Five Years Later

So, here we are, five years after the horrendously shocking attacks in the US on 9/11. The scenes that still haunt me, as someone who only viewed the destruction and chaos from a safe distance, are threefold: the plane slicing into the second tower, people running for their lives down New York City's streets ahead of the huge, barreling clouds of dust and debris and the faces on the posters of the missing. And the sadness. The immense sadness that fogged my mind and heart for so long after. I can't imagine the grief still being experienced today by those who lost their loved ones but at least I can honour it.

Where there is no honour, however, is in the hollow public expressions of those who still remain in power and who have foregone their duty to the American public by choosing to use that day as a springboard for their own political agendas. The war with Afghanistan which was all but abandoned by the US administration; the war on Iraq sold with lies and bravado; the failure to do everything possible to protect Americans; the destruction of personal privacy and civil rights; the touting of torture as a useful means of extracting information; the torture flights to secret CIA prisons around the world; the inhumanity at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo; the lack of prosecutions against alleged terrorists; the lack of will to capture bin Laden; the smearing of those who speak truth to power; the fixing of elections; the refusal to retract obvious lies.

That is the Bush administration's 9/11 legacy.

So, while Bush is busy today laying wreaths at memorial sites while Cheney is still unwilling to tell the truth and Condi is in Canada trying to sell the continued presence of our troops in Afghanistan and Rumsfeld's so-called conscience still doesn't bother him, the dishonour they do to the memory of those who died and those who grieve is in stark contrast to their pontificating on this day.

The pain of those who continue to suffer is real and raw. The inaction of politicians who are still arguing over proper memorials, health problems faced by those in NYC and what to do about national security is appalling. Three quarters of Americans polled are angry and no one needs to wonder why. It's been 5 years and where, exactly, are they now as a country? Devastated, destroyed, abused, disregarded and treated like traitors by their government.

That is an affront to their dignity, the memories of those who died and their search for the truth from an administration that has admitted it will rely on personal, negative attacks to defeat its political opponents in the upcoming election once again because that's all they know how to do - attack. There is no humility, no contemplation, no changing course, no enlightenment. There is only fear and warmongering. They have risen to the level of their own incompetence and that is the highest reach at which they are capable of operating. Americans, no longer stunned by the events of 9/11 have finally received that wake up call they were told would result from that day. They knew then they were incredibly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. What they did not realize, however, was that their government would take the lead in assaulting their psyches at every possible turn while using the deaths of 9/11 as a political backdrop to put into place plans they had to invade Iraq that had been on the books for many years prior to that day.

They know that now.

So, perhaps, these 5 years will have brought them to the point where they will no longer allow the people who are supposed to represent them to act with blatant disregard and against the democratic will of the majority who no longer support them.

The global community has learned many lessons from 9/11. It's time for those Americans who now see their government for the corrupt opportunists they are to show us that they've learned those lessons as well.