This post is courtesy of Jim Wright and Lou J. Berger. The original poster had valid points with which I agree. It's one thing to observe the anniversary; it's quite another to not have learned anything from it.
"Earlier, I shared, without comment, Jim Wright's post about 9/11. My post has disappeared, because Facebook found the contents of his diatribe violate Facebook standards, so they deleted HIS original, and all the shares. Mine was one among over 2,500 shares. I will post it again, but will anybody who is offended by it please PM me before reporting it? Thanks in advance."
"You're expecting some kind of obligatory 9-11 post, aren't you?
Here it is, but you're not gonna like it.
15 years ago today 19 shitheads attacked America.
They killed 3000 of us.
And then ... America got its revenge for 9-11.
Yes we did. Many times over. We killed them. We killed them all. We killed their families. We killed their wives and their kids and all their neighbors. We killed whole nations that weren't even involved just to make goddamned sure. We bombed their cities into rubble. We burned down their countries.
They killed 3000 of us, we killed 300,000 of them or more.
8000 of us came home in body bags, but we got our revenge. Yes we did.
We're still here. They aren't.
We win. U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!
Right?
You're goddamned right. We. Win.
Except...
Every year on this day we bathe in the blood of that day yet again. We watch the towers fall over and over. It's been 15 goddamned years, but we just can't get enough. We've just got to watch it again and again.
It's funny how we never show those videos of the bombs falling on Baghdad today. Or the dead in the streets of Afghanistan. We got our revenge, but we never talk about that today. No, we just sit and watch the towers fall yet again.
Somewhere out there on the bottom of the sea are the rotting remains of the evil son of a bitch who masterminded the attack. It took a decade, but we hunted him down and put a bullet in his brain. Sure. We got him. Right? That's what we wanted. that's what our leaders promised us, 15 years ago today.
And today those howling the loudest for revenge shrug and say, Well, yeah, that. That doesn't matter, because, um, yeah, the guy in the White House, um, see, well, he's not an American, he's the enemy see? He's not doing enough. So, whatever. What about that over there? And that? And...
Yeah.
15 years ago our leaders, left and right, stood on the steps of the Capitol and gave us their solemn promise to work together, to stand as one, for all Americans.
How'd that promise work out?
How much are their words worth? Today, 15 years later?
It's 15 years later and we're STILL afraid. We're still terrorized. Still wallowing in conspiracy theories and peering suspiciously out of our bunkers at our neighbors. Sure we won. Sure we did. We became a nation that tortures our enemies -- and our own citizens for that matter. We're a nation of warrantless wiretaps and rendition and we've gotten used to being strip searched in our own airports. And how is the world a better place for it all?
And now we're talking about more war, more blood.
But, yeah, we won. Sure. You bet.
Frankly, I have had enough of 9-11. F*** 9-11. I'm not going to watch the shows. I'm not going to any of the memorials. I'm not going to the 9-11 sales at Wal-Mart. I don't want to hear about 9-11. I for damned sure am not interested in watching politicians of either party try to out 9-11 each other. I'm tired of this national 9-11 PTSD. I did my bit for revenge, I went to war, I'll remember the dead in my own time in my own way.
I'm not going to shed a damned tear today.
We got our revenge. Many times over, for whatever good it did us.
I'm going to go to a picnic and enjoy my day. Enjoy this victory we've won.
I suggest you do the same." - courtesy of Jim Wright.
It seems to me that we (and I'm including the rest of the civilized world in that, not just the US) won - and yet we lost. We lost our freedom, we lost our self-control and we lost our grip on the reality of the situation. We strike back but we are unsure who to strike at and I'm quite certain that the majority of those we struck at had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and that has simply made the situation worse by leaving many people with a lasting grudge against us. They will not rest until we and our way of life are destroyed. I fear there is much more to come and I see no end to it until either we or they are gone.
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