My Thoughts on 9/11

To this day, I cannot stand days that begin with temperatures in the low 70's with cloudess skies and the sun shining brightly. I cannot look at either still photos or video of the plane flying into the World Trade Center. Thirty years after I first learned the phrase, I finally understand the tort of "intentional infliction of emotional distress."

I hold Bush and his administration responsible for the attack on 9/11. They were warned. They knew. They did nothing. Al Franken's book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, lays out how the Bushies were determined to ignore the warnings that Al Qaeda was preparing an attack on U.S. soil. Richard Clark's book, Against All Enemies, provides thorough details of the neglect at the highest level of government to respond to a known threat. "Kinda-lousy" Rice, as National Security Advisor, hardly merited promotion to Secretary of State.

A few months ago, I was participating in a conference call among several lawyers and a judge. While we waited for the judge to come on line, one of the attorneys remarked that he had recently seen the movie, Syriana, and that he couldn't get over the willingness with which two young Arab boys would turn into a suicide bombers. He completely missed the part of the movie which shows one of the boys as poor and hungry because his father had lost his job, while the ruling family of the country where he lives is so wealthy it can build and then demolish a multi-million dollar villa. He goes to the madrasa to get a meal. The indoctrination is the price paid to fill his tummy.

I don't think "they hate us for our freedom" as much as they hate living in poverty while the royal families enjoy obscene wealth. I can't decide if the mullahs and ayatolahs really want a worldwide caliphate or if the jihadists are just using their religion as an outlet to express their anger at the ruling class and US policy, but I lean somewhat toward the latter view.

I'm not an apologist for Bin Laden, but I'm justifiably angry that our government just doesn't get it. Far from addressing the root causes of terrorism, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice have done just about everything they could to embolden and empower the terrorists.

I wish the grownups were in charge.