Posted on 09/05/2021 8:43:25 PM PDT by FourtySeven
… As if I don't remember the moment I finally knew that my father was never coming home. Or I don't remember the sound of my sister's cries down the hall when that moment came for her. Or the day we told my grandparents that there was no one left to be rescued, that their son was somewhere in that pile of rubble and yet he wasn't there at all. The terrible sound of my grandfather's voice as he sobbed, "My baby. My baby" about his 52-year-old son. The wordless wails my grandmother made as she lay on my sister's shoulder.
….
As though it's easy to forget that your strong, stocky father was whittled down to only pieces. That when we buried him, only my mother knew how much of him was inside the coffin. As if we'd forget that this actually makes us lucky. That others have only empty plots filled with knickknacks, mementos instead of remains.
…
But you. You must never forget. You should remember everything this day was and everything it still is. Tell each other. Tell your children. Remember those that died such horrible deaths. Remember those who tried to save them. Think of them always and never ever forget.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Unless even on FR, “we” have forgotten. Not to wage another war on any land. But just to remember: the cost to humanity anytime anyone forgets their own humanity in the name of “purity”.
As I’ve crossed into the second half of my life, the fifties, it’s become increasingly clear to me that the real “lesson” of life isn’t ideological purity, rather that I must constantly humble myself especially against the temptation to believe I’m always “right”. That, is what we should “remember” from 9/11, after all that’s what led to it (a bunch of crazed lunatics that believed their religious/political world view was the only “right” one)
For a long time I believed such extremism should be crushed by the force of military might, falsely believing that it was only radical Islam that posed such a threat. It’s why I joined FR initially, when I did (Nov 2001), to support fully the “war on Terror”. To support the destruction of such extremism, by any means necessary.
Now though, it’s become clear to me at least, that the “War on Terror” lost its way, in so many respects. Dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq far past the righteous mandate of destroying radical Islamists, to once again “nation building”, for the sake of “national interests” (ie, lucrative DoD contracts). Not to mention the continued erosion of civil liberties that yes continue to this day under the guise of the “Patriot Act”.
Careful what you wish for eh?
It’s “funny”, isn’t it? How blind loyalty to a cause and yes even a president, can cloud a mind so completely? For those reading this now chortling to themselves, “I was never fooled. I knew the WoT was nothing but another scam by the military industrial complex” or some such self serving platitude, well, I congratulate you for your brilliance I guess. You weren’t the victim of idolization of a leader or party then, so I guess you are immune to such delusions now. Yeah, sure. . I guess you must be feeling pretty confident of your own loyalties now too, and I wish you the best in such. Myself, I see it only playing out again, just with a new “hero” to blindly follow over a cliff.
Something to consider at least as we approach a solemn milestone. What IS more important? Loyalty at all costs, or reason, that isn’t confined to one party or individual? Something tells me the perpetrators of 9/11 believed the former.
Have we learned anything in these 20 years? In some ways, I don’t think we have.
And last month, we imported 100,000 more of the moslem animals, unscreened.
+1
We have learned very little, and we have forgotten even more.
Many of the Buy-DUNG “voters” had not even been CONCEIVED on 9-11-01.
The forgetting is the pretending that WOT is some sort of farce or arms dealer conspiracy.
When are we leaving Korea?
Answer: when North Korea folds. PERIOD
that’s not the answer for 911 because in 2001 and in 2021 we have far too many insiders cheering for the Islamic supremacists. They still hate us just like the Koreans. They hate us just like communists hate America.
We will return with military force to Afghanistan as surely as we have returned to Iraq. Our leverage is greater not lessened since 2001.
We have to pretend to lose every war since Vietnam so politicians who hate America can score more hometown wins.
I do not care.
Enemy hate is real and defeated by our superior power at every level.
Biden and Rand Paul have to lose Afghanistan to win for their selfish selves. They don’t run into burning buildings or serve in overseas wars. They proposition us with flagrant false calls for Peace.
I’m not fooled. We will return and crush them someday when the Rand Paul’s and Joe Biden’s lose the optics game.
So now Islamic extremists do not want to murder ever single American?
I’d like to the see the evidence for that.
I can wait out America’s political opportunists telling anti American fairytales.
America will crush her enemies.
It will be easy.
Yep.
A lot people who died before and since that day also voted for him.
For most Democrat scum, 9-11 was a victory.
F CNN. I don’t need to read any article from those Commie m-fers.
We forgot 9/11 the day we elected Barack Hussein Obama.
>> a bunch of crazed lunatics that believed their religious/political world view was the only “right” one
Nice try, ATT
ATT did everything in its power to deny Trump a second term.
ATT hates you.
FU, ATT.
Bookmark
The victim is now the expert.
Support for Bidung is highest among Dem WOMEN...
It will be easy.
Are you smoking or drinking or shooting up?
Easy?
War is never easy and we do not have the will to defeat our enemies.
I wish you were right, but sadly, you are not.
and now we're putting muslims into our government - F'N PATHETIC!!
What if everyone started putting the “Never Forget” ribbons on their car windows again?
How about some that say “Back the Blue”?
We need to start fighting back against the leftist messaging and this is something everyone could do.
US Troops are based in Okinawa and north of Seoul South Korea.
These deployments are relatively easy because the World and more importantly the American public accepts them as necessary.
Our traitorous political leaders pretend since 1968 that we owe it to the world to lose EVERY conflict. That ridiculous assertion is harder than the stationing of troops.
13 marines died in Kabul so we could prove the false statement that losing is better than winning for America and the world.
Chris Kyle’s could sit on dozens of high perches in Afghanistan and deliver Hell every day without remorse or threat.
The U.S. could control eight airbases including Bagram without breaking a sweat with the Taliban.
For 18 months 2,500 U.S. soldiers did so without a fatality prior to the false lose strategy enacted to benefit Rand Paul and Joe Biden.
US troops and aircraft could train in Afghanistan with impunity and develop our already heightened combat skills that are superior to all foreign fighting forces. Our force is vastly superior to all other forces because we have for decades fought and died for consistent American principals.
The only reason we lose wars is because politicians say that is their preference. Those decisions result in more difficult realities than those incurred by keeping military bases. There are more than 100 empirical examples globally of what I am talking about right now.WE have the bases.
13 families who gave their sons know this. Dozens more who were seriously injured and lost limbs also know this.
We are betrayed by high military brass and politicians who lie about our capabilities and empirical successes world wide.
ISIS was crushed in less than 18 months across Syria and Iraq once competent military leadership was allowed to do so. Now those remnants can meet, confer, train, and strategize freely and with the subsidy of incredible weapons we bought for them as US taxpayers.
How is that not more difficult? How is it “smoking or drinking or shooting up” when we compare the surrender policies since 1975 to empirical base operations of US military forces unfettered by political liars?
I am correct, and no amount of assigned losing will change the ultimate outcome and trajectory of this in the decades to come. Biden is a loser as are all the pretenders trying to make withdrawal from Afghanistan look like a necessary or ideal outcome.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.