9/11 has become a very important date in American history and ranked on par with Hiroshima & Pearl Harbor. However in my view, 9/11 was a day or reckoning that would come to us sooner or later. It was the weak-link in the amour of national security that the American people felt opened. Why ? The United States had waged the first Gulf War and openly involved itself in the Middle East. That interest had nothing to do with the Arab people, but with oil interest. Bin Laden was from Saudi Arabia that deeply resented the role the United States played in the area and supported the corrupted Arab monarchies that suppressed civil liberties in the region. To some Arabs, he was similar to a Robin Hood, who dare challenged the world domination of the United States. The above statement is of course not an endorsement of the ways Bin Laden, which was terrorism of the worst kind, where innocent people were killed to facilitate an ideology. Even though strictly speaking Al-Qaeda and the Tali-ban are two different organization with different agendas. In the minds of most Americans, they are almost the same. But there is a big difference. Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization that is against Western interest and their involvement in the Middle East, whereas the Tali-ban is an extreme Muslim organization that wanted to cleanse Muslim countries of any Western ideology (women's rights, gay rights and return to tribal law). Both of these organizations were spawned as a retort to Western ideology and ways that they perceived as foreign and invaded their country. The interesting thing is that without oil and resources, the West would hardly cared a fig about what happened in the Middle East, so the back story of 9/11 had its roots in international business and oil interests, hence the attack on the symbol of World Trade was deliberate.
That is the reason at this 10th Anniversary of this dreadful day of reckoning, how could we learn the real lesson from this. After a misguided war in Iraq and a long drawn out conflict in Afghanistan, losing 6000 lives and costing millions to our country, had it been worth it ? The Middle East conflict that had hounded every president of the United States since WW II is nowhere near a peaceful settlement and not to mention the changes in our daily life (airport security), our constitutional rights (The Patriot act), our moral high ground on civil liberties (Guantanamo bay & water board torture) has all been compromised in one way or the other. It would be a high price to pay for oil, energy or our empirical ideas on the worlds. That is especially important as our Federal Government has since been broken, fractured and unable to operate due to opposing ideology of where our country is going. The brief unification of our country after 9/11 has since disappeared, and some Congressman had to rally support for the health care of those policeman & firefighters who so gallantly fought to save lives during that fateful day as they were able to be cut due to the desire of a few to rein in spending. How far has we come indeed. In this day, I hope people would wake up from their grandiose dreams of a costly American Military empire to reality that the needs of the country (especially infrastructure and education) became the paramount consideration. With the Arab Spring came the realization that we cannot give democracy to a country that was not ready for it (Afghanistan) and it is the hearts and mind of the Egyptians, Libyans & Tunisians who believed in their counties freedom and willing to die for it. The US's limited assistance of the Libyan rebels under president Obama was a step in the right direction. It was a bitter lesson that we couldn't do nation building, but only help those who wished to have freedom and democracy. It was also the Arab Spring movement ironically that made Al-Qaeda obsolete and the execution of Osma Bin-Laden closed the chapter to 9/11 as far as many Americans were concerned.
9/11 would remain an important watershed historical moment when America changed its course of history and a day many will never forget.
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