The news this past week has been filled with stories regarding the horrific events of 9-11-2001. Each story is punctuated with the line “Never Forget.”
I will never forget the atrocities committed on 9/11/2001, and I will never forget the true heroism displayed by the American people--men and women, gay and straight, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, atheist, and Jew--on that awful day.
I will also never forget the cowardice/incompetence/venal politicizing of President George W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney.
I will never forget that then out-going President Clinton told then in-coming President Bush to meet with Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke ASAP. I will never forget that it took months for Bush to meet with Mr. Clarke, and when he did, all he wanted to talk about was Iraq.
I will never forget that Bush expressed surprise that terrorists would fly planes into skyscrapers saying “Who would've ever thought?” I will never forget that there was an intelligence estimate written for Bush prior to the attack titled “Terrorists Want to Fly Planes into Skyscrapers”.
I will never forget how our Civil Liberties were thrown out the window. I will never forget how thousands of Muslim-Americans were rounded up with no Just Cause.
I will never forget how the American People were lied into supporting the War in Iraq. I will never forget that there was never any connection between al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein.
I will never forget the thousands of American men and women who died in Iraq because of this lie. I will never forget the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have come home from this war damaged mentally or physically all for an attempt to illegally grab Iraq's oil.
I will never forget that a huge source of the debt that suddenly became controversial this past year was the result of the unjust War in Iraq. I will never forget that Bush in the face of two wars pushed through the largest tax cut in the history of this nation for those that could most afford to pay their taxes. I will never forget that the bill for this War will continue to grow long after we have left.
I will never forget that American forces did have Osama bin Laden cornered in AFGHANISTAN. I will never forget that Bush outsourced the job to local warlords who took our money and let bin Laden slip away. I will never forget that President Obama made the call to send Seal Team 6 in to kill bin Laden.
I am sorry if some of you find my comments impolite. I do not mean to dishonor the dead. Rather, I feel that the greatest honor that we can do for the heroes who died on 9/11 as well as those heroes who died and continue to die in the aftermath of that horrible day is to learn something that will make us a better country. Unfortunately, in the last couple of weeks or the last year for that matter, I have heard little of this discussed. If we don't learn from the lessons of 9-11, we will be doomed to repeat them.