By Alan Caruba
Has it been eight years?
What I learned from 9/11 was that a lot of Americans have concluded that it was America’s fault we were attacked. That may sound screwy to people who correctly believe that al Qaeda planned, funded and provided the men who carried out the attacks, but why deal with the facts when conspiracies are so much more fun? Why not just blame the victims?
9/11 was not the first attack on the Twin Towers. For those with any attention span, the first attack came in 1993 and was treated as a criminal act by a “gang who couldn’t shoot straight” Muslims, one of whom actually returned to the rental agency to get his money back because the truck used in the attack was destroyed.
Here’s where we are eight years later. As far as the government is concerned, it has learned NOTHING from the event and the subsequent efforts to kill the Taliban and al Qaeda lunatics who were operating in Afghanistan and badlands of Pakistan.
Not only are we still in Afghanistan, not only have we blandished billions on “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well on Pakistan, but the Obama Justice Department thinks the CIA interrogators are the bad guys and wants to extend Miranda rights, the full protection of the U.S. Constitution, to terrorists.
Astonishingly, your government has returned to pre-9/11 status wherein the FBI is now responsible for preventing terrorist attacks and the CIA is largely irrelevant, if not suspect.
Recall that, at the time of 9/11, the CIA was forbidden to provide information about terrorism to the FBI and vice-versa. Welcome to the bad old days!
And Obama is still intent on closing Guantanamo although he gave zero thought as to what we should do with the terrorists detained there. Those that were returned to their homelands promptly headed for new battlefields against American forces.
Eight years on, Osama bin Laden is presumably still alive. How is it that a nation with our enormous resources, spy satellites, drones to over-fly where we believe he is hiding, special operations military personnel, and yet this very tall Arab eludes us?
Here, too, is something worth considering. Al Qaeda waited eight years after the February 26, 1993 Twin Towers attack to strike again on September 11, 2001. And 2009 is eight years since the last attack. These people are patient. The next attack has been planned that will greatly exceed the casualties of 9/11.
Had the machinery that the Bush administration put in place and which kept the nation safe been respected and augmented, I would feel more confident, but who can feel confident with Janet Napolitano heading the Department of Homeland Security?
Napolitano cannot even bring herself to say the word “terrorist” and the Obama administration has not only expunged the phrase “war on terrorism”, but the Postal Service has issued of a stamp to commemorate Eid, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan!
It was the weak response of the Clinton administration that spurred al Qaeda to stage 9/11 and the same conditions are in place again today.
In addition, in an absolutely bizarre change of focus, instead of capturing or killing terrorists, it is the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, and dedicated CIA operatives that the Obama administration would like to drag before the dock and prosecute!
It is eight years later and I do not feel one bit safer. Do you?
Has it been eight years?
What I learned from 9/11 was that a lot of Americans have concluded that it was America’s fault we were attacked. That may sound screwy to people who correctly believe that al Qaeda planned, funded and provided the men who carried out the attacks, but why deal with the facts when conspiracies are so much more fun? Why not just blame the victims?
9/11 was not the first attack on the Twin Towers. For those with any attention span, the first attack came in 1993 and was treated as a criminal act by a “gang who couldn’t shoot straight” Muslims, one of whom actually returned to the rental agency to get his money back because the truck used in the attack was destroyed.
Here’s where we are eight years later. As far as the government is concerned, it has learned NOTHING from the event and the subsequent efforts to kill the Taliban and al Qaeda lunatics who were operating in Afghanistan and badlands of Pakistan.
Not only are we still in Afghanistan, not only have we blandished billions on “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well on Pakistan, but the Obama Justice Department thinks the CIA interrogators are the bad guys and wants to extend Miranda rights, the full protection of the U.S. Constitution, to terrorists.
Astonishingly, your government has returned to pre-9/11 status wherein the FBI is now responsible for preventing terrorist attacks and the CIA is largely irrelevant, if not suspect.
Recall that, at the time of 9/11, the CIA was forbidden to provide information about terrorism to the FBI and vice-versa. Welcome to the bad old days!
And Obama is still intent on closing Guantanamo although he gave zero thought as to what we should do with the terrorists detained there. Those that were returned to their homelands promptly headed for new battlefields against American forces.
Eight years on, Osama bin Laden is presumably still alive. How is it that a nation with our enormous resources, spy satellites, drones to over-fly where we believe he is hiding, special operations military personnel, and yet this very tall Arab eludes us?
Here, too, is something worth considering. Al Qaeda waited eight years after the February 26, 1993 Twin Towers attack to strike again on September 11, 2001. And 2009 is eight years since the last attack. These people are patient. The next attack has been planned that will greatly exceed the casualties of 9/11.
Had the machinery that the Bush administration put in place and which kept the nation safe been respected and augmented, I would feel more confident, but who can feel confident with Janet Napolitano heading the Department of Homeland Security?
Napolitano cannot even bring herself to say the word “terrorist” and the Obama administration has not only expunged the phrase “war on terrorism”, but the Postal Service has issued of a stamp to commemorate Eid, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan!
It was the weak response of the Clinton administration that spurred al Qaeda to stage 9/11 and the same conditions are in place again today.
In addition, in an absolutely bizarre change of focus, instead of capturing or killing terrorists, it is the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, and dedicated CIA operatives that the Obama administration would like to drag before the dock and prosecute!
It is eight years later and I do not feel one bit safer. Do you?
I think it will be a long,long time before anyone in the US or Europe will be able to feel safe - if ever again - compounded, aided and abetted by our own governments.
ReplyDeleteWith the expressed and fervently followed intent of Islam to install a world Caliphate, this news today is enough to warm the cockles of anyones' heart - not!
Hitting me like Charon's hammer was the headlines on Yahoo concerning the most popular boys names in the UK:
No1 ...... Jack. OK, no problem,
No2 ......Mohammad. That's the way we are headed, folks. Time to end PC and get real.
Alan,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely do not feel safe. Not only concerned about foreign terrorists, but I also do not feel safe with our domestic terrorist-in-chief.
I sincerely believe that Obama is a muslim and will be loyal to the muslim nations. If we are attacked again by muslim terrorists while he is President, I do not think he would react or respond as George Bush did. He most likely would give a televised apology.
The fact that this guy made the
9/11 day of remembrance into a day of service will not fly with average Americans! Perhaps they will remember still another Obama slap in America's face as we all march into Washinto D.C!
Personally, since I don't live in one of the "target" cities, I've always felt pretty safe when it comes to terrorism. Of course, like most people, I always get a little nervous when I travel by air now. While there are a lot of things I didn't like about the Bush administration, it's pretty hard to argue with the results ... we've been essentially terrorism free ever since 9/11. I'm sure the Obama administration will eventually wind up blowing that record. Let's hope when they do, it isn't something REALLY bad.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to say, but lately, I worry a lot more about being attacked by my own government, and I'm sure many of your readers and fellow bloggers feel the same way. It's a sick feeling when, every day, you have to wonder if you will be singled out and attacked for stating your beliefs. As if that isn't bad enough, we also have to fend off the daily sneak attacks on our Constitution, or wallets, and our way of life. I never though I'd see the day when I was more worried about the enemy within ...
Alan you probably would not have written this post if McCain had won. Which administration got side track with a war in Iraq? A place we had no business going to. They took their eyes off the rabbit. We should have focused on Afghanistan and pushed hard on the Pakistani's harboring bin Laden IMO.
ReplyDeleteDo you feel the loss of your rights by the last administration? Do you really think the Patriot Act makes you safer? Do the stupid fly rules truly made you safer?
Do you think bin Laden got what he wanted which was to make us more repressed by our government, cost our country billions of dollars on a useless war in Iraq and business compiling to new restrictive regulations costing billions and wasting citizens their time. So IMO we did the lemming thing and walked off the cliff, giving bin Laden what he wanted. We reduced our freedoms and liberty for what you believe and stated that "We are not SAFER today".
I'm a libertarian not a liberal, but I am in no way am going to blame Obama for the wars he has to deal with or that we are less safe because of him. If we are less SAFE it's because of the last administration, they waste our men, our money, our counties reputation and reduced our freedoms on their own personal agendas.
I am waiting for the new administration to restore my lost freedoms, but will not be holding my breath.
Good day Sir.
I definitely do not feel one ounce safer now than eight years ago. And although 9/11 caused much anxiety, changes in laws, and all of us to fear for our own safety, I would say that in the next couple of years following 9/11 I felt safer than I do at this very moment. And I would be lying if I did not say that much of that has to do with the "attitudes", policies, and "positions" of those in control of our country. I appreciated having a "cowboy" (if you will) in office and watching our nation rise to defend ourselves. Additionally, attacks of that magnitude tend to bring a certain sense of solidarity, reminding us that we are Americans, we should stand up for ourselves, and that life is too short to bicker with your neighbors, especially when there is a bigger enemy out there. Regardless of whether or not we feel ow like we should not have gone to war, I sure remember the majority of people being all for it after 9/11. And the following days and months feeling more of a sense of patriotism amongst neighbors than at any moment here now.
ReplyDeleteI feel that there is a certain amount of slight of hand going on right now. The shift of "political power" has allowed the powers that be to distract us and cause us to bicker amongst ourselves again. People I went to school with, and have always been friends with, now only care to talk about the whole issues of healthcare reform and how it is going to "save us all" and so on. I am vehemently opposed to healthcare reform, but that is not the point at all. In the mean time, while we are worrying about healthcare reform, cap and trade, big spending, gun laws, and other such, what is happening that we are not focused on? You are absolutely right when you say these people are patient, and they have a way of keeping their attentions focused on the goal longer than our fast food nation upbringing allows us to.
I also feel the same feeling other comments have stated, and that is not only a fear of being attacked by terrorists, but also of being attacked by our own government. It is not enough to feel worried about terrorist attacks, but now we must worry about attacks by our government on our liberties, our constitutional rights, and now our own health and well-being. Not only that, but also the fear that while they are fooling with our money and our healthcare, they are doing nothing to defend us against terrorists and those who wish to attack us outside of our own nation. This is a particularly scary time I feel and I feel no safety, especially under our current administration.
No, I don't feel safer, in fact I feel less safe.
ReplyDeleteIt's because I feel so much less *free!* The danger is government. During the Bush administration (and those before it), and now during the Obama administration, government has grown and is now micromanaging all our lives. Step out of line and you might be on the business end of a taser or otherwise find out just how safe you aren't.
And, we are all aware of how our God-given, Constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms is being infringed.
Underneath all these obvious dangers posed by government lies the root of most economic problems, our lousy monetary policy.
Murray Rothbard wrote extensively on that and I have reviewed some of his work on my own blog at http://www.alicelillieandher.blogspot.com
Alan
ReplyDeleteGood post.
[quibble]
"... blandished billions ..." is the strangest use of "blandished" I have ever seen. I couldn't find any reference that suggested anything other than "coax" as a meaning for "blandish". Where on earth did you get this usage?
[/quibble]
Blandish as to "heap upon" or provide abundantly. That's my definition and I am sticking to it! :-)
ReplyDeleteNope. Even though I live in a lightly populated rural area in Oregon the overall effects of a "dirty bomb" or something similar in a major city will reach out across the nation.
ReplyDeleteSuch an event would provide our Dear Leader with just the "crisis"
I'm sure he's hoping for.
A nuclear burst in the upper atmosphere would produce an EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse) which would essentially destroy communications of all kinds.
Even an attack similar to 9/11 would create a chaotic situation for us all. "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades."