“It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory — hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.” –President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011 Speech

May 1, 2011 will go down in history as the day that terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden was killed.  Never to be happy over somebody’s demise, I was unashamedly ecstatic to hear the news that he was killed by US troops.  I remember that morning on September 11, 2001, watching the news, still in bed.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the first airplane crash into the Twin Towers.  I actually thought it was a hoax until I saw people jump to their death out of the skyscraper’s windows—I’m sorry, no CGI is that good.  Then as realization hit me, oh my God, this is really happening—the unspeakable happened.  A second plane crashed into the Twin Towers, causing the imposing structure to collapse, killing thousands.  I stared in utter disbelief, paralyzed.  Other attacks around the United States happened that same day.  The hijackers crashed a third airliner into The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target either the Capitol Building or the White House. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

Since this horror, many things have happened.  Former President George W. Bush set in motion a series of history-changing events.  Shortly after the terrorist attack, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the overthrow of the Taliban government in Kabul, a regime which had allowed terrorist training camps, directed at western targets, to operate in Afghanistan. This approach was symptomatic of a change in the perception of the world and of the international threats to the United States, one expounded in Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Address and known subsequently as the Bush Doctrine, a phrase used to describe various related foreign policy principles of former United States President George W. Bush.  The phrase initially described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself against countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The United States gave itself the right to pursue its enemies wherever they could be found. In 2003, a U.S.-led military force invaded Iraq, and later, brought down dictator Saddam Hussein.  Nine years later, our troops are there today.

There have been conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  A documentary called Zeitgeist spells out the alleged inconsistencies of the 9/11 horrors.  As reported by the Washington Post by Steve Fainaru and James V. Grimaldi on September 23, 2001, three days after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III described reports that several of the hijackers had received flight training in the United States as “news, quite obviously,” adding, “If we had understood that to be the case, we would have — perhaps one could have averted this.”  In this Washington Post article, the relationship between U.S. flight training and Terrorist attacks is shocking.

In spite of everything that has been reported, purported, alleged, or verified as fact, 9/11 was a horror, setting the tone for impending doom and perpetual vengeance, and vigilance by militias, armed forces, and the free press.  Three thousand United States civilians died on 9/11 as a result of the terrorist attacks, but since then, so have over 4,000 American troops and over 1.2 million Iraqis.  It has been reported that people who inhaled the fumes from the Twin Towers collapsing are dying from lung cancer.  Yes the fallout continues.  And last but not least, American journalists continue to lose their lives in an attempt to report the action over in Afghanistan and Iraq . . . yes, all as a result of 9/11.  I was beginning to wonder if the madness would ever stop.  Maybe it did May 1, 2011!  One can only hope . . .

“On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family. Finally, let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss, nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.  And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.” –President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011 Speech