13 Years

It doesn't seem possible that it has been 13 years since the terrorist attack on 9-11-2001. A day that everyone who was old enough to be aware that day has burned into their memory. It was a day that changed us forever. Maybe?

In the immediate aftermath we grew closer as a country. The neighbor you had ignored for years was now someone you took time to talk to and get to know. The police and fire departments were now seen with respect and admiration for the dangerous work they do. We supported the efforts to change laws to make air travel safer. We watched as police departments were given weapons previously only used by the military in case there was another attack. We supported additional spying on internet use, telephone calls and other methods of communication. We were frightened and we wanted to feel safe again. We embraced unity and expressed a desire to all work together. We took the fight overseas to where the terrorists lived and trained. We killed hundreds of thousands in retaliation for the 3,000 who perished here. It seems as if terrorism has become a bizarre game of Whack A Mole. We kill a twenty here and 15 pop up somewhere else. We destroy a terror cell in Iraq and one pops up in Syria or Yemen or Saudi Arabia. We want to disengage from war but the result is simply to change the name of what we are doing. We are no longer at war in Iraq but we have troops there and our air force is bombing targets. We will soon expand the bombing to Syria. Not a war. No boots on the ground. We just fly over and drop bombs on targets. Try not to have your women and children in the wrong place at the wrong time. We haven't yet but eventually will come to understand that this is the picture of our future. There will always be groups who want to attack and destroy the United States. If we accept the current doctrine as our national plan we will always be bombing some group somewhere. Maybe not every day but when things wind down in Afghanistan later this year keep track and see if there is a month where we don't bomb or drone attack someone somewhere on earth.

The other thing that 9-11 did was to make too many of us afraid of the followers of Islam. The religion has its roots in the same place as Christianity. Both religions are followers of the children of Abraham. There are a billion Muslims in the world. We have been guilty, for far too long, of judging all of them by the actions of a few thousand. The majority of Muslims are peace loving people. It would be an unfair comparison if we judged the entire Christian faith based on the actions of Westboro Baptist Church and their special brand of hatred for pretty much everyone else on the planet. The battle we fight is with terrorists, they just happen in this case to be Muslims.

The events of 9-11 brought us together for a while. It is unfortunate that the effect was not more permanent.