of the European colonialists and get away with genocide of the native population in the 21st century.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Stephen, ALL of the 911 conspirators on those planes were from what country?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mrequan and Steve

    Have you been listening to Charlie Sheen or are you just .... whacky?

    I still remember the video of people jumping from the twin towers to avoid the flames and heat. Take a couple minutes to think about how terrifying that would be.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Take more time to figure out how Building 7 falls down just exactly like a controlled demolition without ever being hit by any planes. Please look at the evidence of foul play in 9-11. Look at Silverstein the owner of the Twin Towers and Building 7 who was caught on film right at the time saying they had to "pull" the buildings which is a controlled demolition term for setting off the timed charges to bring the buildings down. The charges were heard going off in the lower floors according to several reports and Silverstein has collected billions in insurance. Is Silverstein a mass murderer who's getting away with it? I want to know for damn sure this guy's not taking America for the most hideous ride that we're paying for just like we paid for the Iraq War to kill thousands of more people and ruin America's economy and worldwide reputation in the process.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Stephen

    Is this a plan for you to blame 911on Israel? Or is it just Al Quieda, the Bush Administration, and Silverstein that conspired to commit this horrific attack?

    I wonder what goes on in your head. How about just a bit of sympathy or mourning for the 2976 people that died that day and their families?

    ReplyDelete
  14. 6:25:

    He hates Jews and takes every possible opportunity to attack Jews, Israel and Zionism.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well if one thinks I buy the theory that bombs were placed in the building,you are surely mistaken.And why would it matter?I surely assume that you fanatics have all read the 9-11 Commission Report,and in particular chapter 8 where the report states how the administration received 36 briefings warning of the pending attacks,where W...err....murderer boy.....promised to take actions,yet did nothing(and note how much time during that period that murderer boy was on "vacation"...well he was working in reality,for his friends who needed a big war).
    As a matter of fact,that part of the report was not declassified until April of 2004.
    There was no need to plant any bombs in the building,or at the Pentagon,and the attempt to do so likely would have foiled the operation in the first place,which was the last thing they would have wanted.

    ReplyDelete
  16. If I hate Jews then I would have to hate my mother and grandmother--and my angel girlfriend, and Dau, and Natasha and Rom and Rick and on and on, good solid longterm Jewish friends of mine. And Dau is as about as Zionist as you get.

    Yes, I do believe Zionism is a terrible perversion of Judaism. It is the creation of an idol, land for Jews, when the Spirit cannot be contained in any one place and certainly the Spirit cannot be bought, sold, exchanged, or Mandated by men. Zionism is the Jewish version of the European-American's "Manifest Destiny" or even "Third Reich". All three of these ideologies are based on European racism.

    ReplyDelete
  17. He's also certifiably insane, as you can see from his compulsive attacks on anything Jewish.

    ReplyDelete
  18. And for the record, he's not Jewish. That's another delusion.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mresquan, you refer to others as fanatics and you spew a tail of the U.S. government, the Bush admistration of being a participant in killing thousands of U.S. citizens!!

    As I read the 911 report the were warnings of "something" big, "something" spectacular, but no real details such as where, what, how, who.

    Where do you come up with garbage?

    ReplyDelete
  20. And anytime we have heard those warnings we hear sneers of "Code Orange" - as if the color coding somehow makes it worthless.

    You didn't need to worry. Bush, for all that you hate him, worked to make sure we didn't have another one, another 9/11.

    Not sure if all bets are off now. All the other countries now feel free to thumb their noses at us. Not a good sign.

    ReplyDelete
  21. They thumb their noses for good reasons. Try Iraq, for one. Try America's continued support of the rogue state of Israel that most Middle East Arab Muslims detest, again for damn good reason--foreign invaders taking over Palestine.

    Rose, the USA has blood on its hands. Lot's of it and much of it in the past decade comes from this phony war with Islam that has been orchestrated by Israelis and Zionist neo-cons. Muslims want just what we want: peace and prosperity. Why not help them get it instead of ripping off their resources and setting up puppet Arab kingdoms? I guarantee you that if Obama were to take the Sharing Road, instead of the Exploitation Road, with America's wealth and power, then we wouldn't have Muslim enemies, or probably any enemies.

    As for Bush and 9-11, you are free to believe a proven horrible liar of a president but you can't ask that of millions of people worldwide, especially those who are victims of the Bushite/Zionist mentality. Bush lied big time to get Americans to make war in Iraq. Thousands of Americans killed, ten times as many Iraqis, for what? Terrorists? Saudis from Iraq...right..
    and you still believe the Bush's 9-11 propaganda campaign? What does it take to wake people up from being mesmerized by authority figures? Simon says "jump", and you jump without thinking twice.
    I urge all of you to look at the evidence yourself and see for yourself that there's plenty of room for reasonable doubt about the gov't's explanation of 9-11.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Rose,

    I'd hate to see another good blog ruined by Humboldt's resident obsessive anti-semite. He's already ended this particular discussion; you whole blog could be next.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Holy Cow, he really is crazy!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Slander and libel. That's all the Zionists have and they've shot that wad all to pieces. I mean who's going to believe a bunch of jerks who call me "anti-semite" and ex-President Jimmy Carter the same label? Only the brain dead would believe you at this point.

    And again, let us not forget who are the real "anti-Semites", the people of European ancestry who invaded the Semitic Palestinian peoples land there to repeat the horrors of European religious colonization and genocide of the indigenous and in this case, real Semitic peoples. So who's an "anti-Semite"? Not this activist who runs the anti-Zionist information center blog to help Palestinians and the world resist Zionist aggressors and manipulators of America's foreign policy. Oh, that's right. I'm crazy to think these things like those well-respected professors were too along with Jimmy and ANYONE critical of the racist-based Zionism.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Give it a rest. You're not making your point or any fans.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Good point. Zionists should shut up for a change. We're tired of hearing Israel's and their supporters whining about the people they've treated like dog shit for the past 61 years.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Sorry, Stephen, we have been over this before.

    I support Israel, full bore. 100%. I am extremely troubled by the rise of left-wing anti-Semitism. It is on the rise worldwide, and is even rising on our campuses, even here, and we allow it to flourish at our peril, and we risk the lives of every single person of Jewish origin.

    You've seen what has happened in the past.

    I don't understand why you champion the Palestinian aggressors, murderers and suicide assassins, nor why you thus tacitly approve beheadings, stonings, and honor killings.

    It is time the Islamic world stands up against the extremist murderers and assassins, and allow themselves to come forward several centuries. This insanity holds them back. From freedom - freedom of expression, freedom to marry, or not, freedom to succeed, all of the things we know, appreciate and hold dear.

    No one can condone a religion that approves of killing its daughters, wives and mothers and straps suicide vest son its sons.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Stephen, they want me and mine dead. But then that's just because I will Never follow their Lawn or their Prophet.

    You on the other hand, I'm pretty sure will pay your allotted Jezyah.

    I won't. I accept all religions as the Right of Freedom....all except the ones that Demand me to believe as they do, under threat of arms.

    You "hate" Zionists? Fine. You have that right and I have the scars and have bled the blood to give you that right.....

    From the Koran:

    «And Fight those who have not faith in God, nor in the Hereafter, and (who) forbid not what God and His Prophet have forbidden and (who ) are not committed to the religion of truth, of those who have been brought the Book, until they pay tribute by hand, and they are the low.» (9:29)

    This Quranic verse concerns the People of the Book, meaning those non-Muslims followers of one of the holy books, namely the Jews, Christians and perhaps the Zoroastrians.

    The verse is one of war with the People of the Book, but at the same time, it does not tell us to fight them; it tells us to fight only those of them who have no faith in God, in the Hereafter, and who do not abide by the rule of God, allowing what He has forbidden - and who are not religious according to the religion of truth. It is these People of the Book whom we are to fight until they pay the Jezyah (tribute). That is, when they are ready to pay the Jezyah and are humble before us, we are to fight them no more.

    This from the Muslim scholar site al-islam.org......

    So, in ending, Stephen, I don't give a rat's about who "you" hate.

    But I surely know that I don't care for you at all.....

    ReplyDelete
  29. One of my Palestinian email contacts had a review of a book published in Israel that I didn't know about which confirms much of what I've been saying about European Jewish Ashkenazim converts fraudulently claiming ancient Israel ancestry. But what struck me in reading the article which is now posted on my Steve Lewis blog, I found the following statement about the author of the controversial book:

    "Predictably, Zand was pilloried according to the time-tested formula. Ami Isseroff, writing on ZioNation, the Zionism-Israel blog, invoked the customary Holocaust imagery, accusing Zand of offering a "final solution to the Jewish problem," one in which "No auto da fe is required, no charging Cossacks are needed, no gas chambers, no smelly crematoria." Another feverish ideologue called Zand's work "another manifestation of mental disorder in the extreme academic Left in Israel."

    On Internet religious talkboards that I've posted on I get the same slander too, that if you don't agree with Zionists, you're crazy". It's the one that Rose has inadvertently picked and laid at my feet because she's never seriously questioned the morality of the authority figures, Bush and neo-cons in this case, she's blindly followed and defends--without taking look at what the Other Side sees.

    Rose, please, do take a look at the real death toll figures in the I-P conflict. Please understand that to the dead person "terrorism" as a label makes no difference if comes in the form of a suicide bomb or from F-16 firing rockets. You have fallen for a media campaign that labels a suicide bomber as a "terrorist" while it says nothing about an Israeli fighter jet pilot who strafes a Palestinian home or car and kills more civilians than military targets. That form of real terrorism to Palestinians who are victims of it, you just are morally blind to. I can't wake up your conscience because you don't ever try to look from the Palestinian p.o.v. so you say the same things over and over again which only reflect not knowing the Other Side of the issue.

    Read that article on my blog. I do not want to and know of no Palestinians who do (well, no, that's not true, I do know of one) who want to shove Israelis into the sea. What Pals want is their natural right as long term majority population of Palestine--their country back in their hands--not in the hands of European foreign invaders pushed onto them by Europe and America's control through the Security Council the U.N. Partition of Palestine.

    Rose, you represent that America which has been thoroughly brainwashed into believing Indians are bad if they want anything like they enjoyed before Europeans got here, and that Palestinians are bad if they want their country back like black South Africans did and got it. For the same reasons that Israel as a name for All the citizens of Israel/Palestine will probably go as the natural Palestinian majority reasserts itself.

    I am a Christian peace activist and support human rights of oppressed peoples. Palestinians are oppressed people. Why not help the victims instead of cheering the victors for a change?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Call it brainwashed if you like.

    Palestinians are oppressed by their own rulers and those who convince them to sell their sons into strapping bombs on their bodies and blowing up small children in pizza parlors.

    Never forget that.

    They need to replace their own barbarous rulers. There is no way around that.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thanks for that, Rose. Keep it up!

    E.R.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Mormons (decent of Europeans) claim that the Native Americans are descendants from Israel,a blatantly racist claim that has been allowed to persist since the Mormon church inception.on Sept.11th,1857 the Meadow Mountain Massacre occurred and the Mormons claimed,and many still claim that the Natives were responsible for the killings,as many Mormon troops painted their faces in order to resemble the natives,and to this day a large percentage of Mormons abide by the story that they were not responsible.
    Rose,if you are to be disgraced by those whom share Muslim soil,be disgraced in yourself that we allow the Mormon church fundamentalists to spread their hatred on our soil.

    ReplyDelete
  33. It is brainwashing, Rose. What else can you call it when you are totally blind to the crimes against humanity committed by Israelis. Documented crimes against humanity. Documented vicious killings of children by IDF. Many more children killed by IDF than ever by Palestinian suicide bombers. Way more children. When you repeatedly ignore Amnesty International's, the Red Cross's condemnation of Israeli war crimes, what can anyone think about your opinions other than complete brainwashing?
    "Arabs bad"-"Zionists good". That's all that comes through your moral filters.

    Muslims everywhere seem to prefer suicide bombings for their killings which only reflects the lack of value of human life given believers in Muhammad's religion. It is deplorable and all Muslims suffer from the stigma of a few fundamentalist fanatics. That is their problem but we need not acerbate it by provoking needless conflicts in the Middle East which we have done by our support of the European Zionist state of Israel, a state that broke international law in its conception and has broken more U.N. resolutions than any other state on earth. This fact never registers in those brainwashed to ignore the crimes against humanity we have participated in and still do by supporting the criminal state of Israel.

    Israel was founded on injustice. Had a U.N. of today been asked to pass the 1947 Partition of Palestine Plan it never would pass because it breaks U.N. and international laws prohibiting the invasion and occupation of any country by force of arms. You have to remember that Middle East Arab Muslims do not recognize Israel as a legitimate state and never will as long as Israel continues to break international laws. All that settlement building is breaking international law. What are Palestinians to do with Israeli law breakers when Americans turn a blind eye to their suffering?

    Time to look at the Other Side, Rose, and stop supporting killer apes just because they wear the Star of David instead of checkered scarves. Statistics don't lie and the body count of dead and maimed children is still much higher from Israeli acts of aggression and occupation of Palestine.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Because, Stephen. Too often, the things you describe have been proven to be false. Falsified videos. Falsified reports and extreme propaganda.

    Because it doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a religious scholar) to see that it is not Israeli's strapping on suicide vests and sneaking on to buses and into crowded shopping malls to detonate them where they will kill the most innocent people. To see that in every peace negotiation, when an accord is reached, it is Israel who gives, and then the insane Palestinian leaders renege and begin lobbing bombs again.

    Because all this hatred for Israel is a ginned up tool - and it keeps those people you care about in poverty, it keeps them from growing into t nation that produces something of value instead of just suicide vests.

    I've told you before - let Palestine lay down their arms, and you will see Peace reign for a thousand years. Israel is not the aggressor.

    ReplyDelete
  35. "Rose,if you are to be disgraced by those whom share Muslim soil..."

    In what part of "Palestine" was Yassir Arafat born?


    E.R.

    ReplyDelete
  36. "Because, Stephen. Too often, the things you describe have been proven to be false. Falsified videos. Falsified reports and extreme propaganda."

    That's no excuse, Rose. Not when Israelis themselves confirm crimes against humanity done by IDF in Gaza, in Sabra and Shantila, and everyday in the lives of Palestinians. All you see, Rose, is what you chose to see. You see suicide bombers. Now how long has it been since a Palestinian strapped a bomb on? Now how long has it been since Israel torpedoed the peace initiative by refusing to stop illegal settlement building. This act of sabotage to the peace process passes you right by. You don't even see it yet governments from here through Europe have and voiced anger.

    People will hate Israel until Israelis act like decent neighbors--something they have NEVER done since arrival en masse after 1947. Zionists came to take Palestine away from Palestinians and who wouldn't hate people who do things like that? You think we European-Americans are beloved of our Native Americans for the same crimes against humanity that went unpunished?

    The situation in Palestine is different because there the foreign invaders have not been able to outnumber the indigenous population. So Palestine is a ticking time bomb just like South Africa was under white supremist rulership. And Israel will go the same route as long as Zionism, a racist ideology developed by European Ashkenazim, rules Israelis.

    "I've told you before - let Palestine lay down their arms, and you will see Peace reign for a thousand years. Israel is not the aggressor."

    In other words, roll over and die, Pals, because white Europeans rule the world. And of course Israel is not the aggressor. Oh no, Israel bends over backwards to cater to Palestinian rights and never tries to take more land than the original U.N. allotment. It's all just all falsified reports, falsified videos, that Israel's enemies make showing poor Israeli settlers just going about being nice neighbors in their West Bank neighborhoods.

    Rose, it's pointless to continue this because you don't seem to keep up with the news or if you do none of it registers when it criticizes Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  37. "Rose, it's pointless to continue this because you don't seem to keep up with the news or if you do none of it registers when it criticizes Israel."

    In this one, I entirely agree with Stephen. He is wasting his time.

    Better for you, Stephen, to move to the town of Sderot, and enjoy the "gifts" that your "pals" rain down on you.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Those "gifts" are nothing compared to what Israelis rained down on Gaza. I guess living in an Israeli city next door to Gaza when your country is a proven dangerous imperialist aggressor has its drawbacks.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Alright

    The 9-11 truthers claim that they see through some kind of government conspiracy and the rest of us are sheeple placated by government propaganda. They claim it is somehow comforting for us to think that a clandestine foreign organization took over planes with box cutters and used them on our territory like cruise missiles. I don't know about anybody else, but the official explanation doesn't provide me with any comfort.

    What is comfortable is the idea that more sophisticated organizations orchestrated the attacks. Believing this is believing that there is some political maneuver that could solve this problem... that simply dismantling the ISI or Mossad or the CIA would stop terrorist attacks. Believing the "truth" implies that if the "truth" was known, everything would change.

    Sorry for the uncomfortable dose of reality, but an unsophisticated foreign terrorist group pulled off 9-11. It was not because the air force stood down that 3 of the planes reached their destinations, it was that we really had no plan for what to do if a plane was hijacked and flown into a skyscraper. The official explanation shouldn't provide any comfort as it exposed how vulnerable we were and for the most part still are.

    I buy the gist of the official explanation, but I don't believe the retaliation has been honorable. Invading Afghanistan was a stupid move. Apparently, nobody paid any attention to the Soviets getting their butts kicked in Afghanistan. Now we are supposed to believe that more troops and more guns is going to solve the problem. Do we even know what the problem is anymore or what we are trying to solve? If we are trying to solve the "problem" of Afghanistan, I have a solution... get us the hell out.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Yeah, we should run home and let Bin Laden reconstruct his terrorist training camps.

    ReplyDelete
  41. As if the U.S. was actually doing a thing about terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. I know that was supposed the mission, but is it happening? The Clinton administration launched cruise missiles at Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, leveling them. Did that stop them? No, it inspired new recruits. I've often thought that act inspired 9-11.

    The idea that you can crush terrorism with troops picking off terrorists and terrorist camps is as foolish as trying to rid your house of ants by smashing individual scouts. All this does is attract more trouble. It is better to simply clean up your mess and be done with it.

    If the problem were a standing army in Afghanistan, then Afghanistan would be the obvious place to fight. However, that is not the case.

    ReplyDelete
  42. In other words, we should run and THEN hope they leave us alone. We should not lift a finger to defend ourselves. That might offend Bin Laden.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Mr. Nice Guy, Clinton had actionalble intelllignce that Osama Bin Laden was at those locations in Afganistan. He delayed the cruse missle strikes because that same intel showed that some wealthy Saudi's were also present, and he didn't want to piss of the Saudi's. Clinton would not allow troops on the ground because he was worried about the bad press if some American military personnel were injured or killed.

    Afganistan is a mess for sure, but if the US and Brit's were to pull out the Taliban or like minded groups would take over again. The opium cultivation would thrive and the world would see more heroin ( just a side note ). Not to mention that these jihadist fanatics would have a place to train and operate from.

    bottom line is: there is no perfect solution, but puling out is not the answer.

    Iran is the real threat. North Korea second. The current administration is a distant third.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Why is Iran a "real" threat? Which state has nuclear weapons and refuses to allow any international inspections or controls? Iran? Think again. Israel is the rogue state that has the nukes, is a proven aggressor on neighboring states, and refuses to join the international call for ridding the world of all nuclear weapons as Iran and also Obama have called for.

    Israel is trying to suck Americans into fighting another war for them--this time against Iran. Last time agains Iraq--because Saddam lobbed SCUD missiles into Israel and Israel controlled US policy through the Bush/neo-cons so America went to war against Israel's enemy Iraq instead of Saudi Arabia.

    I would much rather see nukes in the hands of Muslims who have had them for many years in Pakistan for example and Pakistan still is home to the most radical of Islamic fundamentalists, than know Israel has nukes and has their Masada, Jonestown, Waco, Gottdamurung, religious insanity operating which is willing to take everyone along with them to nuclear hell than face social justice for what Israelis have done to Palestinians.

    ReplyDelete
  45. The opium cultivation would thrive and the world would see more heroin ( just a side note ).

    Here's a side note for you.

    In 2006, Afghanistan had a record harvest of an estimated 6000+ metric tons of opium, 90% of the world supply.

    Our presence in Afghanistan has done nothing but increase the opium supply by making farmers that much more desperate. I'll explain. You see, it is pretty hard to export Afghan pomegranates or whatever without getting jacked. There are no secure networks, the market is relatively small, there is no crop insurance... pretty much all there is is chaos.

    Opium, on the other hand, is very easy to export when compared to conventional agricultural goods. While insurgents do not have any access to the conventional markets, they control the black market. The roles are reversed... it is in fact less risky for an Afghan farmer to grow opium than to any other crop. An opium grower in Afghanistan has most of the assurances that a conventional farmer in a non-warzone would have.

    If you want believe that turning a country into a warzone effectively contains the black market, try to keep in mind that it is exactly the opposite.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are closed for the time-being.