9/11: Ten Years Later

This is a re-post of my original 9/11 post, with slight revisions. It will be the last time I do this. With the death of Osama bin Laden, killed in a daring raid ordered by Obama, the Tenth anniversary of 9/11 feels to me like the closing of an awful chapter in American history. We caught the son of a bitch. The lessons of the last two decades can be now taught separate from the 9/11 remembrances. Even now, the administration is working hard to prevent other terror attacks, and has apparently disrupted a plot to mark the 9/11 anniversary with terror bombings. We must always remain vigilant.

It is now the Tenth Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed over 3000 of our fellow citizens. The actual number of Americans killed by the events of 9/11 continues to climb, due to illnesses striking many of those involved with the clean-up and recovery efforts of ground zero. These illnesses are directly related to the release of poisonous chemicals and hazardous waste resulting from the falling of the towers. This post is an attempt to come to some understanding of the totality of events surrounding 9/11. This account will rely on my memory of events and accounts that have come out later, and Wikipedia, and as such, may not be wholly reliable. When Wikipedia and I conflict, I will go with my memory.

In 1993, a truck bomb was detonated in the parking garage of the World Trade Center. This bomb was intended by the bombers to release a chemical cloud and poison the Trade Center inhabitants. Fortunately, the explosion burned-up the poisonous gas and the number of casualties was low, only 6 people were killed.

Contrary to Right-Wing Propaganda, the Clinton administration caught, tried and convicted 10 people involved with the 1993 bombing. The linking of this bombing to al Qaeda as we understand the term is tenuous, at best. Nonetheless, this attack was a warning to everyone that the Towers were a terrorist target.

In 1996, the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia was the scene of a truck bombing which killed 20. The perpetrators of this attack were initially attributed to Saudi Hizbolla, not al Qaeda. The evidence linking this attack to al Qaeda is also tenuous. There remains the possibility that this was a joint operation or that the Saudis lied to us. The Saudis claimed to have caught and executed the perpetrators of the bombing, but never, apparently offered to grant Americans access to the suspects.

Finally, in 1998, two American embassies in Africa were bombed, killing hundreds of civilians but few Americans. This is the first terrorist attack that brought al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden to international attention. Clinton responded by launching cruise missile attacks on Osama's training camps in Afghanistan.

There was one other terrorist attack on Americans on Clinton's watch, the attack on the Cole, but we will get to that presently. Because the 1998 embassy attacks are where Bill Clinton and the Republican Congress failed the American people.

The Embassy bombings where a direct attack on the American people. It was the equivalent of an attack on American soil, and the American government responded in a pathetic manner. Why did this failure occur?

Partisan politics. It was the the height of the Lewinsky Scandal, and Republicans in control of the Senate and House were more interested in pursuing Bill Clinton for his sexual indiscretions than they were for protecting the American people. No one in the Senate, of either party, stood up and pointed out the need to respond hard militarily to the attacks. Not One. McCain himself, on month after the bombings, warned Clinton against greater use of military force in Afghanistan, warning of another Vietnam. Partisan cowards, every single one.

Clinton failed as well. He failed to use his bully pulpit to inform the American people of the true nature of the embassy attacks and rally the country to an attack of substance. Instead, being a politician of consummate ability, he took just those actions he knew would be most easily undertaken in the political environment. Even these pathetic attempts were used against him by Republicans who accused him of trying to distract the American people from the important work of determining what Lewinsky and Bill did in the Oval office.

And Americans have a share of guilt as well. Whether because of racism (oh, its just a few hundred Africans being killed, no need to be alarmed), distraction (what did Clinton really do with that girl?), or some other reason, Americans showed ZERO interest in going hard after the perpetrators of the bombings. Going hard meaning declaring war and putting boots on the ground.

What should have happened?

Bill Clinton, the day after the attacks, should have marched down to the Senate and said the following:

Men and Women of the Senate, to answer that question that is most on your mind, Yes, I fucked her. I shagged her good. And because it was embarrassing and frankly had not an iota of bearing on the civil case for which the question was asked, I lied about it under oath. Now you know, and you can, if you so choose, impeach and convict me of this private mistake I made. But before you do so, you WILL recognize that America was attacked yesterday and you WILL give me a declaration of war on the perpetrators of these attacks, and you WILL support all military efforts I, or, in the event I am impeached, President Gore, undertake to bring run these attackers to ground and destroy them. Because, have no doubt, war HAS been declared on us. And it will not be over till one side or the other has been destroyed.

Clinton did not, of course, give this speech. But there was another group with the power to rally Americans to the reality of what the attacks meant, and that group was the Senate. The Senate has the final word on declaring war. They could have made a Declaration of War and given eloquent speeches to the public and forced Clinton to go hard after al Qaeda. But that might bolster Clinton's approval ratings, and the Republicans could not have that. The Republican lead Senate was more than happy to sit back and pretend the attacks never happened because they were SO happy having their hands in Clinton's pants, rooting around for Clinton's cock. That was THEIR priority in the late 1990s, not terrorism, not al Qaeda, not Osama, but Clinton's cock.

So, from 1998 to 2000, Americans of both parties ignored the implications of the African Embassy bombings and went about their lives, debating whether they should choose to be lead by a politically-connected failed businessmen made governor of a state which limited the powers of their governors drastically, or a man who was VP during an era of a booming economy, relative peace, and fiscally responsible government leadership. Neither of which, it should be said, made terrorism a campaign point. Neither of which proposed to go hard against al Qaeda, even after the Cole bombing.

As an aside, Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York City in this time period and failed to update the emergency responders equipment in time, and moved his terrorist response center into World Trade Center Seven, a known target for terrorism, rather than to a recommended site in Brooklyn. He also openly cheated on and divorced his wife. After 9/11 is another story. Then he earned the ire of firefighters by trying to recover fallen firefighters' bodies using scoop and dump rather than the slower and more respectful method of recovery by hand.

After the election was decided, Americans were once more made aware of the terrorist threat with the attack on the Cole, a U.S. ship at harbor, in October 2000. Another clear declaration of war if done by a foreign power, this attack cost 17 Americans their lives. Clinton failed to respond to this attack because the C.I.A. refused to declare without reservation that al Qaeda was the perpetrator. It was not until February of 2001, when Clinton had left office, that investigators finally declared that al Qaeda was the perpetrator. Bush declined to respond to the Cole attack in any manner.

Despite his flaws and failure to respond forcefully to the African Embassy attacks, Clinton's administration took many positive steps to prevent attacks of terror on American soil. From the initial Trade Center bombing in 1993 to 2001, there were no attacks on American soil, and the administration was able to foil a clear attempt in the millennium bombings. Clinton responded many times to CIA reports of potential attacks by calling all his people together to craft counter-measures. His people attempted to educate the incoming administration on the importance of al Qaeda, but Bush's people would have none of it.

In January 2001, George Bush took office, and immediately set himself apart from Clinton by showing himself to be completely uninterested in fighting terror. Clinton's people attempted to set up meeting to educate the incoming Bush people on the threat posed by al Qaeda, by these meeting where brushed off. From January to September of 2001, Bush was mainly known for his penchant for vacationing. On one of his vacations, he was given a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled Al Qaeda Determined to Strike in America. Bush stayed on vacation. There were no attempts by the Bush administration to better America's position regarding al Qaeda in these initial months. He called off a submarine patrol whose job it was to launch cruise missiles at a moments notice into Afghanistan if intelligence sources could identify Osama's position. And if Clinton was at fault for failing to respond adequately to years of provocation, then Bush is doubly at fault for the same failure during his early months in office.

On 9/11, almost three thousand Americans lost their lives. There was no inside conspiracy. It was the work of al Qaeda, without a doubt. Despite administration protests, there were signs that summer that an attack was coming. Probably not enough to stop the attack, but there were signs. We will never know what a competent President would have done under the same circumstances. Americans of both political stripes rallied behind Bush as did the world. The French Newspaper LaMonde declared, "We are All Americans." Bush would take this support and completely squander it.

The day after the attack, on the still burning rubble, Bush declared his intent to bring justice to those who attacked us. He would later declare that he would get Osama "Dead or Alive." And he tried. And failed. He attacked Afghanistan but, by failing to use adequate American troops, Osama escaped at Tora Bora. The man who was responsible for the deaths of 3000 Americans was free to plot and taunt us. Then Bush failed to secure Afghanistan. Using too few troops, the country slipped further and further away from stability. It became the greatest opium exporter in the world. The Taliban and al Qaeda reconstituted in the mountains of Pakistan, protected from American military action by an administration too fearful of offending Pakistan to launch military actions without their permission, giving time for targets to be warned and to escape.

A year passed, two years passed. Bush declared that he really didn't think about Osama much. But I did. And most Americans did. Not Republicans, of course. They were all to happy to make excuses for their failure of a joke of a President's inability to catch Osama. Instead, Bush decided to go on an Iraqi adventure, hampering any chance of success in Afghanistan, and allowing bin Laden to live, issuing tapes every few years, showing the world that American threats are not to be feared.

And John McCain supported him every step of the way. Oh sure, he said he had disagreements about troops levels or strategy, but McCain encouraged our Iraqi adventure wholeheartedly, even though anyone with brains could see that we had not won in Afghanistan and that a war in Iraq would hamper efforts in Afghanistan.

Three years passed, and the Republicans had no problem rewarding Bush for his failure to catch the mass murderer of 3000 fellow citizens by reelecting him to the office. After all, they said, he tried. That fact added to the fact that he was Republican was enough for them.

Four year, five years. The Iraqi adventure became an Iraqi quagmire. Over 4000 additional Americans lost their sons and daughters, husbands, fathers, and wives in an attempt to keep together a country intent on destroying itself. And, because of Bush's failure to kill him, Osama inspired other to take up the name of al Qaeda and adopt his methods.

Seven years since 3000 Americans were murdered and the mastermind behind the murders continued to release videos, taunting us, showing our president to be powerless to stop him. Worse still, intelligence reports said that al Qaeda was as strong as it was in the summer of 2001. Despite 7 years of open warfare against al Qaeda, despite the claims of the administration that they have captured or killed a large percentage of al Qaeda members, al Qaeda was as strong as ever. And why not? Not only was Osama still alive, but so was his second in command. What an injustice.

The Republican candidates showed even less of an understanding of the impact of Osama. Fred Thompson said he's mostly symbolic. Romney said "It's not worth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." McCain said he will chase him to the gates of hell, but refused to criticize the Bush administration for its failure to capture him. Moreover, McCain criticized Obama's doctrine that said that we should attack inside Pakistan if we have good intelligence, even without the permission of the Pakistani government. This doctrine had been adopted by the Bush administration and appears to have netted us 2 to 4 top level al Qaeda operatives. Why? Because with the Republicans it's always party before country. The over 3000 victims of 9/11 deserved better.

Obama became President in January of 2009. And, as of 9-11-11, if there are no spectacular attacks on American soil, he will have protected America for exactly twice as long as Bush did. Don't expect to hear any kudos from the Republicans for it, though.

And, as he promised in his campaign Obama has stepped up operations in Afghanistan, putting in more troops, and we have had increased casualties as a result. We have lost 299 Americans in Afghanistan so far this year. Obama has not forgotten Afghanistan. At the same time, he has kept his promise to draw down U.S. forces in Iraq, and end offensive military operations there. He has also stepped up the use of military drone attacks, resulting in more civilian casualties. At this point, some estimates are that there are less than a couple hundred al Qeada fighters still in Afghanistan. He set a date for beginning withdrawal from Afghanistan of June, 2011. He met this deadline despite the Afghan and Pakistan governments, governments riddled with corruption and incompetence.

But facts must be faced: the time to clean up Afghanistan was from 2001 to 2005, before the Afghan people became restive over living in the continual gun- and bomb-sights of the Americans. A country will live under military occupation only so long, even if the occupation is "in their own good."

Despite the lack of real progress in Afghanistan, and Osama's advantage of the seven years of Bush administration neglect to burrow in, Obama has accomplished the most important goal in the war against al Qaeda: he killed Osama. On Sunday, May 1, 2011, after Obama ordered a special forces mission into Pakistan, without permission of the Pakistan government, Osama bin Laden was killed and his computer containing intelligence on al Qaeda was captured by American forces. By bringing the mastermind of 9/11 to justice, Obama helped heal the wounds inflicted by 9/11 for all Americans. It is a great victory for all Americans.

But, despite this victory, not everyone learned the lesson of the bin Laden raid. Ron Paul, Republican candidate for the candidacy of the presidency believes that Obama should have risked losing Osama and his treasure trove of intelligence by telling Pakistan we were coming. It is unbelievable that no one seems to notice. Hopefully, the next president takes terror as seriously as Obama has. The victims of 9/11 deserve it.