Tomorrow it will have been 21 years since 9/11
Tomorrow is 9/11.
Twenty-one years is a long long time, and a lot has happened since then to America and to the world. And yet 9/11 still marks a kind of turning point.
Never such innocence again, after 9/11.
Here’s a repeat of what I wrote on the 17th anniversary, with a few slight changes. It still rings true to me.
There are plenty of young adults who don’t clearly remember a time before 9/11. The attack is just part of the background music of life, just as Pearl Harbor was for me when I was growing up. As a child, I couldn’t quite understand what the big fuss was all about; it was history, after all.
But even for those of us who were fully adult—maybe even old—at the time of 9/11, it was a long while ago, and although I can only speak for myself I think that for the most part the event has been fully incorporated (as much as humanly possible, that is) into our view of the world. It is no longer so shocking as history.
That doesn’t mean it’s still not shocking on the occasions when we fully contemplate it. It’s just that we rarely do, although an anniversary like today would be a good time to do it. It also doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be very shocking if something similar were to ever happen again (heaven forbid). But it does mean that 9/11 is part of our view of the world, a view that has had a full twenty-one years to form. And a great deal has happened since then.
But I still remember the fear, dread, grief, and anger I felt that day. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2005, when the memory was still quite fresh. Any photos of the many people who died at the hands of the perpetrators that day still move me; all those innocent lives snuffed out, many in their prime.
There were heroes that day such as, for example, the Flight 93 passengers and crew, the firefighters and police, the ordinary people in the WTC who stopped to help assist others to get out (some of whom lost their own lives in the process), those on the planes who phoned to say a last goodbye to loved ones or to give information about the hijackings—all are heroes to me. RIP, and let us never become blasé about what happened.
I would have wished for more unity of purpose among Americans and the Western world in the aftermath. That was most definitely not to be. We are more divided than ever, I think, although it’s a cliché to say so. Much of what is happening today doesn’t seem related to 9/11, but much of it is. Forces were unleashed that day that still reverberate, sometimes in unexpected ways.
One of the most unexpected was my own small personal story of political change that began on that day but really had been in the works for a long time without my even being aware of it, and which took a couple of post-9/11 years to actually be completed.
I suppose it’s still a work in progress, and this blog is part of it.
Last night, at a bar, a friend reminded me of the day after 9/11. When Cher, “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, and actor Marlon Brando got in a car together and decided to escape the crazy aftermath in Manhattan. Cher behind the wheel, he said.
They stopped in to a fast food drive-thru for food. “Can you imagine serving them, there? He asked me. “Can you imagine taking a snapshot of the unlikely trio?” I said.
I’d love to see this! I enthused, expanding on the topic of commemorative documentary photo books about 9/11.
Now that I’ve recited this bit, how about a picaresque, character driven farce based on this odd moment in time. I’d get “White” (2019, his first prose book) author Bret Easton Ellis to write the story.
It has good odds as a film, too.
“ I would have wished for more unity of purpose among Americans and the Western world in the aftermath.” Of course, the far Left held the “unity” that developed against us. I remained to be exploited and perverted.
“That was most definitely not to be. We are more divided than ever, I think, although it’s a cliché to say so.
“Much of what is happening today doesn’t seem related to 9/11, but much of it is.” An exquisitely put paradox, leaving so much class war to be unpacked.
“Forces were unleashed that day that still reverberate, sometimes in unexpected ways.” Yes, a tantalising summa. Which rings True. All too true — as things fall apart, this time.
I share 9/11 as the trigger event for my political conversion. I grew up in a moderately liberal, Democrat-voting, union-membership family. At college, I protested the Vietnam War, dabbled with drugs, and supported many of the Marxist causes of the era. As I aged, I became what I referred to as a social liberal but fiscal conservative.
Then 9/11 happened and I started re-examining my beliefs. As I did, I realized the insanity of many of them and gradually moved to the right of the political spectrum. Several years later, while visiting with a sister who I hadn’t seen since pre-9/11, I casually turned on Fox News. She asked “when did you become conservative”? My immediate response was “the day I watched planes flying into the World Trade Center and Pentagon”.
“You don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone…”
God Bless America.
God Bless, and welcome into his kingdom, the Queen.
The WORLD is “still a work in progress,” a new world disorder.
I used to pray for “a world without dictators”.
Now I pray for “a world where borders are respected and not violated”.
There will always be competition between the elites & the elite wannabees (who are not, not really, elite, tho they pretend) vs the working non-elites. Only 20% of all Americans can be in the top 20% of Americans – but so many want to be there.
Reminds me to ask what Michael J. Totten is doing? His OLD blog is there:
https://michaeltotten.blogspot.com
but he’s now on Commentary, a bit. Here he’s from April, 2020:
https://www.commentary.org/articles/michael-totten/a-black-wave-of-islamist-revolution/
(He’s written 9 books since 2001… )
TJ,
It wasn’t Cher. It was Liz Taylor.
Also, it never happened.
https://nypost.com/2016/01/31/what-michael-jackson-elizabeth-taylor-and-marlon-brando-really-did-after-911/
Article paints a good picture of Michael Jackson, though.
Also, it never happened.
TJ, Rufus:
That’s sad! Such a wonderful image of Cher, Michael and Marlon ordering take-out together on 9-11. I would rent the movie.
Heck, there could still be a “What If?” movie with that premise.
Back in the 80s there was a film titled “Insignificance” in which Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, and Joseph McCarthy converge in a New York City hotel room.
–“INSIGNIFICANCE Trailer (1985) – The Criterion Collection”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UguoW3xKP8U
I saw it back then but it didn’t leave much of an impression. However, since it has made it to Criterion, I just may take a second look.
Thinking about USA’s reaction to this atrocity:
The good: Although short-lived, renewed patriotism and national unity.
The bad: A Muslim heading DHS, the agency formed in reaction to the atrocity.
Expansion of federal surveillance and police powers, which have been turned against innocent citizens.
Massive loss of blood and treasure in unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ugh!
I was working in mid-town Manhattan then. I managed to get one of the first trains out that afternoon. I will never forget the voice of the conductor making the announcement that it would be a full train so make as much room available for everyone trying to get on board. I remember the cracking of his voice as he said “we all know what happen today and if you are on this train you are alive. So thank God.”
I will also never forget my train station’s commuter parking lot the next morning. I arrived, as usual, to catch the first train in the morning at 5:00 am. Going in at my usual time was my, all be it rather measly and unimportant, way of “fighting back” against the terrorists. I wasn’t going to let them terrorize me! ha! what an idiot I am. I also didn’t have any TV reception as most of the NYC area TV stations broadcast from the top of the WTC. So, I wanted to go into the office to learn what was going on.
What I will never forget is the cars just scattered around the lot that morning on 9-12. It is a dirt/gravel lot so people usually park near the station and park out from there. But, that morning after 9-11 there were cars just scattered around.
I had to count them – 26 cars. 26! Meaning 26 people did NOT come home the night before. Any one of those 26 may have been people at my station that I nodded good morning to, or shared complaints with about a train delayed, or shared a laugh with on the train.
For weeks afterwards the commute was very different as if I had moved to another city! But, I still scanned other riders looking for familiar faces. Often wondering what happen to people who I didn’t really know except as fellow riders on the train. It was a relief when I would see a face that I remember seeing before 9-11. Other faces have faded from memory, but, the fact that they are gone has not faded.
One of the things that changed about the commute was the number of riders that used to get off the train in Newark NJ. I always wondered where in Newark so many people worked. After 9-11 it was then I realized that most did not work in Newark; rather they were getting off to catch the PATH train which would take them to lower Manhattan and the WTC.
This became a commute that I would do for about 8 years before the pandemic hit. I still remember the first day that I rode the PATH train into the old WTC site. The new buildings and station were not yet built; but, the old station was fixed up and operational. Before 9-11 the old PATH train let you off underground, you would go up a flight of stairs, then you would ride a wide back of escalators up into the concourse level, and still another level to get above ground. But with the WTC gone and the new one not yet built the PATH train would come into Manhattan above ground, into the open sky! Thinking about the emptiness above the WTC PATH station was very hard to take.
If anyone has the opportunity to take the PATH in the WTC look for the footprints of the old WTC on the far platform. They have preserved part of the old foundation under that platform. That part of the platform is glass that you walk on looking down at the old foundation. They also have markings continue on the rest of the platform so you can see where the foundation used to be. I find it very hard to walk on that platform with getting depressed.
And, although I didn’t loose any loved ones that day, it is still raw in my mind and I, too, cry when I think about all those innocent lives murdered that day. My “decision” in the morning was to have the healthy oatmeal for breakfast or the bagel with cream cheese that was so much tastier. Those murdered that morning had a very tough decision to make: stay in the building and die from the flames or jump to one’s death.
The pure evil that the world witnessed and those people murdered that day are still unbelievable to me. As I watch Biden and others do stupid stuff that can so easily lead to another 9-11 it is like rubbing salt into raw wounds.
To me “9-11 never forget” means “9-11 never again by any means necessary!”
Some people never learned from history; and we, the little people, pay the price for it.
huxley,
Good news!
(And now I know you don’t follow my links! And after I wasted over 2 hours listening to two different Peter Zeihan interviews!)
charles,
Incredible! I cannot imagine what that must have been like.
Your account is appreciated.
My act of defiance was to not sell my stocks as soon as the market re-opened. I assume all us Americans would stand together to keep the markets strong. Boy, was I a rube.
It distresses me that radical Islamism, which perpetrated 9/11, can now no longer be named or criticized for fear of “Islamophobia.” And it is horrible that the anti-terrorist agencies are now being heavily used to suppress domestic opinion and opposition to the current administration.
Hmmm. Very interesting, folks.
Sky Arts comedic film in 2017 confirmed
https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/elizabeth_michael_and_marlon/
There is a series of PR post
s, pro and con, on that site.
To choose just on, Spiked defends the white aMichael/Joseph Feines actor choice. Just link there for the photo of Joe as Michael, and I think the case is made (back then, the nearness of the loss in time of that great musical icon) that there’s easing of pain in such a radical choice, I believe.
Anyone disposed to contradict me? MJ was not uncomplicated.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2017/01/17/in-defence-of-skys-white-mj/#.WH8hG1ygFL8
According to the last link, an MJ employee via “Vanity Faire” gave life to the mythic tale!
“ The tale first emerged in Vanity Fair: ‘A former employee of Michael Jackson says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road. “They actually got as far as Ohio – all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!”’
Spiked continues: “Casting the role of Michael Jackson will always be tricky. His strange persona is what made this story so juicy – which actor has enough physical similarity, and oddity, to be able to portray Jackson convincingly? And what does this mean when it comes to dramatisation? The casting of Fiennes insinuates that what mattered was a certain ‘unrealness’ in playing Jackson’s character – an unrealness emphasised by Fiennes’ bad make-up.
“The casting of Fiennes as Jackson was silly, but good silly – a preposterous casting for a preposterous character.”
“Why do they hate us?”
That was the question after 9-11 which drove me crazy. I had read enough history of Islam to know that a jihadi’s gotta do what a jihadi’s gotta do.
A good list, Jordan R. To which I’ll add the realization by many deplorable Trump supporters that the ideas of the “Pentagon’s New Map” (Through force and diplomacy bringing the third world countries {The Gap} into the modern world {The Core}), though noble, were not really workable. Based on the idea that all humans long for freedom and democracy, the author, Thomas P. M. Barnett, overlooked the depths of Islamist beliefs and the thirst for power among the world’s dictators. Since 9/11 we have conducted military ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Yemen, etc. Have any of those countries become more democratic? Have any dictators such as Putin Xi, Kim, Iran’s Mullahs, Castro, Ortega, Maduro, etc. shown any tendency to democratize their countries?
It was Trump that first opened my eyes to this truth. I’ve always been a conservative, it’s in my DNA. Trump showed me new ideas.
1. Become militarily unbeatable. (I’ve always been in favor of this – Trump made it his policy.)
2. Maintain alliances with those countries that will hold up their part of the alliance with tromps, weapons, and money.
3. Be firm in dealing with adversaries. Do not seek war, but refuse to be pushed around, cheated, or frightened by them.
4. If it comes to war, fight to win as fast as possible. No limited wars.
5. Always keep the interests of the U.S. paramount in dealings with other nations.
6. Favor free trade only if it’s truly free and reciprocal.
I was like a lot of other people who believed that the fall of the USSR was the end of socialism/communism. From 1992 till 9/11, I believed that democracy and capitalism were on the rise and the world was going to be a better place. 9/11 changed my mind. Then I read The Pentagon’s New Map. I bought into those ideas. Events since have changed my mind about that. As of now Trump’s policies make more sense to me.
Rufus:
I did read your link after I commented. I did listen to your Cronbach (sp?) link too.
However, I am hit and mostly miss when it comes to links. There are quite a large number of links which appear everyday on this blog. I would get little else done each day if I read/listened/watched all the links.
Not to mention all the other links I encounter in my daily internet trawl.
I tend to think of links as footnotes — nice to have in case I might want to go deeper, but supplemental to the main business I am reading.
The bad: A Muslim heading DHS, the agency formed in reaction to the atrocity.
Expansion of federal surveillance and police powers, which have been turned against innocent citizens.
Once more with feeling. The DHS was a compendium of agencies which already existed. The one added was the TSA, which took on functions formerly performed by local airports. There was also an intelligence clearinghouse added. Not sure which of the half dozen or so people who’ve held that cabinet position you fancy to be a muslim.
Massive loss of blood and treasure in unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ugh!
What would you prefer Iraq to look like now?
Jihadists are fond of anniversaries, so don’t be surprised if tommorrow or next year or on a future anniversary they attack again. As, Allah has commanded them to never give up upon pain of banishment from paradise. While Muhammad set the example of biding one’s time.
Only the ignorant and the foolish imagine that Islam’s acolytes have abandoned their appointed ‘mission’.
From 1992 until 9/11 I believed that democracy and capitalism were rising forces and that socialism/communism/dictatorships were in decline.
9/11 showed me I was wrong. It became clear that fundamentalist Muslims were a force that didn’t want any part of Western civilization.
In 2004 I read “The Pentagon’s New Map.” It seemed to have some answers to how to deal with the Muslim problem and other benighted countries with dictators. The main thrust was that through the use of force, diplomacy, and economic benefits the Third World countries (The Gap countries) could be integrated into the modern world order (The Core countries). It was based on the premise that all humans are longing to be free and live in a democracy of some sort. It seemed a valid premise to me. I endorsed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. because i was hopeful that we might be able to bring at least Iraq along into a Muslim democracy like Turkey. As time went by and our efforts to bring the Afghanis and Iraqis into the modern world went nowhere, it became apparent that the Islamist ideas and spirits were far more powerful force than we in the West had believed.
Since 9/11 we have been engaged in combat ops in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, the Philippines, etc. Are any of those countries better off as a result? Have Putin, XI, the Mullahs of Iran, Castro, Maduro, Ortega, etc. become more democratic?
And then along came Trump. His ideas were quite different.
1. Become so strong militarily that you are unbeatable. (I’d always thought that was a good idea, but the left never did.)
2.Make defensive alliances with other democracies but insist that they carry their fair share of the load.
3. Engage in free trade with any nation, but only if it’s free and reciprocal.
4. Be firm with your adversaries. Don’t let them cheat you, steal from you, or bully you.
5. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs.
6. If you have to use military force, don’t hold back. Fight to win in as short a time as possible. (Obama fought ISIS for three years with many restrictive rules of engagement. Trump let the Special Ops loose and beat ISIS in eight months.)
7. Our borders must be secure. Illegal immigration is a cancer on our society. We are a nation of immigrants, but we have a procedure for coming here legally. It must be enforced.
8. All major political decisions must be made by putting the interests and welfare of the USA first.
I’ve always been a conservative, but my ideas have changed quite a lot as a result of 9/11. The journey continues.
are we in better shape on the 15th of safar, by their calendar, 21 years later, many of their top fighters like mohammed quahtani, the 20th hijacker, who was judge jacksons client at that san francisco firm, are back in the kingdom bucking for a promotion, al queda has a military compliment bar none, we have up to 93 taliban fighters who managed to sneak into this country, (those are the ones we affirmatively know off) if we had to retaliate now, the military regards our best men and women as the enemy, and these mishapened twisted chimera, as their front line forces,
Jihadists are fond of anniversaries, so don’t be surprised if tommorrow or next year or on a future anniversary they attack again.
Geoffrey Britain:
The Benghazi attack started on 9-11-2012.
I thought that was a tell, but somehow no one in the Obama administration or mainstream media could put 2+2 together.
Huxley. Maybe they came up with “four”. Then what? What would you have expected them to do? Not normal, American leaders. Them. What would you have expected that bunch to do with “four”?
I was older before I studied even a small amount of the history between Islam and the West.
Long before the first Crusade, the Muslims had invaded Spain, what is now France and raided the Vatican itself.
Constantinople , now Istanbul, was once the center of Orthodox Christianity. For centuries. Then it fell to the Muslims. Of course, the western Crusaders had done Constantinople no favors, and the West only half heartily-came to its aid at the end. Read about what happened to those people at the end.
The Muslims even laid siege to Vienna itself at one point.
Previous generations of westerners knew very well about the dangers that Islam posed to them. Many of our European ancestors faced being carried off into slavery by raiding bands of sea born muslim pirates striking coastal European cities and raiding ships at sea. Thousands of Europeans spent the last years of their lives chained to oars,both night and day, rowing ships for the Ottoman Empire! This is hardly even taught in school! Of course, the Europeans did it too, using captured Muslims as galley slaves, as well as European criminals and political or religious prisoners. Imagine sitting on a bench, unable to lie down, night and day, for months at a time!
The Ottomans were buying white slaves , but this is not talked about.
911 was a shock partly because we had forget European History when it came to Islam.
Huxley. Maybe they came up with “four”. Then what? What would you have expected them to do? Not normal, American leaders. Them. What would you have expected that bunch to do with “four”?
Richard Aubrey:
O halcyon days! I was so much more innocent then. Not so much today.
“What would you expect them to do?” is my question to conservatives today who are indignant about the authoritarian censorship/gaslighting/lawfare conducted by the Biden administration, tech oligarchs, mainstream media etc.
Just The News has a piece outlining how the young are kept blissfully ignorant about the events of 9/11. https://justthenews.com/events/snformer-new-york-police-commissioner-explains-importance-next-generation-learning-about-911
CBSNew says that only 14 states require that it is taught in school curriculum. States like California do not.
Not a surprise, there. Simply the ever more fracturing of a once great Republic.
Jon Baker on Islam and the War on the West: Italian children were raised to obey their parents, lest the Muslim Turks raid their shores and steal the kiddos off for enslavement — which they used to do!
But I suspect that while such historical memory was taught to Italians of the grand parenting age now, I’ll bet the young now have been taught historical amnesia about that nursury ‘tale,’ rooted in fact.
CBSNew says that only 14 states require that it is taught in school curriculum. States like California do not.
When I was in school, nothing happening in the previous 30 years was taught. It was in the textbook, but the teachers in their lesson planning ran out of time. And it’s not a bad thing that they did. We’d be well advised in primary and secondary schooling to avoid material that’s most likely to be infected with faddish rubbish (in literature) and pride-driven political partisanship (in history). Though, to be fair, the dispositions of the sort of people who go into teaching are such that maybe every subdiscipline is junk.
huxley
“expect”has two meanings in this context.
On is..think they should do, think what the right thing for them to do would be, want them to do what I would like to see done because it’s best.
The other is…given who these people are, what terrible thing can be anticipated, given who this people are.
I was using the second definition.
Once these clowns put the facts together, what terrible thing were they going to do with the correct answer? Pretty close to what they did.
Don’t forget that it was Queen Elizabeth who ordered the playing of our National Anthem at the Changing of the Guards on September 13. She grew up as London was being bombed.
21 years is a huge time. Back in 2001 no one really had flat screen tvs. There was no high def TV. The Internet was still somewhat in its infancy, and wasn’t very fast. DVDs were just kinda getting started. No Blueray. Smartphones were more like Palm and Blackberry infancy. People used pagers a lot. Just so much
I remember that after 9/11 volunteer firefighters, construction workers, EMTs and others, many from small middle American towns, just woke up and got in their trucks and drove to NY to help.
After 2 decades of being called fascists, racists and Nazis, my guess is that were a similar situation to occur now, those same people would just sit on their hands and laugh. And I understand why.
huxley,
I meant to put a 😉 at the end of my statement but forgot. Sorry. I was joking and your statement on links coincides with my approach. Footnotes is a good analogy.
Art Deco @ 6:42am,
I completely forgot about that until reading your comment, but you are so right! Every year, 2 – 4 weeks before the end of the school year teachers would proclaim we were “running out of time” and the last 10 – 20% of textbooks were abandoned. And you’re correct. If it was a history or social studies class that meant the skipped era in chronology was the most recent; the prior, several decades.
I wonder what great wisdom I missed out on? Maybe my biology text had a cure for cancer? Maybe my algebra book had a proof for the Birch-Tate conjecture? Maybe the last chapter of my physics text put forth a unified field theory?
Who knows what wonders I missed out on because my teachers were lousy at time management*?!
*And, why did this always happen? They taught the same subject, from the same textbook year after year. After one or two attempts teaching the material and running out of time shouldn’t they have adjusted and compressed some things on the front end to fit it all in?
William Teach,
Not only has technology changed, but to a child two decades is an immense chasm. I was born about two decades after the end of WWII and it was about as relevant as the Civil War in my childhood mind. I knew a lot about both events but I didn’t “feel” like I was growing up in a post WWII America any more than I felt like I lived in a post Civil War America. Both things were in the past, and shaped the present, but neither event seemed like it was affecting my day to day life.
When I look back on it now, as an adult, I realize how much WWII was affecting my day to day existence. As you outline, there were tremendous technological advancements that came from that war that had a big impact. But, also, the adults running my world where very much forged by that war. It imbued almost everything, but as a child, growing up, reading about it or watching film footage seemed like looking back on a bygone era; like watching Charlie Chaplin.
At the end of the film, “Idiocracy” Mike Judge has a great scene depicting the view of WWII from Americans living 500 years from now. Hitler literally is Charlie Chaplin and the battle involves T-Rexes in army helmets. It’s very funny, but I also think Judge does a great job of capturing how the past gets muddled in our minds.
https://youtu.be/MexRnd7ujG8
Jefferson’s revenge,
None would laugh.
The same, steady stream of Americans would leave their homes and run to the breach.
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It eas Saudi Arabia who was responsible for pushing extreme wahabi sect Islam. Our oil addiction paid for 9/11
Barks the deranged little puppy currently occupying the WH….
“Biden marks 9/11 with fiery speech at Pentagon where he tells Americans they ‘owe it’ to terror attack victims to stand up for democracy….”—
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11201571/Biden-leaves-weekend-Wilmington-early-head-Pentagon-9-11-commemoration.html
the week hasn’t even started, and he’s already removed all doubt, we know who he considers the real enemy, the tommies that would have to fight the next engagement,
I’m afraid that, for the most part, the world has forgotten about 9/11, including Americans if weren’t some short media reminders. But people were really, really sad over Queen Elizabeth’s death though.
It’s been nauseating to see some Democrats publicly calling for rejecting “extremism” on the 9/11 remembrance day. They don’t mean Islamists; they mean us.
Logged onto the Fox News website this morning. In the comments section of one of the articles about 9/11 the angry lefty trolls were out in full force in their snarky full selves.
At church today, the youngish pastor, himself a former firefighter, made sure to bring up 9/11 and asked any first responders and hospital workers to stand.
He then continued his sermon series on 1st Peter, which he is doing quiet well .
https://www.gabc.org/episode/anchored-in-community-anchored/
It eas Saudi Arabia who was responsible for pushing extreme wahabi sect Islam. Our oil addiction paid for 9/11
The Wahabi school is part of the local culture in the Nejd. Oil is a necessary industrial input. Calling the consumption of it ‘an addiction’ is stupid. Osama bin Laden was a renegade estranged from his family, so no clue why you hold the Saudi government responsible for things done by his operatives. About 17% of the export market in crude oil is attributable to Saudi Arabia.
Related (alas)…
“The Forgetting of 9/11;
“How did this coordinated mass murder become so irrelevant?”—
https://instapundit.com/541965/
The article describes how the events of 9/11 are “INCONVENIENT” to remember simply because they CAN’T be reconciled with the official “NARRATIVE”…and so they are either conveniently forgotten or mangled beyond recognition.
Though, as noted in the comments above, by the majority—YES, the SILENT MAJORITY—of Americans…and despite the BEST EFFORTS of the Democratic Party and its running dogs in the media, infotech and academia…9/11 will NEVER be forgotten.
Thanks, expat, for reminding us of the Queen’s remarkable decision to begin the Changing of the Guard with by having the Star Spangled Banner played.
“A world without trust”.
THIS is what the “Biden” administration has been so assiduously—energetically and single-mindedly—endeavoring to “create”…
…A world with manifold and massive crises…
With, unfortunately, great success.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-creating-shortage-dollars-just-russia-creating-shortage-oil-gas-and-grain
as usual, the question is more complex then we realize, wahhabism is the state faith in the kingdom, and yet the royals, are yet considered munafakim (hypocrites) for not being privately devout, members of the government abroad like the islamic affairs ministry, did support the hijackers, not a few of them had done work for the regime overseas in the balkans and the caucasus, the last ikwan rising was due to the excessive wealth derived from the post embargo oil boom, then the market collapsed in order to crush Russian oil production
Problem with the moderate Muslim issue/mantra is how come Wahabi mosques have any attendance?
Speaking of the US, of course. Are we allowed to notice?
Non wahabi mosques are like main line churches here
Theres a novel by a young woman saudi novel raja alem sarab this one is about the grand mosque siege by the leader of an ikwan tribe and a french paratrooper who helped break it its about the mindset that drove the hijackers
Miguel. I get that. Point is, if wahabism is so bad we have to separate it from “Islam” in order to convince outselves “Islam” is peaceful, then what does it mean that there are as many as one functioning Wahabi mosque.
And, since we’ve made this distinction to the detriment of the Wahabi, shouldn’t we be keeping a really close eye on the Wahabi mosque attendees? I crack myself up. NASCAR attendees are more of a threat–see the current Establishment–than any Moslem anybody can think of.
it’s that joke, about it’s always crowded, no one goes there,
CAIR is the political wing of Wahhabism, and Deobandism, the indian branch, so like the NAACP they certify who is truly moslem, and who is not,
JJ wrote:
_1. Become so strong militarily that you are unbeatable. (I’d always thought that was a good idea, but the left never did.)
2.Make defensive alliances with other democracies but insist that they carry their fair share of the load.
3. Engage in free trade with any nation, but only if it’s free and reciprocal.
4. Be firm with your adversaries. Don’t let them cheat you, steal from you, or bully you.
5. Don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs.
6. If you have to use military force, don’t hold back. Fight to win in as short a time as possible. (Obama fought ISIS for three years with many restrictive rules of engagement. Trump let the Special Ops loose and beat ISIS in eight months.)
7. Our borders must be secure. Illegal immigration is a cancer on our society. We are a nation of immigrants, but we have a procedure for coming here legally. It must be enforced.
8. All major political decisions must be made by putting the interests and welfare of the USA first._
Most of that was always part of basic, sincere conservatism, as opposed to the elite version espoused by the GOP politicians and big business types over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, there are two big issues with it.
The first is that the elite class that provides the personnel for the top of both parties, the business world, and the academic world is internationalist at a cultural level. It’s the same dominant elite in both parties, and indeed in most Western countries. The same West-wide elite class that loathes and hates Trump in the USA struggled for years to block Brexit in the UK (and still tries to undercut British independence now). That same West-wide elite class (maybe 20% of the total population) is super-secular, wants to reduce Christianity to nothing more than a personal trope irrelevant to the government and society, wants borders dissolved, finds patriotism embarrassing or worse, and struggles constantly to maintain control.
The other big issue is that the world has shrunk down to less than 1 day wide due to modern travel and communications. Under those circumstances, ‘don’t meddle in other countries’ affairs’ is simply _impossible_.
The world is like a group of people, maybe a few families of nations, jammed inescapably into a single big house. They _can’t_ stay out of each other’s hair.
Likewise, the ‘don’t hold back in war’ often isn’t possible. The nuclear bomb changed the rules, so war tends to turn into just the sort of limited engagements Americans _loathe_ , but at the same time can’t necessarily stay out of.
Trump correctly recognized that it’s good for America to have a civil relationship (not necessarily friendly, just civil) with Russia and other nuclear powers, for just that reason.
But the simple facts of life mean that in a nuclear age, warfare is often by proxy, often unavoidable, and usually must be waged with limited means to avoid escalation. Also, sometimes you can’t do what seems natural because of nasty side effects.
After 911, a lot of people were calling for America to destroy Mecca, for ex. Bush, to his credit, refused, and rightly. Bombing Mecca would have set the world on fire.
One interesting thing I’ve noticed about 911 is how deeply many of the hard core idealogues in both American parties and political alignments _don’t want to talk about it_ . They have different, almost opposite reasons, but the same reaction.
The left hates to talk about it because it screws up their vision of one world, one culture, one secular system. John Lennon’s _Imagine_ is their unspoken anthem, and 911 makes a mockery of it.
A lot of right-wing commentators hate it because it screws up their vision where America goes back to being just one ordinary country, bring the troops home and mind our own business. So they try to pretend it didn’t happen or was a one-off freak.
I’ve lost count of how many right-wing commentators talk about Iraq and Afghanistan as if they were a whim, as if we went there on some idealistic crusade to spread democracy for its own sake. Often they’ll write lengthy pieces decrying the war efforts in both places without even _mentioning_ 911, or the fact that the attacks were planned and launched from Afghanistan, or that we were already embroiled in Iraq before 911 and bin Laden himself said that he saw our fumbling with Saddam (and in Ethiopia as well) as proof of our weakness of will.
911 is really, really inconvenient for a lot of people.