The Day We Were All American
I can never forget this day as drove to work on a Tuesday. The radio talk show host announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I felt so shocked by this news. My first impression is what a tragic accident. I drove on and time passed. Then the radio stated another plane hit the second tower. My whole body shook as I realized that my country is under attack. I parked my car and entered my office. One of the clerks had a tv and I asked her to turn the tube on and we saw this:
Moments later we heard of a plane striking the Pentagon. Time passed and the Pennsylvania plane crash was reported. Then the towers crashed down to the earth. The shock of watching the buildings crumble and knowing that so many people had to work there. And now they were dead. One moment these people were drinking coffee, gossiping at the water cooler, and working hard. And then chaos entered their day. And so many lost their lives. Families shattered, suddenly, with no time for a precious farewell.
The days passed and America seemed to grow closer. We learned of Al Queda and the Taliban. Osama Bin Laden became a focus of American anger. Diversity was tossed in the ash can for a short time and Americans united. People no longer focusing on their differences. It felt good to be an American.
Six years have passed and where are we now? A war that is fought on two fronts in the middle east. While the American military cannot be defeated in the field, there is one place they are vanquished on a regular basis. I am convinced that the worst enemy of the American service person is the American politician. The people in Congress do more harm to our military than any terrorist attack can ever do. Analysis of 20th Century conflicts support this thinking. American servicemen have always accomplished their mission when they are placed in the field and supported. But the American politician has always been able to turn victory on the battlefield into surrender in Washington. The politicians seem eager to lose once more.
The American media is only too happy to show the military in the worst of lights. They focus on stories that enrage and divide us domestically and internationally. And what do they hope to achieve? This is a war that a free people cannot afford to lose. If we abandon the battlefield in Iraq and Afganistan and retreat, the enemy is going to be emboldened and attack the home land. The media wants us to understand why these people attacked us. Well there is only one thing that a sane person should understand. The fanatics that attacked America six years ago are disappointed that they did not kill more Americans. Their goal in life is to annihilate the United States and what the freedom it represents. Our focus should be to remove these people. Whether by bullet or lockup in Guantanamo. Don’t our children deserve to be safe?
September 11th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
*silent prayer*
September 11th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Yeah I still remember that day…and the aftermaths of it just keep getting worse..Pray it all ends soon
September 11th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Pray silently!!
September 11th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
How very well put. I remember that day too. My eyes were peeled to the TV screen, and I felt the pain and sufferring even though I was millions of miles away.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Isn’t it sad that something that is about guiding men to be better humans can in turn be used to justify harming others?
September 11th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
World Peace…. so simple to murmur… but so hard to practise… Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!
September 11th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
It’s been 6 yrs and every day we are living in fear of another attack. Anytime, anywhere.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
excellent post!
i too, believe that the greatest enemy of America is the politicians.
top job, SA! i absolutely love this post!
September 11th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I always feel sad and pity on what happened in Manhattan six years ago. However, at the same time I also question US standpoint of being the world police - attacking any country that poses the threat to the world (in fact is to them). They even attacked Iraq and found no nuclear weapon there! When US army at wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they also killed a lot of innocent people. Who feel sad and grief for them?
I just dun like to see war. No killing. We want to live in peace.
SA: War is hell. The American fighting man does not want war. He or she wants to play video games, go to concerts, and have fun like the rest of us. But these people are there to fight when their country is attacked. And America was attacked. I refuse to apogise for that. We are not world’s police. But we are not the world’s punching bag either. Every life lost in this war is tragic, including those scum we seek to kill, for they have lived a life wasted.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:09 am
6 yrs has passed and the culprits behind all these are still running loose and doing more damage!
where is justice???
September 12th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Has it been 6 years? And here we are still hunting them down… Maybe it isn’t a good time but you’ve been tagged!
September 12th, 2007 at 1:22 am
I still remember it clearly. It was a horrid one, with the plane crash on my TV. The whole family went panicked, as my cousin stays in America. Thanks goodness she is far from that place!
September 12th, 2007 at 1:25 am
can’t see my comment?
September 12th, 2007 at 2:11 am
I remember clearly what I did on Sept 11, 2001. My friend from China sms me about it and asked to watch CNN immediately as they were replaying the scene again and again.
It’s a pity that many thousands of innocents civilians are paying the price with the lives. Not only in America but also in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, I don’t agree with that American soldiers have to fight the war on two front to maintain peace on the soil of USA. American government should be honest to examine the actual root cause of the bitterness that drove these people to attack America. What did the American government do that was perceived as wrong?
SA: The American government allowed it’s people to appear to be free. And the Islamofascists (these are a deadly minority abusing Islam) took exception to that. There is nothing to understand beyond these few people want American ideals to be removed from the face of the Earth. The only options they provide are surrender or death.
When a viper comes into my yard I do not try to understand why it came. I get my hoe and I chop off its head. If I learn there is a den of vipers near my house I do not petition them to not visit me. I seek to remove them. Understanding and compassion will only bring you pain or worse when understanding and compassion are not reciprocated.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I remember we just couldn’t believe it when the news first broke. That the Twin Towers had come crashing down; that terrorists had flown planes into the buildings. Made us stop and think. And pray.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:51 am
Six years past, troops are still in the “battlefield”, and the politicians are sitting on their butts in Congress bull pucky-ing.
SA: This country needs a political party that represents the middle class.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
To this day I cannot see an image of the two towers and not get sick to my stomache.
To all those who think that it was something the US did to deserve such an attack, I ask what did the Indonesia do to deserve the Bali bombing? The answer, of course, is nothing. There are evil people in the world who do evil things and although they put a reason to it and dress it in religion and flowery words, that doesn’t mean they’re right. If the US didn’t exist, they’d turn on the next available object of hatred.
SA: That’s right. Haters just need an object to focus on. Reason is optional if ever.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:01 am
and it’s 6 years already??!
when i first saw it replayed on TV, i thought it was an action movie, only horrified when i realized it wasn’t any movie, but real life event.
it was too cruel to be true…
September 13th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
*pray together*
September 21st, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Time has surely flown by us so quickly. 6 yrs on.. i still lived in fear.. worried.. we might be attacked again. Worried that security may lax after so many year. The day America was attacked .. we were all attacked too. It just shows how many insane, lunatics are out there.. to physically harm those they donch even know.
Senseless attacked like the 9/11 .. sure left me feeling right fragile.. and vulnerable. I pray we will never be attacked this way ever again..! No amount of uproar can ever, ever deserve another scene like 9/11.