Sep 08 2006
9/11- A time for all things: A time to remember, to weep, to blame, to threaten…
The 5 year anniversary is just around the corner, and it brings with it a flurry of conflicting emotions.
What should be a solemn day of rememberance, a time for unity and resolve and a time to reflect has become a time to bloviate, to threaten, to blame and to intimidate.
At issue in many ways, is who to blame for the events of 9/11 with both sides using the events and findings of the 911 commission to point to the lack of the other.
Human nature seems to have a dire need to minutely examine a tragedy, which is not a bad thing. We explore, and we investigate and we determine cause.
In the case of 911 we know who was the cause, and we know why, so it should be a no brainner. But it isn’t.
Because cause is not enough, we also want to assign blame. Look at 911. We know who to blame, it was a group of Islamic terrorists. Yet lately we have heard more about what Bush could have done between January and September to stop it, and what Clinton should have done the 8 years prior to that to prevent it.
There is a lot of room for criticism, some in the area of policies that prevented our government from fully investigating what was happening, and some of personal actions, or inactions, which allowed events to move forward unabated. We even hear it bruited about that we created the problem ourselves with foreign policies dating back to the 80s. One thing has been consistent. No matter who the finger of blame gets pointed to, that person is quick to move the spotlight to another.
Even if we could stop the blaming and the blame shifting, the discovery of cause is essentially useless, unless it is used to provide a foundation of reform which will offer us better protection in the future, because while our internal power shifts in America, the real enemy is still out there, plotting and waiting. While we fight each other, the enemy waits for the distractions to become so big that it once again leaves us so busy with our infighting, we cannot defend ourselves. We seemed doomed to repeat the types mistakes the lead up to 911 in the first place.
