Never Forgotten

or Never Knew?

New York & Pentagon

Never Forget

I'm sure we all remember where we were, who we were with, and probably what we said, when we first learned about the plane hitting the towers. For me, I was at work at US Sign and Mill, when my then-wife called me after the first plane hit the North Tower. The news didn’t know much. At first, they thought it was a small aircraft. Then, she called back 15 minutes later, to tell me another plane hit the South Tower, and like everyone else in the world, I knew… it wasn’t accidental.

We were under attack, either by a foreign government, or terrorism. We weren't even thinking 'domestic' that day, and we won’t get into that today, either. There is an appropriate time for everything, and today is about the 2,977 people who died that day, not those who played a part in carrying out the attacks.

Never Knew?

Today is 9/11, and not the day to focus on conspiracy theories, or even conspiracy facts. On this day, 22 years ago 2,977 people died, at the hands of terrorists, whether foreign and/or domestic.

I will only mention that most people may remember that a van bomb was detonated 8 years earlier, in 1993, in a sub-basement garage level of the North Tower. In future articles, we will take a deeper look at evidence of reasons the buildings needed to come down one way or another, such as the damage caused by this bomb, and whether the building’s back was broken, as some say, or not. I won’t spend any time today on witness’ claims of squib detonations in the Towers, or a rocket being launched at the Pentagon. I don’t want to get into what temperature different metals melt.
Today is about the victims, not the perpetrators.

Shanksville

Never Forget

The different set of circumstances of United Airlines Flight 93, where passengers like Todd Beamer and Mark Bingham, and others, attempted to overtake the hijackers, is the real American Patriot Spirit story of 9/11.

Never Knew?

There is much speculation surrounding the intended target of Flight 93. It really doesn't matter today, whether it was the White House, The Capitol Building, or any other of a host of potential high-value targets, because regular everyday All-Americans said “Let’s Roll”, and didn’t allow it to happen on their watch.

Afghanistan and Iraq

There’s not much to say… today… on the disasters that are: The Patriot Act, or the ineffective War on Terror. But, in light of the current infighting at the Lee REC, I can’t help but see some parallels. When U.S. Intelligence assisted the reformists in Afghanistan to fill the power vacuum and replace the Taliban, we thought that Afghanistan would become a free nation which would work with the west. They finally got rid of the old cabal, and became a model for the region in the installation of a friendly regime.

But, as so often happens, the replacement government soon fell to corruption and egos. In part, because of undue influence from Taliban infiltration into the new government, and in part, because power corrupts, and egos become more important than the mission. Was it better than the Taliban? Yes, in many ways it was. But, in one way, it was worse. When you replace the old cabal of authoritarians with a new band of authoritarians, it diminishes the spirit of those who worked so hard to get this over the finish line. Next time, many may simply say “Why bother? They’re just going to become the same as the old boss”.

Similar issues arose in Baghdad. The new regime became corrupted and infiltrated by multiple entities, none of whom had western civilization near and dear to their hearts.

So, today, “We Never Forget”. Never.