In response to: "September 11th, a forgotten legacy?"

This is my response to Stowebum's thread, in which some interesting points regarding September 11th and the subsequent war(s) were raised.
The other thread can be found here:
https://www.newschoolers.com/ns3/web/forums/readthread.php?thread_id=168565&

I wanted to offer an alternative opinion that addresses some of the problems I have with the ideas that permeate the other thread.


So many issues to address. Chronologically seems easiest:

9/11: The most terrible day I can remember. Much mourning and Godspeed to those who lost their lives, and those who were affected.

Right after 9/11: Bush's initial reaction was excellent. Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks and was thus set up as the figurehead for the Bush administration's war or terror. Americans support the use of force to seek out terrorists and make America safer.

War in Afghanistan: Completely justified. Intelligence showed that Al Queda's terrorist cells were in Afghanistan. The oppressive theocratic (and most importantly, terrorist-supporting) Taliban is taken out of power. Terrorists disperse to Pakistan (not Iraq, as to be explained later).

War in Iraq: Now everything goes terribly wrong. Bush receives faulty information that leads him to believe that WMDs existed in Iraq. This is later proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be untrue. People that say they were there, or could still be there: get over it. No evidence has demonstrated the possibility of weapons being there. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the President believed they were there. Coupled with the economic boon that the Iraqi oil reserves could provide for America's oil-driven economy if it were able to be sold here cheaply (remember that Cheney, Bush, and others have vested interests in the petroleum industry, and that advocating energy infrastructure crossover to a renewable plan is still political suicide), this was more than enough of an impetus to go to war with Iraq.

The administration also tried to present to the public the idea of Iraq being somehow connected to terrorism, in the hopes of using the popular support for the Afghanistan war and getting it to cross over to Iraq. However, any connection claimed by the administration is simply not true. People that know about the condition of Muslims in the area know that Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was part of the Sunni minority that greatly oppressed the Shi'ite majority. Turns out that the members of Al Queda were also part of the Shi'ite sect. I guarantee that, especially considering the terrorists' religious fanaticism, they had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Saddam's Sunni regime which so violently oppressed the members of their sect. Enough of the public bought it, however, so the administration was able to actually overstep the boundaries of the United Nations and launch a "preemptive war" (UNPRECEDENTED IN ALL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, AMERICA IS THE AGGRESSOR, why are people not freaking out about this?!!) against an enemy that has not been shown to possess WMDs and that has no connection to the terrorism on September 11th.

This war was wrong and unjust. The lives being spent in Iraq do not help guarantee your freedom, as they have nothing to do with the terrorism that was manifested on September 11th. Protesting the war, and thus helping to save the misspent lives of our soldiers in Iraq, is the best thing you can do.

Now think about the global repercussions. Greater rifts between the Middle East and America are forming. America has now established a precedent of unfounded aggression (some might even say Middle Eastern imperialism). Bush also characterized the war as a holy war and a crusade. Couple this with the fact that the United States is the champion of Israel, and you see a growing ideological conflict as well. To people who say the war isn't about oil, and say that the U.S. received 0% of its oil from Iraq, I say: "THINK!" Of course the U.S. received no oil from Iraq before the war. Saddam didn't like us, we didn't buy oil from him. But THINK about what happens in the post-war period. Iraq has technically a democratically elected government, except that every candidate on the ballot had to have first been approved by the United States. So the democratically elected government is really a puppet of the US, and more than willing I'm sure to sell us oil cheaply. Boom, there's your oil interest. Not to mention that now that Iraq is destroyed, it's the US corporations that are going to get rich from rebuilding it. Then domestically you have the Patriot Act. Americans are made to think that CITIZENS and others being held without charges for an unlimited amount of time makes us safer. WRONG. This screams GESTAPO and allows citizens to cast unfounded suspicions against each other, as well as giving our government the power to abrogate our personal freedoms. Are we really making ourselves safer, or for that matter, more free, if our government can hold us indefinitely without charging us? Sounds like the kind of "either with us or against us" ideology that permeates not only despotic governments, but also the very fanatical enemy we're supposed to be fighting!

This was really long to type, and I wish there was a better way to end it. Basically, think before you support what the government (or the news media) tells you. Research, look for connections, patterns of interest, and have your own opinion. September 11th was the most terrible day I can imagine, but just THINK, if it creates a new American imperialism and a country of mislead, warmongering citizens, then... well then it would just be that much worse, and the terrorists would have won, huh? Don't trade your humanity for simple-minded patriotism!