September 11th and its Consequences Ten Years Later

September 11th and its Consequences Ten Years Later

September 11th, 2011

For the past few weeks we have been constantly reminded about the attacks on September 11, 2001. We were shown the planes crashing into buildings and told how our lifestyle was attacked on that day. This has been followed by interviews with family members who lost loved ones either in the attacks or in the wars that followed. We were told to remember how that day changed the word we lived in forever.

Yet we are not reminded about the two continuing wars that have killed an estimated one million Iraqis, destroyed the country, and turned millions into refugees. Or about the more than fifty thousand people who have been killed in Afghanistan and the many more who are displaced and desperate. These were not soldiers, or terrorists, just normal people like those killed on September 11. We are constantly reminded about the number of U.S. citizens killed on that day but not how six times that number of U.S. soldiers have been killed since the start of these wars. Nor about those who are suffering from PTSD, who have committed suicide, or are injured or homeless.

Where is the discussion of what the cost of war has done to our lives here at home? We can all see clearly that our schools are understaffed, our roads and bridges are in need of repair and millions of people are out of work, without healthcare, and living in poverty. But we are told there is no money for this and that public services have to be cut.

Yet the companies who make billions from the world’s misery are experiencing their best years ever. War contractors like KBR and Blackwater have record profits quarter after quarter. Oil company profits have never been higher. The cost of these wars is estimated to be near the four trillion mark! But we are told, don’t think about this, instead watch the planes hit the buildings and wave our flags to show that we are proud Americans.

During this same period, the government has been busy handing over huge sums of money to the banks. Meanwhile millions of people have lost their homes, lost their jobs and the government tells us we were supposed to be more responsible. The banks on the other hand don’t need to be responsible at all. That’s because if they get into financial trouble the government will bail them out. The most recent report says the federal government gave the banks – in the US and abroad – over 16 trillion dollars in loans and bailouts.

We have been told that the last ten years of war have made us safer. But if we can’t find work or can’t afford to keep our homes or send our children to school, how are we safer? The government spending of trillions on the banks and the wars give working people a message from those in charge. That is that as long as their profits and system are safe, our lives are irrelevant. Their war is making our lives and the lives of the people in Afghanistan and Iraq, a living terror.

What should we remember on this ten-year anniversary? We should remember that while working people have been struggling to survive, corporations and banks have been reaping billions in profits. We should remember the millions of innocent people who have been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can mark this ten-year anniversary differently from what the elite want. Rather than a day used to justify their profits, we can decide that we will not live in a world where a few decide for the many. We need to fight for a safe world for all of us — where everyone has a job, a home, health care, the right to an education and a future lived in peace.

Bin Laden Assassinated – Who’s the Real Terrorist?
May 9th, 2011

The Obama administration announced last week that the U.S. military has killed Osama Bin Laden. The media and the politicians want us to feel avenged as we are forced to relive on television the devastation of the September 11th attacks. Those who lost loved ones among the 3,000 deaths will never stop mourning.

But at the same time, the so-called war on terror waged on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan has created a much larger death toll. Besides the 7,100 US soldiers, 2.3 million Iraqis and over 100,000 Afghans have lost their lives. An average of two Afghan children were killed every day last year. Nothing justifies this loss of life.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. has relied upon the worst possible thugs and villains to run things. The ruling parties are more intolerant, more oppressive, and more brutal than the previous regimes. Life has gotten worse with people thrown out of work, starving, without access to clean water, electricity, or basic health care. No matter what the politicians say, the only thing the U.S. brings to the world with its military interventions is brutality and death.

So what right does the United States have to assassinate anyone in another country? No attempt was made to catch Bin Laden alive, and nothing resembling a trial, or even evidence was brought forward. His identification with the attacks of September 11th, and his support for them might be provocative, but that does not give the U.S. the right to act as the world’s judge and executioner.

In fact the U.S. has not only carried out this assassination but many others as well. For example, on April 22nd, a U.S. drone launched a missile in Pakistan killing 25 people including families with children. And again on May 6th, a drone’s missile struck near a restaurant in Pakistan killing 15 people. Supposedly these were strikes against terrorists. Ordinary people just got in the way. No wonder the reaction of people in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the rest of the Middle East is one of outrage. How dare the U.S. government carry out assassinations in the name of justice, while brutalizing people in the Middle East.

In fact the assassination of Bin Laden and the so-called war on terror are part of a bigger manipulation – our feelings and fears are used to justify and carry out war and occupation in the interest of U.S. corporations.

The attacks of September 11th were first used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan, based on the tentative links that the Taliban government had with Osama Bin Laden. Then the politicians and media spokesmen collaborated in telling a bigger lie – that Bin Laden and his group were connected to and supported by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. This claim has been shown to be false beyond a doubt. However, behind these manipulations and lies we can see the interests of U.S. corporations.

Afghanistan is the site of a potential pipe-line for Central Asian oil and natural gas. The Taliban regime was supported by the U.S. until 1997 when the Taliban refused conditions for Unocal to develop this pipeline. September 11th gave the U.S. a pretext to remove this political obstacle by waging war. They then installed Hamid Karzai, the current president of Afghanistan and former Unocal consultant.

Iraq contains the fifth largest reserves of oil in the world – oil that is absolutely necessary to the industrial and energy needs of the world economy. Left in the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the U.S. was sure to be cut out of any future deals to develop the oilfields of Iraq. During the 1990s Clinton and Bush Sr. used sanctions to keep Iraqi oil off the market, but hungry European corporate developers were pushing for sanctions to be lifted. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 made sure this would not happen. U.S. Oil corporations preferred to let blood flow rather than oil, if they couldn’t profit.

We should not be fooled by the hypocrisy of Obama and his administration. They don’t stand for justice. They stand for corporate profit. The biggest terrorist of the century isn’t in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s right here among us – the U.S. government and its military.

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