9-11
Well its been two years since I got stuck in St. Louis for a week because a bunch of guys from Afganastan decided to fly some airplanes into some buildings.
Some weird things that have happened since then:
I didn't know anyone on the planes. Though I have since met a lot of guys who knew Mark Bingham. I even helped pass out leaflets and flyers for the Mark Bingham Rugby Tournament in SF last year. We apparently both lurked in the same places but never talked to each other. So I've found that coincidence a little wierd. I also found it weird that next spring when I climbed onto a 767 for the first time since 9-11 and sat up in First Class. Up till then the flying thing had not really bothered me. But that day the surroundings did, and I started thinking of Mark, a guy I never met. He kind of haunts me now. One of these days I'll get that thought out in a poem.
The other weird thing about 9-11 has been coming to grips with the war in Iraq. Don't get me wrong. I suppose we had to do it. But you have to wonder about old George Bush. He's cited just about every reason for the war but the real one. We all seem to ignore Iraq war reason, mainly because its to complicated to explain.
The Explanation:
Al Qaida attacked the US because we had our military in the Islamic Holy land. Why was the US Military there? Because we had to protect the Holy Land against Sadam Husein. The hope: someday Sadam the nut would self distruct. But that never happened. Ten years of inspections, sanctions, bombing and overflights had not budged him a bit. Rightly or wrongly a good deal of the Arab world resented us being there. They were divided between the devil that was Sadam and the Devil that was the U.S. You can question the judgement and logic of Al Qaida for attacking their defenders, but we are talking fanatics here. Back in the the U.S. Sadam indirectly cost us 3000 lives. The President had to get his people out of danger. If the main reason Al Qaida attacks us is because our soldiers are in Saudi Arabia, we needed to get the soldiers out of Saudi Arabia. Course, that little irritating Sadam might decide to attack Saudi Arabia, and it has all that oil we want to buy and we'd just have to send our soldiers back. Solution: get rid of Sadam Husein, and you can get the soldiers out of Saudia Arabia and Al Qaida doesn't have a reason to attack us. We win, Al Qaida wins.
Kind of a simplistic answer huh? Well, that's really why George Bush wanted to invade Iraq. That's why 9-11 connects. But thats a little more than he could articulate in a speech. Besides, its pretty hard to tell the world, we want to kick Sadam Husein out of Iraq so Al Qaida will leave us alone.
Some weird things that have happened since then:
I didn't know anyone on the planes. Though I have since met a lot of guys who knew Mark Bingham. I even helped pass out leaflets and flyers for the Mark Bingham Rugby Tournament in SF last year. We apparently both lurked in the same places but never talked to each other. So I've found that coincidence a little wierd. I also found it weird that next spring when I climbed onto a 767 for the first time since 9-11 and sat up in First Class. Up till then the flying thing had not really bothered me. But that day the surroundings did, and I started thinking of Mark, a guy I never met. He kind of haunts me now. One of these days I'll get that thought out in a poem.
The other weird thing about 9-11 has been coming to grips with the war in Iraq. Don't get me wrong. I suppose we had to do it. But you have to wonder about old George Bush. He's cited just about every reason for the war but the real one. We all seem to ignore Iraq war reason, mainly because its to complicated to explain.
The Explanation:
Al Qaida attacked the US because we had our military in the Islamic Holy land. Why was the US Military there? Because we had to protect the Holy Land against Sadam Husein. The hope: someday Sadam the nut would self distruct. But that never happened. Ten years of inspections, sanctions, bombing and overflights had not budged him a bit. Rightly or wrongly a good deal of the Arab world resented us being there. They were divided between the devil that was Sadam and the Devil that was the U.S. You can question the judgement and logic of Al Qaida for attacking their defenders, but we are talking fanatics here. Back in the the U.S. Sadam indirectly cost us 3000 lives. The President had to get his people out of danger. If the main reason Al Qaida attacks us is because our soldiers are in Saudi Arabia, we needed to get the soldiers out of Saudi Arabia. Course, that little irritating Sadam might decide to attack Saudi Arabia, and it has all that oil we want to buy and we'd just have to send our soldiers back. Solution: get rid of Sadam Husein, and you can get the soldiers out of Saudia Arabia and Al Qaida doesn't have a reason to attack us. We win, Al Qaida wins.
Kind of a simplistic answer huh? Well, that's really why George Bush wanted to invade Iraq. That's why 9-11 connects. But thats a little more than he could articulate in a speech. Besides, its pretty hard to tell the world, we want to kick Sadam Husein out of Iraq so Al Qaida will leave us alone.
posted by Stan at 5:39 PM
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