They keep making these documentaries... It's like they need to get the story of every single person on tape. When they see it over and over again, the pain from five years ago, they get sad. Then they get angry. And that's how they justify what their government does. To make sure it never happens again.
The US goverment has managed to scare Americans shitless. Then it spread across the pond and Europeans got scared shitless too. There's no easier way to control people than to scare them. And that's what they did.
Some Americans say they need this annual reminder of what happened five years ago. Once I told a guy it's the past, it's time to move on and learn from what happened and not live it over and over. He said it's not the past, it's the present, it will never be the past.
Others feel the pain over and over because they are never allowed to let go. Every year they are reminded of this day and they can't get away from it.
What was America's tragedy has become the day when they portray their pain for the world to see. Tomorrow they'll find a new country to bomb and what can we do - after all, they're still suffering the loss of the 2,997 people who disappeared that day.
How many more have died because of that day? The number doubles just by counting the American and coalition soldiers alone.
I hurts. Of course it does. But a present without a past will never be a future. If you can't move forward, the pain will never go away.
It's not a bad thing to remember. But scratching a wound before it's healed, over and over, will only make it worse. Either way, the memories will never go away. The future will be faced with scars. But even they fade. If you let them.
What upsets me is that they don't understand two very important things.
ReplyDelete1) The terrorists have already won. The terrorists won the moment the governements passed laws that restrics our lives, just to try to combat the terrorist threat. When that happened, the terrorists created a bigger impact on our lives than they deserved, and that's when they won.
2) We can never be 100% safe from terrorist attacks. Irrispective of how much security we try to get, if a terrorist, or group of terrorists want to blow up a plane, then they are going to be able to do that. If you want to prevent terrorist attacks, then the way to go is to stop giving them reasons to do this.
It's not really that hard.
I agree with you... fear can be used to control the people.
ReplyDeleteBut somehow it's so easy for the Americans to lose perspective. Almost 3,000 lives were lost on Sept 11. And every year they replay the same tragic story and get even more motivated to go to war.
How bout those who die of hunger every minute? Who'll fight their cause? How bout those who die because of poverty? Who'll stand up for them? Only a small number of ppl in this world cares.
Not that I'm saying we should take the deaths of those who died in the Sept 11 lightly. But come on ppl, we should care more about the living and how we can make the world a much better place - without war.
They can start by replacing Bush.
On another note, you say the scars will fade if you let them.
ReplyDeleteEngland experienced an attempted terrorist attack 401 years ago, and they still haven't forgotten. So if you don't let the scars fade, they will stick around for a long time. I wonder if 9/11 will stick around in the memories of americans as long as Guy Fawkes Day has stuck around in the memories of the english.
Tjalve: I do have to say I disagree with one thing you said there...
ReplyDeleteIf you want to prevent terrorist attacks, then the way to go is to stop giving them reasons to do this.
There have been terrorist attacks in Madrid, in London. Apparently a new one was planned because of the Danish cartoons, just a week or two ago. When someone decides you've done something wrong, or that people who think the way you do have done something wrong, and they're coming to get you because of that... how do you stop that? How can that not be hard?
Perky: You're so right about people dying of hunger and poverty. They've made every single person who died five years ago into a martyr. They didn't die, they were murdered. Watch any of those documentaries and you'll hear that's the way they think of it.
Do you ever hear of American soldiers murder anyone? No? Not even when civilians and children die? Never.
Guy Fawkes is more of a happy celebration isn't it? At least for the Brits I've known...
ReplyDeleteI don't feel that a proper discussion can be made as comments on a blog. Things may be said that are misunderstood or not explained well enough. And then trying to correct that while continuing the discussion quite fast gets quite hard. And then it all ends in a complete confusion about who said what and what it ment.
ReplyDeleteAs far as american soldiers comitting murders, of course they try to hide it as much as possible. So I doubt more than a small percentage of the actual murders are disovered. But I think raping a 16 year old girl, and then killing her and her entire family, and setting fire to the bodies in order to try to hide the fact, really DOES constitute as "murder", and not just "killing". As does massacering 32 civilians (including women and children) because one soldier was killed by a bomb. So I don't think I need to prove that some american soldiers are murdering iraquis.
As far as the reason why muslims hate the USA, I think I described that well enough in my previous post. And my eyes are quite open, thank you.
And I *DO* feel that terrorist attacks against USA can be morally supported. USA is the biggest and most powerful military force in the world. Winning a conventional war against them is all but impossible. So if you want to fight them, you can't fight conventionally. And guerilla warfare is a wellknown unconventional type of warfare, where you strike at your enemy from a hidden position. But you can't really beat a country by guerilla warfare. You can inflict losses on them, and chase them away. But you can't really win. And sometimes, such as when USA is terrorising you by proxies, you can't even target them with guerilla warfare.
So the only way you can target them, is to make symbolic attacks on (often) non-military and non-governmental targets inside the USA. Attacks that are now kommonly known as terrorist attacks.
So this is the only way these people can fight back against decades of state-terrorism, oppression, massmurders, and exploitation made by USA and it's allies.
Thus I find I can morally support it.
That doesn't mean I feel it should continue. It just means that I can't condemn those who do it, and I agree with their reasons for doing it.
There are hundreds of anniversaries for events more disturbing and bloody than 9/11 throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's part of history, I guess. That those who were wronged never really let it go. The Bush administration has done a great job making sure America never forgets what happened that day, while at the same time, many Americans don't know or even care what the civilian death tolls are in Afghanistan and Iraq. "It's war," they say. "And in war, you can expect some civilian casualties."
In the War on Terror, civilian deaths are the byproduct of the battle being fought. They're the targets and the victims. Whether American or Iraqi or Afghani or British or Spanish or Canadian, we're the targets of all sides in this conflict, if not by bombs and plots, then by fear and propaganda.
Raine: I take it then I'm not the only one who finds it odd that everybody said America was at war after 9/11... As you said, in a war you must expect some civilian casualties. That is.. They are casualties if they are in another country.
ReplyDeleteIf they are in the US, they are "innocent fathers, brothers, sons, murdered by terrorists".
Precisely.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a matter of "us" versus "them" anymore. A father of two in the US could probably find a lot in common with a father of two from Iraq.
Perky said: How bout those who die of hunger every minute? Who'll fight their cause? How bout those who die because of poverty? Who'll stand up for them? Only a small number of ppl in this world cares.
ReplyDeletebigzellbo said: Perky...the hunger issue is not valid. Most of the hungry here in the city "choose" to stay hungry. No education, drugs, gangs whatever. There are places set up where the homeless and hungry can go to find food and shelter, and sometimes a job.
Well, bigzellbo, like so many other americans, I don't think you're capable of getting the point here. I'll try to spell it out for you, but I still think it's basically impossibly for you to comprehend it.
But here goes:
THERE IS A WORLD OUTSIDE OF THE USA.
I realise it's a difficult concept, but it is actually true.
And in that world outside of the USA, there are millions of people who are starving, and thousands who die of starvation every day.
Perky wasn't talking about some homeless people in the cities in USA, he was talking about the people who starve to death outside of the USA. And they certainly didn't "choose" to do so.
bigzellbo: with all due respect.. I disagree. Quite a bit so. But that's fine, as long as we don't start fighting about it we don't have to agree. But
ReplyDeleteUnless you have something other than "opinion" to add, everyone should let the debate go!
might not be the best thing to write here :)
Tjalve: My thoughts exactly.
But you should be careful calling Perky a 'he', she might take offense ;)
"for those of you who arent Americans you have no idea of the impact of THIS terrorist attack and the thoughts of future attacks."
ReplyDeleteSure. I only have to go to bed every night wondering if the next big hit is going to come for me in retaliation for my neighboring country's foreign policy. YOU have no idea what kind of impact the United State's reaction to 9/11 has had on the rest of the world, specifically your allies who are now targets of association.
Life will never be the same here, because the world's greatest military superpower is in a perennial paranoia over the next terrorist attack. And that, in a sense, is far more crippling than anything a terrorist cell could produce, since we now have to contend with orders from south of the border which, most of the time, assault our national sovereignty.
The United States remained strong after 9/11, but those nations friendly to it find themselves under its shadow, if not its boot.