9/11:The Blame Game

This is my final post which directly comments about September 11, 2001 as we have just marked five years since that awful day. My next few postings will turn toward the sometimes innocuous world of sports.

I definitely try to mix things up on this blog. I have been writing some poems lately and am hoping to iron them out and get them posted withint the next few weeks. Oh yeah, some of you may have remembered that short story I was working on. Well, I have made some changes again and hope to have that posted in the near future. But don't want to make any promises.

Of course, hockey is coming up and so I will be spending quite a bit of time on the NHL. So basically what I am getting at, is that I hope to be posting more to this blog than at any other point in the last few months. Being that I will have so many topics to post about.

The thing that gets me about 9/11 and the last five years is all the blaming that goes on. I don't know if it is human nature or just the world we live in, but it seems to me that so many people either blame themselves too much or point the finger at others. We have to remember that the terrorists committed the heinous acts of September 11, 2001. If you read my blog, you probably get a sense that I read quite a bit. That is true. You probably may also get a sense that I have read quite a bit on the subject of 9/11. That is also true.

I have read and listened to a great deal about 9/11 and also what has occurred in our world since. I can say that I have not seen one credible piece of information that the worst terrorist attack in the history of this country was an inside job or that the folks in our government had any prior knowledge.

One night I was watching C-SPAN and there was a panel of "experts" talking about how the attacks on the World Trade Center were triggered by bombs already planted inside the buildings. I kept saying to myself, "OK when is he going to provide evidence and not provide a lot of hyperbole." I watched and listened. Then some more. Then even some more. It never came.

When it comes to politicians, I am in no way a cool-aid drinker. I won't just take the side of a politician just because I voted for him. I don't blame any politician. I don't blame anyone in the CIA or FBI. I blame the people who trained as terrorists and committed murder. I blame Usama bin Laden and his ilk. I don't blame former President Bill Clinton.

What I try to do is separate the person from the job. Clinton did what he thought was best for the country, just as George W. is doing. I don't know either man personally but I think they both seem like men with good intentions that also care a great deal for this country. I disagreed with Clinton on many issues, but I never wished any harm to him. I think about the fact that the man has a wife and a daughter. To someone he is a brother, maybe an uncle, a nephew, a son.

This takes me to this movie that came out depicting George W. being assassinated. I give Hillary Clinton a lot of credit for calling the movie what it is, "despicable". Bravo, Hillary! We have to realize that being a politician is a job, just like a sanitation worker or a bank teller. If they screw up or do something we don't like, do we wish harm to them. Well, certainly no one who is of sound mind. I am shocked by the people I have encountered who wish harm done to the Clintons or to George W. Bush. It saddens me, truly. I really believe that these folks need some serious counseling and are really just channeling their frustrations about life toward these people that they have never met.

The same goes for the war in Iraq. Where I think the real failure lies is in the fact that our intelligence apparatus needs major upgrading. More Arabic translators for one. When we invaded Afghanistan in October there was only one or two men in the CIA who spoke Pashtu, which is widely spoken in that region. As far as the weapons of mass destruction goes I believe there should be a bi-partisan committee set up to find out what went wrong. Why did we not find the stockpiles that the CIA promised leading up to the war in Iraq? Look the CIA along with the intelligence agencies of many countries around the world got it wrong, plain and simple. So let's find out why.

I don't see any evidence that Bush lied, because remember everything he was saying about Iraq and WMD, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton were also saying.

Finally, I was reading the comments posted under my posting "Four Great Men" and some of them were really disgusting. It saddens me that there are, in fact, people in this country with such bitterness. But I still believe that America is the best country in the world. Again, does anyone see an illegal immigration problem in Iran or Syria? No, people can't wait to get the hell out of those countries.

Let me just say that I feel that before casting blame, certain folks in America needs to take an unbiased look at the facts. Too much time has been wasted on rhetoric without evidence. If anyone could provide me with facts or point me in the direction to where there is evidence that would contradict what I believe then I would be happy to see it. But I doubt it will come, just more plain silly hyperbole.