On this day 15 years ago, the United States experienced the largest terror attack in our history. It is a day that we will long remember. My heart goes out to the families of the victims.
On this day, I would also like for us to remember that Osama bin Laden who orchestrated the attack was of the house of Saud. 16 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. In response to our attack by Saudis, we attacked Iraq in what is now considered to be an enormous blunder of epic proportions.
We still treat Saudi Arabia as a friendly nation in that region. I don’t know why. We still talk about selling arms to Saudi Arabia. I don’t know why. We still buy oil from Saudi Arabia. I don’t know why.
Further, if we assume that every 3,000 lives lost prematurely is “one 9/11” then we have ten 9/11s on our highways every year. We have another ten 9/11s every year as a result of lax gun laws and a nationwide obsession with the damn things (should we consider the NRA a terrorist organization? perhaps). We have sixty-five 9/11s every year as a result of air pollution which we might have reduced tremendously if we took action on climate change (is ExxonMobil a terrorist organization? perhaps).
So, will we do anything for safer roads, stricter gun regulations, and strong regulation of pollution to actually prevent some or all of these 9/11s going forward?
I am not hopeful.
I grieve not only for the 3,000 victims 15 years ago, but also for the 3.9 million lives lost prematurely just from these causes and from many other causes as well since then. And, I grieve for the 260,000 we will lose in 2016.
Perhaps I should subtract out the highway deaths? We do, last I heard, have the safest roads in the world. Maybe we are already doing as much as we can about that. But, the other 230,000 every year can certainly be reduced by at least several 9/11s, if we were to pretend to care.
The Misanthropic Principle 
AND??
Lets ask a strange question about going to AFGHANISTAN then invading Iraq..
HOW do you Corner/Gather/Catch a small group? Most police surround an area, and IF’ needed go house to house..OUR military JUMPS into the middle and spreads out..
DIDNT BOTHER to close all the Surrounding area, and borders..
THEN while looking for 1 group of idiots, our PRESIDENT gets a strange IDEa that IRAQ is making/building “WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION”.
That person was DEALING with 4-6 Muslim groups, with OLD vendettas, tyring to kill each other OFF…and when he caught them fighting. would kill both of the fighters.. IT KEPT a Strange peace in that nation.
WE go into that nation, and what do you Think happens…HIS problems BECAME OURS..
NOW..its Syria..
Go look at a map…There is Something KINDA strange..and it MIGHT happen. We have ALWAYS had a “hardon” for 1 nation and we have been fighting ALL around it.
IRAN..and this is an interesting nation..look it up..its a DEMOCRATIC NATION.. few know this, as we only hear BAD things about them. THERE PEOPLE get upset and REALLY fight each other to get an opinion..
IF’ you connect the dots, and look at the maps…Something has been stated, long ago about PIPE LINES..and trying to get Them to the Mediterranean..AND NOT PAYING NATIONS to cross their borders.as well as Russia, needing another pipeline for Natural GAS to the EU..
We may see this in the next 10 years..
BACK TO THE SUBJECT..
1. NO REAL terrorist attacks in the USA Since.
2. We are paying the EU to run checks on everyone, FIRST..
3. Thinking other nations are as COMPLICATED as the USA..for Identification and personal paper work, is very short sighted.. Many nation have NO ID. system..
4. Dont get mad, but its true…LESS people get money from the EU/USA/RUSSIA for CRUDE OIL, then any other product.
5. if you dont know #4, lets say that 1 barrel of CRUDE oil is/can be manufactured, into 100 times its product..NOT JUST FUEL..
6. pertains to #5, WHO IS MAKING THE MONEY?? In the USA, Fuel tax in Idaho is $0.70, Saude is selling around $1 per gallon, and you are paying $3 per gallon, for something that is PROCESSED CHEAPLY, and into 100 times its weight..
In the END, it comes down to CORPs needing a CHEAP military to do THEIR JOB.. And an economic war that Started in the 80’s.. That could of ENDED in the 90’s if a certain PERSON had let us go to Afghanistan and CLEAN things up and rebuild it..
And there are a TON of reasons the WHOLE middle east hates the EU and the USA.. we make the RICH..Richer and the Poor STARVE..
Regarding #4, oil is the prime example of a resource curse. Diamonds are probably second. It is very common for a country with a single highly valuable natural resource to have extreme poverty and extreme income inequality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse
9/11 Was and still is a major intelligence FAIL!!!
It is also a political fail!
The response was and is inept, and incomplete! Executing Bin Ladden at that late date does not meet the measure! This is a war that is being carried on piece meal over an extended period of time! Will the new crop of politicians and bureaucrats improve the response? Not likely! Understanding the enemy and his causes is step one, and that is not happening!
You’re asking that they recognize that this is actually a religious war for the radical extremists? You’re asking that they recognize that the 19 men who attacked us on 9/11 were not disgruntled over something else, that they were not poor, that they were merely ultra religious extremist fundamentalists who took their religion way too seriously?
If they recognized that, they might have to recognize that the same tendencies exist in any sect of the Abrahamic religion, deliberately singular.
They’d have to recognize that a literal reading of any of the writings of any of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic sects would result in violence. They’d have to admit that religion, nearly all religion, is itself a problem.
That is not going to happen.
A simple search and stumbling on a single wikipedia page will instantly point to the terrorism committed because of extremist Christianity. But, that will continue to be ignored for a long time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism
Islam isn’t the only problem sect. Read the Torah. I am of Jewish descent. My people wrote the book on genocide. The Torah (a.k.a. New Testament) is full of mass murder on behalf of a supposed desert war god in the sky. Christianity is based on Judaism. So is Islam. All share common stories of death, genocide, slavery, murder, rape, etc.
Check out how specific 1 Samuel 15:3 gets, even down to specifying the murder of infants suckling at their mothers’ breasts.
Deuteronomy 20:16 – 17 is more general “thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth,” And, then it goes on to list 6 whole races to be completely and utterly slaughtered.
My point is that while many Christians in the U.S. have become Islamaphobic, before they get holier than thou (literally), they need to recognize the exact same psychotic bullshit in their own religion. Ditto for Jews.
That book is wholly and holy evil and should have been flushed down the toilet at the first sign of indoor plumbing back in ancient Rome.
BTW, luckily, so far, it is only the extremists who really follow their religion. If all 1.6 billion Muslims wanted us dead, we’d be dead. If all 2.2 billion Christians followed their book, we’d be dead. The only thing stopping me from saying the same of Jews is that 2,000 years of murder by Christians and others has left the planet with too few Jews to actually cause that level of problem. But, the problems of Jews and Muslims worshiping the same fucking deity but fighting over the god damn birth right of that fucking wimp Abraham who was wrapped around the little pinkie of his colossal bitch of a wife Sarah are still causing problems to this day.
Fuck Abraham for not standing up to Sarah to save his son and his son’s mother from being thrown out in the desert. If someone wants the birthright of Abraham (probably a couple of hundred sheep), they can have it. And, for the next 2,000 years, they can be the first against the wall whenever times get tough. Let them be God’s mouse in His game of cat and mouse with His so-called Chosen people … chosen to be the butt of his worst practical jokes … the sadistic narcissist psychopath.
Dear JR..
RELIGION is a way to gather people and make them DO things your way..
IF you Look UNCREATIVELY at it…Is SLAVERY..
Bin laden Gathered people for a WAR against Russia..WE BACKED HIm..
WE made promises for the end of the war..
we supplied him..
The war ended, he asked for help..Over and OVER and OVER…and we didnt help recover his nation..He BOMBED the same building 2 times..BEFORE 2000..
He dived into his religion and became a leader to fight for his country, then Took what was left and TAUGHT them what we had taught HIM…
Think of the story of pandora…IF HOPE is all we have, this is slavery. and hoping for better is all you have, Living with LESS is all you have. Be satisfied..
BE SATISFIED with being poor, be poor and HOPE..never advance, never struggle..be a slave.
Even the bible teaches us the same..Esp the ABRIDGED versions..
Terrorist or patriot..
iF YOU WANT TO Believe IN A BENEVOLENT god…GO FOR IT..
and you are a SUCKER..
Gods law, and MANS law, are not the same, and also, similar in the basics..Its WHO is telling you WHAT to do..