Monday, September 22, 2003
9/11 - It was meant to be Bigger Than Jesus
"Don't wanna be a fool wondering......
......What might have been..." ~ What Might Have Been - Pardini Lou
9/11 Mastermind: Plan Involved 10 Planes
Call me warped for quoting such poignant lyrics from Pardini Lou in regards to such a bizarre and daring plan as the one that is described in the link to the article above, but sometimes words to describe an event can come from the most unlikeliest of places.
No matter how you look at it, 9/11 was not only a wake-up call to our country's vulnerabilities, but also can easily be viewed as a necessary sacrifice (much like JFK's assassination) as a harbinger of what might have been. That is, the hijacked planes could have easily been crashed elsewhere, like Three Mile Island for instance, instead of the relatively 'soft' targets like the World Trade Center had been. Naturally, this statement is not meant to belittle the tragedy that was the World Trade Center collapse. It is instead meant to put the event into perspective; that it pales in comparison to what could have been a much more terrifyingly devastating black mark upon our country's history.
The attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 was only the tip of the iceberg of Al Qaida's ambitions regarding our country. The attack on the Pentagon alone was a stroke of sheer genius, since it was an attack at the very heart of our country's defense network. Before that incident, the only conceivable attack on the Pentagon would have been from a Cold War standpoint, with Soviet Russia's nukes aimed at every imaginable part of the U.S. infrastructure.
9/11 awoke our country to the reality of the world around it, in that it erased the "nobody would dare fuck with us" mentality that We The People have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. All the bullshit that we had been hearing about regarding other countries, from Israel and the Palestinians to the Serbs, Croats, and Albanians, to the Chechens and the Russian government, had finally impacted the United States in the form of 4 hijacked airliners and a bunch of pissed off Al Qaida members.
And while we can sit here and point fingers as to who is to blame for the whole mess, the undying fact remains is that it happened as a result of our country's lax homeland security, which remains horribly flawed to this day.
And while it has become the latest fad to bash the Dubya Administration for its seemingly Orwellian tactics of enforcing the Patriot Act, the alternative would be to sit on its hands and do nothing, to which the Administration would be bashed for its inactivity in that case. So either way, it's Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't for the Dubya Administration. To which it should be credited for taking criticism on its actions rather than on its inactions. Something that Al Gore's administration would have undoubtedly been accused of, because Mr. Gore's course of action after a 9/11 attack would have undoubtedly followed the same course as those taken by his boss Clinton, by launching a bunch of cruise missiles into Afghanistan and calling it 'retaliation'.
In the end, we are left wondering about what might have happened had Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida had decided on a different and more daring course of action regarding 9/11. The World Trade Center, Pentagon, White House, and perhaps a much more potentially catastrophic target like Three Mile Island, or a more visible icon of American culture like the Statue Of Liberty, or American technology like Cape Canavarel could have all been hit that day along the East Coast. While simultaneous attacks could have been carried out in West Coast cities like San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. What vital interests to our country's industrial, economic, and/or psychological infrastructure could have been hit out West that day? We will never know, because quite thankfully, fate took a different turn in the final months leading up to September 11th, 2001.
Ultimately, it was a day that we as a nation must learn from, so that more 9/11s do not happen again in the future. History repeats itself if we as a collective society are not careful to prevent it from doing so. It was a day that will live forever in infamy, but it should not be a day that is regretted. Because a 9/11 terrorist attack today will undoubtedly help us prevent a worse attack tomorrow. Our only insurance that such an attack never happens is that we constantly keep our enemies at bay and on the run. We are the Lone Superpower, and we must never let the world forget that.
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......What might have been..." ~ What Might Have Been - Pardini Lou
9/11 Mastermind: Plan Involved 10 Planes
Call me warped for quoting such poignant lyrics from Pardini Lou in regards to such a bizarre and daring plan as the one that is described in the link to the article above, but sometimes words to describe an event can come from the most unlikeliest of places.
No matter how you look at it, 9/11 was not only a wake-up call to our country's vulnerabilities, but also can easily be viewed as a necessary sacrifice (much like JFK's assassination) as a harbinger of what might have been. That is, the hijacked planes could have easily been crashed elsewhere, like Three Mile Island for instance, instead of the relatively 'soft' targets like the World Trade Center had been. Naturally, this statement is not meant to belittle the tragedy that was the World Trade Center collapse. It is instead meant to put the event into perspective; that it pales in comparison to what could have been a much more terrifyingly devastating black mark upon our country's history.
The attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 was only the tip of the iceberg of Al Qaida's ambitions regarding our country. The attack on the Pentagon alone was a stroke of sheer genius, since it was an attack at the very heart of our country's defense network. Before that incident, the only conceivable attack on the Pentagon would have been from a Cold War standpoint, with Soviet Russia's nukes aimed at every imaginable part of the U.S. infrastructure.
9/11 awoke our country to the reality of the world around it, in that it erased the "nobody would dare fuck with us" mentality that We The People have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. All the bullshit that we had been hearing about regarding other countries, from Israel and the Palestinians to the Serbs, Croats, and Albanians, to the Chechens and the Russian government, had finally impacted the United States in the form of 4 hijacked airliners and a bunch of pissed off Al Qaida members.
And while we can sit here and point fingers as to who is to blame for the whole mess, the undying fact remains is that it happened as a result of our country's lax homeland security, which remains horribly flawed to this day.
And while it has become the latest fad to bash the Dubya Administration for its seemingly Orwellian tactics of enforcing the Patriot Act, the alternative would be to sit on its hands and do nothing, to which the Administration would be bashed for its inactivity in that case. So either way, it's Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't for the Dubya Administration. To which it should be credited for taking criticism on its actions rather than on its inactions. Something that Al Gore's administration would have undoubtedly been accused of, because Mr. Gore's course of action after a 9/11 attack would have undoubtedly followed the same course as those taken by his boss Clinton, by launching a bunch of cruise missiles into Afghanistan and calling it 'retaliation'.
In the end, we are left wondering about what might have happened had Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida had decided on a different and more daring course of action regarding 9/11. The World Trade Center, Pentagon, White House, and perhaps a much more potentially catastrophic target like Three Mile Island, or a more visible icon of American culture like the Statue Of Liberty, or American technology like Cape Canavarel could have all been hit that day along the East Coast. While simultaneous attacks could have been carried out in West Coast cities like San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. What vital interests to our country's industrial, economic, and/or psychological infrastructure could have been hit out West that day? We will never know, because quite thankfully, fate took a different turn in the final months leading up to September 11th, 2001.
Ultimately, it was a day that we as a nation must learn from, so that more 9/11s do not happen again in the future. History repeats itself if we as a collective society are not careful to prevent it from doing so. It was a day that will live forever in infamy, but it should not be a day that is regretted. Because a 9/11 terrorist attack today will undoubtedly help us prevent a worse attack tomorrow. Our only insurance that such an attack never happens is that we constantly keep our enemies at bay and on the run. We are the Lone Superpower, and we must never let the world forget that.
(0) comments
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