9/11/2001 is one of those days etched into our
consciousness. Everyone remembers where
they were and what they were doing on that fateful day. I had just gotten Sara
off to school, showered and headed up to Mama’s before I was heading to Walmart
to do groceries.
Mama came out the door and said, “They think that someone crashed
a plane in New York on purpose.” I said
that it had to be an accident but by the time we went back in the house, we
found out the second plane had hit. I
went on to Walmart. I was almost there
when I heard about the Pentagon and called my husband at work.
Had someone declared war on us? No one knew but as the day unfolded and the
plane diverted from Boston by its heroic passengers crashed into that field, we
all knew what had happened. It was
unthinkable but it had happened.
But that is not what is on my mind on this 9/11.
The aftermath is what I am thinking of today. We went to war in Afghanistan to chase a
ghost in 2001. We nave spent in excess
of 600 billion dollars there since 2001 and over 800 billion in Iraq hunting
nonexistent WMDs since 2003.
Our economy has tanked and politicians want to fix it by
pulling any monies from the programs that provide education, health services
and aid to the disabled, the poverty stricken and the working poor. Less than 500 billion have been spent on ALL
social programs since then, including education.
Let’s talk some real numbers – 4488 American soldiers have
died in Iraq as well as over 32000 injured.
Over 2000 soldiers have died in Afghanistan and it’s THE LONGEST WAR IN
OUR NATION’S HISTORY and no seems exactly clear what we’re doing there. Perhaps we should remember that war in
Afghanistan is a major factor in the breakup of the Soviet Union because they went
broke fighting a losing war there.
And now Syria. While
I do see a threat to the Syrian people, I do not feel that the US needs to be
in another war. Nothing we have done has
brought back even one of the dead from 9/11 and to be a so-called Christian
nation, we are mighty bloodthirsty when it comes to revenge or whatever these
ridiculous wars are and have been for more than ten years.
I believe the best way to honor the dead, both the civilians
who died on 9/11 and the soldiers who have paid with life and limb is to declare
peace and stop the senseless fighting and bloodshed. I see no room for discussion there at
all. War is not better than peace. Ever.
