Remembering 9/11

The sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is this week, so it's a good time to look back over the history and look at how things developed before and since.

It goes back to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The Carter, Reagan, and Bush I Administrations supported the local fighters, the Mujahadeen, in their fight against the Russians. One of the Mujahadeen leaders was Osama bin Laden, whose brother was in the Carlyle Group with George W. Bush.

Once the Russians were gone, the freedom fighters' attention was turned toward Saddam Hussein, who was threatening Kuwait. Osama bin Laden went to the Saudi royal family asking for permission to take Saddam out. Instead, the Saudis brought in the Americans to get the Iraqis out of Kuwait. That was an abomination to bin Laden and his group, which he called, "the Base." In Arabic, that name is al Qaeda. Therefore, al Qaeda turned against America.

They coordinated simultaneous attacks on American embassies in Africa, and allies of theirs bombed the World Trade Center. The Clinton Administration hunted down the criminal bombers, arrested them, tried them in open court, convicted them, and they are now serving sentences. President Clinton put a bounty on Osama bin Laden's head, and the CIA almost had him in its sights, but the royal family of Dubai protected him. Meanwhile, Clinton's people also thwarted the Millennium Plot against the L. A. airport, attacks on the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and Saddam Hussein's plot against George H. W. Bush. All while leaving the Constitution intact.

In October, 2000, the U. S. S. Cole was attacked. It took until December that year to determine that al Qaeda was behind that attack. Of course, everyone's attention in December that year was focused on hanging chads in Florida. In January, when George W. Bush moved into the Oval Office, the first thing he did was remove the bounty from Osama bin Laden's head.

The World Trade Center remained a target of the terrorists, however, and in full knowledge of that Rudy Guliani had New York's emergency management headquarters moved there, against the advice of his emergency services coordinator.

In August, 2001, the Daily Briefing came to the White House titled, "al Qaeda Determined to Strike in U. S." Bush and co. ignored it.

Then a group of criminals, mostly from Saudi Arabia, flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and would have done more damage but for the brave passengers on Flight 93.
The next day or so, when all air traffic was grounded, the Bush Administration allowed the bin Laden family to fly out of the U. S., without asking them first if they knew anything about the whereabouts of their relative, Osama.

The Bush Administration's response to the attacks was to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban government that sheltered Osama bin Laden. Then, when they had Osama surrounded, they cut and ran so they could go over and attack Iraq, which, Bush has repeatedly stated in news conferences, had nothing to do with 9/11, even though they used 9/11 as a justification for taking out Osama's enemy, Saddam.

A high-ranking member of al Qaeda was in Iraq before America invaded, but the invasion prevented Saddam from his sworn task of hunting him down.

Now, we have overthrown Saddam, and a civil war has broken out among the three different groups that were cobbled together into a nation after WWI. Our presence as an occupying army has given them all a focus for their hostility. Plus, the Iraq war has been the best recruiting tool al Qaeda has ever had. Al Qaeda didn't have a presence in Iraq before the war, but they're there now.

Also, Bush has tried to turn U. S. ports over to the royal family of Dubai, the protectors of Osama bin Laden.

Now, according to the latest polls, 70% of Iraqis want us out of their country within the year. At the same time 70% of Americans want us to pull out within the year, and over 60% of American service personnel want us to withdraw from Iraq within the year. It seems the only people who want us to stay are the Iraqis the Americans are propping up in Iraq, and those over here who believe the Bush lies about Iraq being connected to 9/11.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's opium crop now provides most of the world's heroin, and Osama bin Forgotten is still making videos taunting us. What we need to do is pull out of Iraq and strike al Qaeda. The Bush Administration should be held to account for letting Osama still be running free to taunt us.

Shame.