It has been fourteen years since a group of religious extremists used America’s interference in the Middle East as justification to launch a terror attack on American soil, and although the sentiment is waning, there are still reminders from conservatives to “never forget 9/11” as if any American over the age of four could possibly do so. Americans should remember the day of the attack without being reminded by Republicans, but what they should remember is how the Bush administration used the horrific terror attacks to start two lengthy and very costly wars; particularly with Republicans desperate for any reason to start another Middle East war.
There was actually a world of bad things that happened as a result of the 9/11 attacks that Americans far into the future will suffer from, whether it is the mind-numbing economic cost of the two wars paid for with borrowed money, the loss of American citizens privacy due to abominations such as the Patriot Act, or the ill-will America continues to face around the world due to its aggression toward innocent Muslims as a result of George W. Bush’s “crusade.”
It is telling that all of the nasty things that the Bush administration wrought on America after 9/11 are the result of his reaction and response to an attack carried out by a gang of criminals; not any foreign nation. The reason this is an important time to remember the Republican damage as a result of the terror attacks on 9/11 is that Republicans are so desperate for another war that they are going beyond insane to repeat that historic debacle that may have never happened without the reaction of a gang of Republican extremists.
Although Republicans have not yet planned a terrorist attack on American soil and blamed it on Iran, they have attempted to use every despicable means to repeat Bush’s catastrophic war in Iraq. The latest Republican threat to thwart the United Nations’ P5+1 agreement with Iran is to sue the President of the United States, the only office tasked with setting foreign policy and negotiating international agreements, for having the temerity to set foreign policy and negotiate an international agreement as part of a six-nation partnership.
The Republicans’ desperation move to sue the President of the United States in court for being head of the Executive Branch followed closely on the heels of the Republican-controlled Senate’s failure to “disapprove” of the Iran nuclear agreement. One still wonders why Congress was allowed to have a say in a United Nations’ international agreement and the White House’s foreign policy, but it is most likely because America is now required to give a foreigner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “veto authority” over the Executive Branch’s Middle East foreign policy decisions.
It is noteworthy that Republicans did not attempt to scuttle their demi-god Ronald Reagan’s historic nuclear agreement with the former Soviet Union, but it is likely because setting foreign policy and negotiating an international agreement by a white Republican is a different story. Plus, Reagan did not have a Congress that worked closely with a foreign government to thwart his administration’s foreign policy or efforts at preserving peace.
While Americans are ‘remembering‘ 9/11 at ceremonies dedicated to the memories of the lives lost in New York, Washington D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania, they should think about the 4,486 U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq and 2,345 soldiers who died in Afghanistan as well as the 1 million American troops wounded in both unnecessary wars. They should also grieve that the Bush administration used a terror attack on American soil to rack up $6 trillion in costs for two wars that were unfunded as a reaction to a gang of criminals. Add in to those costs in American lives and money the current cost to Americans to deal with the Bush administration’s special creation, ISIL that did not exist until America invaded Iraq. Although it was no sweat, cost, or concern to most Americans, there is the little matter of over 600,000 innocent Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of George W. Bush’s crusade and response to an attack on America committed by criminals.
This is in no way diminishes the horrors or loss of life as a result of the terror attack on 9/11 that the Bush administration had several advance warnings was days away. However, it is a reminder that Americans should think about the horrible event’s monumental cost to this country in lives and assets due to Republicans’ lust for war in the Middle East. It is the same lust Republicans have displayed over the past year-and-a-half at the prospect of sending American soldiers to fight and die in another costly war without an attack on America as provocation.
Americans should remember the terror attacks on 9/11 and give pause that thousands of innocent Americans lost their lives to a gang of criminals driven by religious ideology. But they should also remember that a Republican administration took advantage of the attack to wage two unnecessary and unfunded wars on sovereign nations that did not attack America, and enacted policies that have robbed Americans of their privacy.
Now, 14 years later, the exact same Republicans driven by devotion to the military industrial complex and Israeli ideology are drooling over the prospect of waging another war on another Muslim nation that has not attacked America, or any nation for over 234 years. And with no terror attack as provocation for a war with Iran, Republicans have conspired with a foreigner, committed sedition, and are now threatening to sue the President of the United States for setting foreign policy that does not include waging war as the only option.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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