I argued about the 911 Conspiracy
Theory, with others, all through 9/11/10. It was like arguing with any true
believer or fundamentalist. You go in circles with no change to their essential
starting position or beliefs. I can only conclude that the folks who believe
911 was an inside job want to
believe it. Nothing you tell them will change their minds. They are invested in
it emotionally. I think it has much to do with the mistrust and anger that they
have towards the US government in general and the Bush administration
specifically. In many cases they are foreigners, sometimes Muslims, which is
very understandable. But in the case of Americans, it's just a sad example of
how much faith they have lost in their own government.
I have come across this kind of thing when I was
active in the peace movement. Some folk's anger at Uncle Sam was palpable.
Now, we have a mix of Left, Right, and Center
people all coming at the government from different angles, with spins of what
is going on, why we can't trust it, who's responsible, and so on.
The sad truth is that, as the last superpower, we
have climbed to the position we now hold in the world by sometimes
Machiavellian means, which has created doubt and distrust both in the world at
large and here at home. And this has opened the door, not only for the Bin
Ladens to attack us, but for us to attack ourselves.
To me, what happened on 911 was no surprise, and it
was no surprise who did it. And though governments, in history, have deceptively conspired to manufacture incidents that would garner the support of their
populations for some military adventure, this was not one of them.
The risk to those who would create such an
adventure would be too great. The outcome too uncertain. Look how the invasion
of Iraq backfired on the Bush administration.
No, 911, by its very nature, had to be planned and
executed by someone who didn't care so much about the outcome, as they did
about the chaos and confusion that would ensue, no matter what the outcome. And
they certainly had to care not at all at what happened to themselves. Not to mention that
they were probably as surprised as anyone else at the way the buildings totally
collapsed. I suspect that they expected damage, fire, and death on the upper
floors, but not the total collapse of both buildings.
They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. And I'm
sure they attributed their success to the intervention of Allah.
We, as Americans, need to understand that we are
walking on the edge of a very dangerous precipice. We need to wake up to the
fact that there are very real enemies out there who want the worst for us. We
also need to understand that there are others out there, who, for various
reasons, would also like to see our downfall. And though they are not Muslim
extremists, they are extreme in their hatred and anger towards us.
We must also wake up to the fact that to turn on
each other and our government in a way that is not just an expression of our
Democratic values and pluralism is not helpful. It is instead a real expression of hatred
towards each other and a a real desire to tear down our government. This courts
our own self destruction, as a people and a nation.
We must not let those among us who would
manipulate us for their own selfish ends, be they from the Right, the Left,
or anywhere else, turn us into a crumbling Tower of Babel.
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And we must not let those from the outside world
gain comfort and satisfaction from knowing that we are tearing ourselves apart
from the inside.
It is time for clarity and sobriety. We must begin
to see the importance of diplomacy, both here at home and abroad.
We must reach out to the world, in a way that we
haven't for very long time. And we must reach out to each other, in a way
that we are beginning to forget how to do.
WE must hold off on creating conspiracies about
each other that blame each other for the most horrendous behavior possible. WE
must hold off on final judgments that make anyone guilty, until guilt is proven, be
they American Muslims or the Government itself.
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