It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. What we did not realize at the time was that the tragedy was only just beginning on that beautiful morning in late summer, as we were soon to embark on a lost decade which would eventually leave hundreds of thousands dead, eviscerate human rights both at home and abroad, destroy the national economy and squander trillions on multiple corporate wars of aggression.
So where are we now, and just what exactly has been accomplished since that fateful day?
We are embroiled in no less than five wars throughout the Islamic world: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. More than 6,000 American soldiers are dead, tens of thousands more are permanently disabled. Well in excess of one million civilians have been killed by our actions throughout the Muslim world, and the American economy has been sabotaged for generations to come by our multi-trillion dollar military expenditures.
The Patriot Act annihilated the very concept of civil liberties, while our Orwellian “War on Terror” has destroyed what few remnants there were of America’s standing in the world as a force for good: Guantanamo Bay, indefinite detention without charge, torture, the now accepted Bush/Obama Doctrine of preemptive war.
The world is clearly a far worse place today than it was ten years ago. The entire human race, thanks to the reckless actions of the corporatist Bush/Obama regime, has taken a giant step back. 2,700 dead on September 11, 2001 seems trivial in comparison.
But let’s look back on the events that triggered it all. Just what do we know about the alleged attacks? For starters, we know that the official story is completely false. There are far too many questions which remain unanswered, and until these questions are answered no American can claim to know what really happened on that day. While I do not purport to know what really transpired, I think the following questions require immediate answers:
1 – Why didn’t the official 9/11 report consider the source of funding for the attacks pertinent, particularly when there was clear evidence linking the hijackers to the Pakistani intelligence unit?
2 – What happened to Building 7?
3 – How is it possible that burning jet fuel caused two steel towers to collapse?
4 – What is Larry Silverstein talking about when he suggests “pulling it”?
5 – What happened to the remains of the plane in Pennsylvania?
6 – What happened to the remains of the plane at the Pentagon?
7 – Why won’t the Pentagon release the video of the plane striking it?
8 – What happened to the black boxes of the planes that struck the twin towers?
9 – What are we to make of the numerous eye-witness accounts which describe explosions in the basement, before the planes struck?
10 – What are we to make of the Project for a New American Century, and its document “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” which cited the need for a new Pearl Harbor event nearly two years before the events of 9/11?
I am not necessarily suggesting a conspiracy of any sort, nor am I implying an inside job in which the twin towers were brought down by controlled demolition. But short of concrete evidence to the contrary – or at least, evidence which supports the official story – I will not rule them out. The CIA has routinely been involved in such attacks on nations throughout the world; what is to prevent it from carrying out a false-flag attack on US soil? Anything is possible, particularly in a nation as corrupt as ours. And until we have answers to the above questions and many more, we can hardly claim to live in a free and open society.
Failed Empire 