By Tom Engelhardt, ZNet, Sept. 10, 2011
Source: Tomdispatch.com
Let’s bag it.
I’m talking about the tenth anniversary ceremonies for 9/11, and everything that goes with them: the solemn reading of the names of the dead, the tolling of bells, the honoring of first responders, the gathering of presidents, the dedication of the new memorial, the moments of silence. The works.
Let’s just can it all. Shut down Ground Zero. Lock out the tourists. Close “Reflecting Absence,” the memorial built in the “footprints” of the former towers with its grove of trees, giant pools, and multiple waterfalls before it can be unveiled this Sunday. Discontinue work on the underground National September 11 Museum due to open in 2012. Tear down the Freedom Tower (redubbed 1 World Trade Center after our “freedom” wars went awry), 102 stories of “the most expensive skyscraper ever constructed in the United States.” (Estimated price tag: $3.3 billion.) Eliminate that still-being-constructed, hubris-filled 1,776 feet of building, planned in the heyday of George W. Bush and soaring into the Manhattan sky like a nyaah-nyaah invitation to future terrorists. Dismantle the other three office towers being built there as part of an $11 billion government-sponsored construction program. Let’s get rid of it all. If we had wanted a memorial to 9/11, it would have been more appropriate to leave one of the giant shards of broken tower there untouched.
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1 comment:
Prelude to the War of Terror
Note: I have slightly added some more text to the following comment that was published earlier.
I fully appreciate the concerns of Mr Engelhardt and agree with him that the attacks of 9/11 were horrific acts. Obviously, in the eyes of the Americans and their friends world-wide the terrorist plot was the work of al-Qaeda and its ubiquitous leader Osama. Thus the bogey of Osama was transformed into something what to believers may seem to be almost a mysterious ghoulish power! As a result, he could be a serious threat to the Empire and the greatest military power in the whole of recorded history. It was as if the fate of God’s own country was at stake! We all prayed for the safety of America.
The strange thing is that not long ago Osama was a CIA functionary who was trained and equipped to advance American military objectives in Afghanistan against the Soviet military involvement. After the Soviet withdrawal the Osama-CIA liaison came to an end. Now he had turned against his former mentors. After 9/11 the US presented itself almost in the Kafkaesque fashion as a weak beetle that could be crushed by the Great Threat! Even though Osama as a hireling had learnt much from his CIA bosses, he surreptitiously may have kept some of his secrets close to his chest. Who knows, as an Arab he might have used some mystical incantations to get the fabled Lamp of Aladdin. Just by rubbing his lamp, he could have the jinni standing in front of him to perform the impossible tasks and also to make himself invisible. The Empire was helpless and the jinni was on the rampage!!
But in a famous documentary film, Loose Change 9/11, produced in 2006, challenged the official explanation of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It also aroused a great deal of controversy; it had its supporters and opponents.
Since I am not an expert on the technical details of the attacks which the U.S. authorities offered or the views of those who contradict or refute the official version as in this film, I refrain from passing any final word on the issues involved. However, I try to find more about the events and will continue to do so because this tragic date became the sign-post, which was used by the Bush-Cheney administration to start and justify their wars of aggression and global terror that resulted in the occupation and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, the deaths of more than a million people and the uprooting and destitution of countless millions of people. The present U.S. administration under President Obama has not only continued the wars of aggression of his predecessor but also extended them to other countries and areas by using advanced technologies and weapons to kill and destroy with impunity and without any accountability for his actions to anyone in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
No matter who were the actual criminals or conspirators who committed the crimes on 9/11 that resulted in the deaths of 2749 Americans, one thing is absolutely clear that the people of Iraq and its ruler Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11. The people or the rulers of Afghanistan or Pakistan were not involved in this crime either. Even if any individual from Afghanistan or Pakistan may have been involved in this crime in some way or the other that should have been the act of an individual. The people of Afghanistan or Pakistan had no part in such a crime, but they are still being killed by the U.S-led NATO forces and American drone attacks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGLp5TAVpQ&feature=player_embedded
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