"9/11 of Course"

I'll keep my remarks brief concerning the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Like most people on the West Coast I was just getting up and at some point I caught on to what was going on. I did not think terrorism until I saw the second huge plane hit. Even at that I didn't know if it was home grown (Timothy McVeigh, Unibomber etc.) or foreign. What shocked me was the buildings collapsing. I thought they could withstand an explosion. The flame retardent material on the steel girders blew off when the planes hit. But why use any flame retardent that will fly off at all? Maybe that was state of the art in 1974 when the towers went up. It just seems to me any type of explosion would have blown it off. Every one above the impact zone was doomed. Now we find out they had no way down and no roof top access. No roof top because the doors were locked. No downward access because all the elevators were bunched in the middle of floors and when one went down the others went as well, except for one stairwell in the South Tower. If that stairwell had been disabled, add another 300-800 more lost people. Why were firefighters going up? The average fireperson carried 100lbs of equipment and it was going to take 2-3 hours to climb the stairs. How exhausted would they have been when they got to the 78th floor? What could they have done? Did every floor have high velocity fire hose hook ups? Hand carry down the wounded? Another 2-3 hours (at the least) and how many could go down? Mostly they headed into this fire scene blind and one thing about firefighters, they don't go into burning buildings blind. That is they would have some idea of the risk and who, what,where and how of going in and getting out. Then again, what else could they do, stay on the ground floor and watch jumpers? Most of the firefighters lost never even made it to the floor they were assigned to. It's a matter of record that Osama Bin Laden told his people his purpose in attacking the Towers and Government buildings was not to just kill and scare the American people. No, all along he said that he couldn't defeat America in America. He wanted to provoke America so they would go into Afghanistan. It was there that he planned to kill Americans, drag out the conflict and bleed America dry financially. He did the same thing to Russia years before. He provoked them, they went into Afghanistan and he did his guerilla warfare thing. He killled many, financially drained the country until they finally gave up. Bin Landen got his wish because we did go into Afghanistan and then Iraq as well. He did kill US troops, prolonged the war, bled us dry and now we are going to (hopefully soon someday) pull out. We should never have taken the bait. There will be endless shows and video this next week. There will be endless testimonials, and remembrances. It is a compelling story to be sure. They are all compelling: Boston Massacre, Firing on Fort McHenry, The Alamo, Fort Sumter, Sinking of the USS Maine, Luisitania, Pearl Harbor, Gulf Of Tonkin, and 9/11. Each gave us the emotional resolve and the moral authority to get into a war. Complacency=Vulnerability. Vulnerability=Opportunity and Opportunity=Tragedy. I respect the lost and I admire those on Flight 93 who fought back. I also lament the way things have turned out in this country since 9/11. I won't get sad, misty-eyed, or feel a need to show everyone how patriotic I am, how much I'm still bothered by 9/11.. Look I wasn't there, I didn't know anyone that was there, I knew no one that lost their life nor did I know anyone that knew someone that lost their life. So for me to to blast Greenwood's "I'm proud to be an American" song and wear my once every ten years flag shirt would be hyporcritical. We are americans everyday, by going to work, being self supporting, helping those that can not help themselves, raising our kids right, trying to be good partners and friends; in otherwords by doing exactly what those 2,977 other people were doing that day ten years ago.