Blowback

I got sidetracked, but I wanted to reflect a little on the 10th anniversary. I wasn’t there when the planes hit. I was on my way into work at the day job, in Ohio. Can’t stand local radio so I didn’t hear any news till I walked behind a counter. The place had a waiting area with cable. Everyone was standing around, some oblivious to the events playing out. You turn around and there’s the twin towers falling. Reports of two other planes crashing. One of my coworkers coldly says, ‘well better them than us’. We glare at her.

Nothing can excuse the events that day. Some distance from that day, you realize this is the direct result of blowback. We didn’t heed Eisnenhower’s speech on being wary of the military industrial complex. Our government mucks around in other people’s affairs. Killing, deposing leaders, etc. For what? I grew up while the Cold War was on the verge of ending. Was it necessary? The Soviet Union was bound to collapse. Did we really need to train the folks who would later become the Taliban? Instead of blowing all this money on senseless police actions, offshore military bases, and black ops, why not use it for humanitarian efforts? Help people. History, if we’re still here in another 100 years, will look at the last decade as our lost decade. It won’t take 4 years to fix this, it will be a long slow process.

Democracy doesn’t come at the end of a barrel. Egypt proved that. If the people want it badly, they will rise up against their government. They have to want it. I have no idea what Iraq will become. Bush took 9-11 and pissed all the goodwill away by chasing the oil. 9-11 was bad for many reasons, the worst was it kept Bush in office. It gave enough ammo for the Republican party to carry on what Reagan did and flush this country down the tubes. Deregulation, fear, denial of rights, a crazy expensive war(s) and 8 years of denying climate change. This is the sad legacy of 9-11.

…and now back to the arting.