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September 11, 2006...So, Much Has Changed...And Not for the Better
September 11, 2006

Sept 11, 2006...can it really be 5 years since that terrible day? It seems like yesterday that I witnessed the collapse of the World Trade Center out of my office window while watching it simultaneously on television...it was a beautiful fall day, just like today... forgive me for being cliche, but it was all so surreal...the sights and smells I saw and the feelings I experienced are frozen in time...never to be forgotten. What I most remember is the sense of fear, the sense of hopelessness as we waited for the next terrible event to hit. The sense of fear was palatable...for my family, my friends, my employees and the country.

We all felt that day that our world would never be the same...little did we know how much it would change in these 5 years...little did we know what President Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld had in store for us...little could we imagine that our President would totally fabricate the connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda and lie about the dangers of Iraq ... all to support a war he was planning from the day he entered office. Little did we know that our President would not go after the terrorists, but instead start a self-serving war that would create more terrorists, destroy the reputation of the U.S. around the world and make us a significantly weaker nation.

So, five years later, is the U.S. materially safer...unfortunately, it's just the opposite...we are less safe. It is now undisputable that the actions of Bush have created a terrorist state in Iraq, where one did not exist before. A resurgent Iran is promoting terrorism and "Islamofascism" throughout the world now that its former mortal enemy and counter balance, Iraq, is now its ally. Iran thumbs its nose at the U.S., seeing us as the paper tiger we have become...our enemies in the Middle East, North Korea, Venezuela and around the world get stronger...Europe and Russia all but laugh at us and appear to revel in our weakness ...we are hated in every corner of the globe. And what about Al-Qaeda... bin Laden is still safe and sound in Afghanistan (what happened to us getting him "dead or alive")...as terrorists are emboldened and flourish around the world.

As Iraq falls deeper into a civil war, Afghanistan is once again being run by the Taliban... and Pakistan's Musharraf makes peace with bin Laden and a once again powerful Taliban. But, even in the face of this disaster, Bush and Cheney still continue to spin their fairy tale...claiming that the "insurgency" is being defeated, that we are safer...and worst of all, continue to try and make people believe that Iraq and 9/11 are linked...even as the Republican led U.S. Senate has issued a definitive report stating that Saddam Hussein was in no way, even remotely, linked to 9/11 and, in fact, saw Al-Qaeda as his enemy.

So what are we mourning today? First and foremost, our prayers go out to the victims and families of those killed on 9/11...even after 5 years, we should not forget those whose lives were changed forever by this horrific day. But, at the same time we remember these victims, let us not forget the more than 2,500 American soldiers who have lost their lives in this unnecessary, dishonest and strategically disastrous war...not to mention the more than 15,000 soldiers who have sustained life altering injuries and the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians who have been killed.

And what else do we mourn? How about our lost sense of safety...our shared sense of purpose...our reputation around the world...our morality...and our lost ability to lead positive change throughout the globe.

Looking back 5 years...it is almost impossible to believe how we have squandered the good will of the world, how we lost the opportunity to build upon the events of September 11th to enhance the power and credibility of America...instead we followed the Bush/Cheney "doctrine" as they lied to the world and the American people...who would have thought that September 11th would have led us to this....so much has changed, and not much of it for the better.

Posted by Michael Kempner at September 11, 2006 11:33 AM