Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor

Signatories included:

Cheney Wolfowitz Rumsfeld Jeb Bush Scooter Libby Zalmay Khalilzad (Bush envoy to Afghanistan, advisor to unocal)

I don’t think it’s fair to link this with the “memory” of 9/11, if we are using “memory” the way I did in the title. I doubt that 3,000 Americans would have wanted us to alienate the world, chip away at our rights here at home and fight this war in their names. Every injustice you listed is worsened by the inexcusable fact that certain people fling “twin towers” and “9/11″ about as justification for them. If I were a family member of one of the lost, I’d be livid that my family’s tragedy was being exploited…for this.

Iraq has nothing to do with the twin towers. The debt we are paying is the interest on Bush Sr.’s grudge, if anything.

It is an echo of another infamous event 60+ years ago. While both attacks on American soil were tragic and resulted in casualties in the thousands (2,350 for Pearl Harbor, 3,000 for Sept. 11), it’s also important to remember the equally tragic aftermath. In the first case, the U.S. knee-jerk response resulted in the slaughter of 70,000 civilians, and countless more deaths from cancer and radiation-related illnesses. Japanese-American families who were rounded up for internment, and denied their most fundamental constitutional rights.
Now in Iraq (not to mention the all-but-forgotten war in Afghanistan) the same slaughter is happening on a similarly disproportionate scale (conservative estimates put the Iraqi death toll at 71,800). Human beings from around the world have been illegally and indefinitely detained in Guantanamo, and nothing has been done. It makes me wonder how many Iraqi (or Afghani, or Indian, or Pakistani, etc.) lives will have to end before we can cancel this ridiculous debt? And for what? For the memory of 9-11.

I know this is a day late, but I had to post something.

On a slightly different note: a poem by Ferlenghetti read on Amy Goodman’s show:

            PITY THE NATION
         Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
         and whose shepherds mislead them.

         Pity the nation whose leaders are liars,

whose sages are silenced, and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.

         Pity the nation that raises not its

voice, except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.

         Pity the nation that knows no other

language but its own and no other culture but its own.

         Pity the nation whose breath is money
         and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.

         Pity the nation--oh, pity the people who

allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away.

         My country, tears of thee, sweet land of

liberty.

Being the eternally optimistic person that I am, I always admire when we can take something seemingly negative and turn it into something positive. I guess what continues to trouble me so much about 9/11 is that it was a tragedy but we as a country didn’t turn the tragedy into something positive. For example, I was overwhelmed by the international outcry that we received immediately following the tragedy. Unfortunately we as a country didn’t use that international condemnation of the attacks to work together to fight terrorism. When will we learn that we are not an island and that we cannot tackle these huge problems unilaterally? All of that international goodwill was completely squandered by this administration and it will take many administrations and some kick-ass diplomacy to get that back.

KB, sorry to hear this. I’ve heard many similar stories from friends and I’m always grateful that I never experienced anything that blatant post 9/11.

It was hard, the Journalist at one point was trying to find out who the man was, a women who MAY have been the sister of the man. She sort of hit home when she said something like, she hopes he is not trying to find who the man was, but we find out who are we as Americans, and Really dealing with the tragic event.

sempre DIE mutha-f*cka!

Not sure that was the most ideal response, particularly given the surrounding events, but I do admire him standing up for your sister.