A Day That Will Live In Infamy

Americans chose many different ways to commemorate the third anniversary of the attacks on our nation. Some chose a quiet ceremony, respectfully marking the passage (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5962227/), others chose to ostentatiously declare that despite their failure to protect us in the past, they could do so in the future (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5962986/). I still have not forgotten a single moment of that day - when I arrived to work, how quickly I realized I needed to return home, how difficult it can be to leave an island, how empty the skyline now looked and how the military jets that looked so exciting at air shows could now look so terrifying when on a search and destroy mission. Amidst all of the chatter and the calls for us to realize that 11 September 2001 signified the opening of another front in World War IV (http://www.commentarymagazine.com/podhoretz.htm), I began to ask myself a few, small questions.

Can a group of a few thousand irregular soldiers, ensconced in caves on the other side of the planet really declare war upon the most powerful nation on the planet? Can a mouse declare war upon a lion (http://www.greatbooks.org/library/selections/lion&mouse.shtml)?

Can we really claim to be liberating the Shia from the terrible reign of Saddam Hussein, if we are fighting against them at the same time (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5949556/)? How many of this group we are attempting to save should we kill to avenge the deaths of 2700 of our citizens? Where are the actual perpetrators of the attack and why have they not been dealt with yet.

When I see indiscriminate killing in an attempt to bring democracy to a nation, I hear an echo of earlier indiscriminate killing in an attempt to "civilize" (as if murder were an accepted process for civilization) the original inhabitants of this land (http://www.indigenouspeople.net/gooddead.htm).

When I hear economic rationalizations for this war - our economy depends upon oil, we have to protect our national interests, etc. - I also hear the reverberations of earlier actions we took to initially establish the wealth of this nation (http://www.providence.edu/afro/students/kane/triangle.txt).
Must we really launch another war with no end in sight, solely to protect moneyed interests that run deep amongst the Bush and Kerry clans? Is there no way for this society to build our gleaming towers to the sky except upon the blood of others?

Happy Anniversary.

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