Remembering the dreadful 9/11 decade...

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it seems like the past 10 years, which could be called the 9/11 decade, have been rather dreadful for America.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a horrible day. I can't think of any other national moment where, as a TV viewer, I was able to watch the ongoing terrible tragedy. We were glued to the TV sets, listening as news anchors and reporters attempted to fill in the gaps of informaton, watching the smoke from one of the World Trade Center towers, then the appearance of a second large plane hitting the second tower, then the collapse of both buildings. The plane attack on the Pentagon building and the plane crash in a Pennsylvania field meant that a massive terrorism attack had been coordinated against America.

The stories of heroism and sacrifice by people ranging from the fiirefighters and other emergency response people at the sites of the attacks to those on the United flight who stormed the plane cockpit to try to end a hijacking and to thwart a diabolical plan are truly amazing and inspirational.

Of course, America had experienced moments of terrorism before, particularly the home-grown variety, with the terrorism of the KKK in the South all through at least half of the 20th century and the violent attack by a monstrous renegade on a federal building in Oklahoma City. Certainly, the attack on Pearl Harbor by the nation of Japan prior to WWII was a jarring national moment leading to war, as was the case with 9/11.

While a quick U.S. military response to dislodge and punish the Taliban government in Afghanistan for its accommodation of al Qaida bases and the Osama Bin Laden terrorists seemed appropriate, the military reach then went beyond the mission, reaching into Iraq to topple a dictator and then back into Afghanistan, to prop up a weak leader, all with the steady drumbeat of fear. Fear was the biggest winner in the 9/11 decade and was that what the terrorists wanted?

The result has been two seemingly endless wars, thousands of U.S. soldiers as well as Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed, and huge expenditures in defense spending (from the monthly billions in war expensive to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to the massive increase in war contractors and war profiteers).

There were more problems and troubling issues over the decade, such as the hopefully short governmental embrace of torture, thanks to moronic leaders like Dick Cheney, who turned the higher moral ground of a democracy on its ear and made me, many other Americans, and the rest of the world wonder what had happened to the American conscience. There were secret prisons and the use of rendition. There was political demogaguery to exploit fears at every turn, rampant from politics to the media.

Then there have been the effects on the "homeland," a term that the Bush administration brought into the American lexicon but a term that I have always disliked as it has a "Nazi Germany" ring to it. America is my country. I care about what happens to my country, just as I care about what happens in the world.

Because of one criminal with explosives in his shoe, we all now take off our shoes at airports and go through the "naked" scanners and let the security officers bark at us and feel our bodies through our clothes, as though that's the expectation for air travel. (We have one unemployed person...No, wait...100,000 unemployed people...No, wait...1 million unemployed people...No, wait...14 million unemployed people in our country and what do we do collectively to end that problem? Is it because fear apparently isn't part of how people and politicians view unemployment?)

My fears are somewhat different from those of politicians on a debate stage. When I look out into my college classes and see the honorable ROTC students in their military fatigues, I fear for them. Will they have to go to a pitifully unstable place like Afghanistan or Iraq, and be part of what looks to be as hapless a military adventure as the Vietnam War was but longer? I fear for those students because I am not sure if American political leaders and even true military leaders command those wars or if instead the wars have become a business venture for the benefit and profits of contractors within the military industrial complex. When there are more contractors on the ground than there are soldiers...when the contractors are paid 10 times what the soldiers would get for the same work required...I seriously wonder, and dread that 9/11 has reached beyond now a decade. How long will those wars go?

Bin Laden never believed that his militia was capable of defeating the American military. The numbers and weaponry and budgets would never make it so. But he saw the American reach as similar to the old Soviet reach and hoped it would break us financially as it had done to the Soviet Union. And in 2008, he lived long enough to almost see the collapse of the American economy, probably saved from a great depression by a huge expenditure (and debt). It took nearly 10 years to find bin Laden, who was then killed. So, a person who advocated violence came to a violent end. There's a lesson for the world.

As for 9/11, there were many heroic stories that need to remembered.

Following the 9/11 tragedy, there have been some encouraging aspects. Hopefully, the American network of law enforcement is working better together for coordinated security. And I recently saw a report about how the better construction of buildings could at least prevent a towering building from collapsing. The report noted that if a plane had flown into a building like the Empire State Building, with its better foundational and cement structural support from the older days when buildings were made tougher, it would have been unlikely for the building to collapse. So, it might cost more to make stronger buildings, but, especially for skyscrapers that are at risk from planes, internal fires, earthquakes, or other problems, the safety for people is worth the expense.

As I hope nothing happens in a "terrorism" way today on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to elevate a renewed fear and its consequences, I also hope America can escape the fears and traps of the dreadful 9/11 decade.