Remembering 9-11

I had intended to post about conspiracy theories regarding 9-11 yesterday, but my heart just wasn't in it.  It was a day of remembrance, not a day of argument.  So I thought I might do that today.  But I don't feel like it today either.

I decided there just wasn't really any point in doing so.   The people who think the US Govt or some secret society really did it are not going to change their minds due to anything I say.  Like any of them would be reading my blog at all, anyway...

And it wouldn't be of any value to people who generally agree with the "official version" of the tragedy (as I do).  In almost every situation, there are facts and there are imagined facts.  Each side of many disagreements is utterly and completely positive that "the other side" is the one using the "imagined facts", so what's the point of spending an hour debating "so subjects".  Although I will hasten to say that "some subjects" have actual facts and uncertainties on both sides, and I will engage in those subjects more willingly.

So, I watched a couple of hours on TV that repeated or reconstructed the major events of 9-11.  There was nothing new, and how many times can you watch the Twin Towers fall?  How many times can you watch he same people fleeing the debris cloud?  How many times can you see the aftermath of massive girders sticking up at the remnants of the buildings? 

I finally just turned off the TV.  It's not like I am forgiving or forgetting, but repetition begins to dull the memory rather than enhance it.  You see one muder of TV and it is a shock.  The 10th doesn't have the same impact.  The 100th gets a back page in the newspaper...

My recollection of the events of the day is still sharp and bitter.  My building in Washington DC was made of concrete and stone.  I physically felt the shockwave of the plane that hit the Pentagon.  We had a multiple TV conference room  in the office (we had an emergency management function.

I and everyone else rushed there.   I may be confused a bit about the timeline after 21 years, but I think the 1st Tower had fallen and they were replaying the collapse.  Most everyone was just crying or had turned away in shock.  By complete coincidence, I was the only one watching and suddenly shouted "that's the 2nd tower falling".  Everyone snapped to attention.  

Shock all over again.  There was an almost immediate announcement that all employees were dismissed until further notice.  We were on the top floor and there was a roof top we could access.  I looked out and saw the streets were packed with unmoving cars.  

I was the carpool driver that day, so I advised the carpool we weren't going anywhere right then.  Flight 93 had been announced as heading towards Washington.  I stood on the rooftop looking around.  Well, we couldn't get away and our building was block away from The White House.  So I decided to just watch.

When we learned that Flight 93 had crashed I also observed that the traffic was mostly gone.  I told the carpool we were leaving.  The drive home was difficult, emotionally and trafficwise.  I had to go on roads I was unfamiliar with.  Finally stumbled on one that I knew from previous traffic reports.  We got to our homes.  

Spent that night and the next day watching the news.  Slowly, some understanding of what had happened and who had caused it began to come out.  The initial reports were actually wrong in many ways but some sense of a timeline came out and possible people involved.  

A slightly funny story.  Not funny "ha-ha", but funny "I was upset and confused and not thinking well".  At home I was trying to decide who to remember the date in my mind.  Historical dates are always arbitrary, but you learn them culturally.  

I am bad about new dates so I searched for "something" that might help me recall the date.  You wouldn't believe how long it took me to realize that September 11th was also 9-11.  I have no idea about other nations, but 911 is the emergency telephone number in the US.  DUH, so obvious, easy to remember, and it escaped me completely for  what seemed like a long time.  To this day, I sometimes wonder if that's why the attackers picked the date.  

This is more than I expected to post about today, but I suppose I have a lot to let out...

We decided to attack Afghanistan because we learned that The Taliban had given Bin Laden shelter.  The day I heard about US plans to attack The Taliban, I thought it was wrong.  The explanation was that they had helped him with support and possibly planning and training.

Not that I knew much about Afghanistan at the time, but it didn't seem likely.  Afghanistan was a very internally-oriented "barely-nation".  There were plenty of reasons to dislike Afghanistan (opium trade, brutal suppression of both women specifically and everyone in general, and really medieval warlord-oriented control).

I thought the best response was to find out who specifically planned the attack and go after them as terrorists/criminals using Interpol and the CIA and other nation's security forces.  But President Bush II (driven by Dick Cheney and others who loved projecting US military force around the world) decided a full out war.  Well, of course, they decided "we would win easily".

Some people never learn.  Afghanistan is just not conquerable.  The British tried it, the Russians tried it.  IIRC, Alexander The Great tried.  All failed.  So of course, we had to try too.  And failed.

I sometimes suspect that the 2000 US presidential election will be judged by history as a major failure.  Al Gore should have been legally judged as President.  That is a personal opinion based on what I understand of law from experts in the field.  

I suspect President Gore would have made a very different decision than President Bush II did.  More covert action, less warfare.  But I reiterate that is a personal opinion.  We will never know.

What we do know now (and knew early after 9-11) is that the planner/organizer Bin Laden  and the perpetrators of the attack were all Saudis.  Or if we did know, we were afraid of their oil power and apparent control over the stability of politics in The Middle East.

Hindsight is 20/20...